484 Chapter 13 | The BureaucracyUnpacking the Conflict
Considering all that we’ve discussed in this chapter, let’s return to President Trump’s
often-contentious relationship with members of the federal bureaucracy. Are bureaucrats
really obstructing the Trump agenda, or are they just doing their jobs? How do elected
officials control a bureaucracy of experts?
A deeper look shows that some of the time, conflicts between President Trump
and bureaucratic officials reflect real disagreements over outcomes. In the case of
the Justice Department, for example, there is little doubt that Trump would prefer an
investigation of the campaign of his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, rather than the
current investigation of his own campaign. However, the fact that many bureaucrats
are policy experts suggests a different explanation of alleged resistance to President
Trump’s initiatives. Rather than stonewalling policy changes they oppose, bureaucrats
may be acting from expertise, trying to mitigate unforeseen consequences and ensure
the government operates in an efficient, effective manner.
Bureaucratic expertise and the resulting problem of control also explain the
cumbersome procedures for hiring, firing, and decision making that are a feature
of operations in many government agencies. Sometimes bureaucrats simply make
mistakes, choosing the wrong policy because they—and, in some cases, all the
people involved—lack information about the tasks they were given. Bureaucrats may
drag their feet when they oppose their tasks on policy grounds. But in many cases,
cumbersome procedures are the result of a fundamental trade-off faced by elected
officials between wanting to exercise control over the bureaucracy and wanting to
ensure that changes in policy produce their intended effect. Put another way, conflict
over public policy often translates into conflicting ideas about what bureaucrats should
do, resulting in complex, often-contradictory mandates and directions imposed on
bureaucrats. In this way, politics shapes virtually all aspects of the bureaucracy and
of the choices bureaucrats make, even in places where it is hard to discern political
motivations.What’s
Your
Take?
Should elected officials
defer to bureaucratic
expertise?Or should the president’s
agenda override other
concerns?Full_14_APT_64431_ch13_454-487.indd 484 16/11/18 1:45 PM