American Government and Politics Today, Brief Edition, 2014-2015

chAPTeR eleven • The BuReAucRAcy 249

a word, underwhelming. Presidents generally have been powerless to affect significantly

the structure and operation of the federal bureaucracy.

The size of the Bureaucracy

In 1789, the new government’s bureaucracy was tiny. There were three departments—

State (with nine employees), War (with two employees), and Treasury (with thirty-nine

employees)—and the Office of the Attorney General (which later became the Department

of Justice). The bureaucracy was still small in 1798. At that time, the secretary of state had

seven clerks and spent a total of $500 (about $10,000 in 2014 dollars) on stationery and

printing. In that same year, an appropriations act allocated $1.4 million, or $28 million in

2014 dollars, to the War Department.

Government employment Today. Times have changed. Excluding 1.4 million military

service members, but including employees of Congress, the courts, and the U.S. Postal

Service, the federal bureaucracy includes approximately 2.7 million employees. That num-

ber has remained relatively stable for the past several decades. It is somewhat deceiving,

however, because many other individuals work directly or indirectly for the federal govern-

ment as subcontractors or consultants and in other capacities.

Figure 11–1 below shows the combined growth in government employment at the

federal, state, and local levels. Since 1952, this growth has been mainly at the state and

local levels. If all government employees are included, about 16 percent of all civilian

employment is accounted for by government.

The Impact of Ronald Reagan. Notice in Figure 11–1 that government employment

as a share of the total U.S. population grew rapidly from the mid-1950s until 1980. In

that year, Republican Ronald Reagan was elected president. Under Reagan, government

8.0

7.5

7.0

6.5

6.0

5.5

5.0

4.5

4.0

Percentage of Population

Shaded areas indicate U.S. recessions

1952 1962 1972 1982 1992 2002 2012 2022

FIGuRe 11–1: Government employees

Total local, state, and federal employees, as a percentage of the total U.S. population (1952–2013)

The brief spikes in 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010 represent temporary federal census workers.

Source: The Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) service of the St. Louis Federal Reserve.

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