Bureaucrats tend to have a poor reputation in America, being branded by many as shadow government officials. However, the connotation of being a shadow government or faceless stems from few people being aware of what a bureaucrat is and what their job is. Essentially, a bureaucrat is someone employed by the government and tasked with serving the public. There are 2 types of bureaucrats, and both of them have a different amount and kind of power. The two types are street level bureaucrats and federal bureaucrats. Street level bureaucrats exercise de facto power through influence, while federal bureaucrats are granted de jure power. Both kinds of bureaucrats are important but very few people know what they are and what they do.
Street level bureaucrats are much more common than federal bureaucrats, and many citizens interact with them on a daily basis. A street bureaucrat is anyone who works a job that is publicly funded and interacts with citizens. Teachers, police officers and social workers are all examples of street level bureaucrats. While it may be difficult to initially grasp how police officers and teachers can have political power through their profession, it becomes more clear the more once you realize that their power is not expressed, rather, it comes from how they implement federal policies. In the Sage Handbook of Public Administration, Steven Smith states,“…the power of street level bureaucrats to influence public policy implementation derives substantially from their discretion and their relative autonomy from organizational authority.” (Steven Rathgeb Smith). As articulated in this quote, street level bureaucrats are responsible for how the public perceives policies they are tasked with implementing. For example, let’s say a public school teacher is hypothetically instructed by Common Core to give out 30 minutes of math homework a night. If the teacher gives out what he/she thinks is 30 minutes, but in actuality takes students 1.5 to 2 hours, parents are going to think of Common Core in a negative light because it was not implemented correctly. However, if the teacher assigns 15 minutes of homework because he/she deems that the students do not need 30 minutes, and the student’s GPA goes up as a result of the extra time to work on other classes’ assignments, parents will think favorably of Common Core. I believe that street level bureaucrats being able to influence public policy is a good thing, as they are often more in touch with their community and demographic than the people instructing them to implement a certain policy. With the current system in place, a street level bureaucrat is subtly able to receive feedback and pass it along to a superior or even slightly alter policies to better tailor it to the people they work for. Obviously, human error will occur and implementation will be executed poorly in some situations, but I think this is a necessary risk compared to the potential good they can do. Street level bureaucrats should not be mindless drones implementing and enforcing policy even if is detrimental to the people they serve, and it is good that there is room for them to make minor adjustments.
Federal bureaucrats are people tasked with running and working in a government agency, an example being the current State Department head Mike Pompeo and his staff members. The role of federal bureaucrats is rather simple, they carry out the assigned mission of their agency, make internal policy changes if required, and enforce policy on a federal level. It is often federal bureaucrats who are accused of overstepping their authority and infringing on personal freedoms. A rather notorious example of this was reported in USA Today, the article states,“…so began a years-long back and forth between Johnson and the EPA… The EPA, however, claimed that the rocks, sand and concrete Johnson used to create the dam and spillway were pollutants.” (Rachel Bovard). The context behind this quote is a man wanted to build a pond on his property but the EPA stepped in and deemed it violated the Clean Water Act. At a preliminary glance, it is easy to label the EPA as overzealous federal bureaucrats and that is initially exactly what I did. However, after thinking more in-depth, I realized that the EPA is an agency that protects more citizens than they hinder. It is too simple to label federal bureaucrats as overstepping when this project could potentially have an environmental impact on shared resources. While Johnson (the man wanting to build the pond), may see the blocking of his pond and the subsequent fine as excessive, people living around him could support the EPA and be satisfied with their work to reduce pollutants. The EPA’s job is to protect the environment, and while they may need a more transparent and clear way of doing so, they are still a regulatory agency who is tasked with protecting the environment even at the expense of a lost citizen’s pond.
In conclusion, street level and federal bureaucrats have a bad reputation because few people know who they are or what they are tasked to do. However, some light reading on the subject will yield an appreciation for them and their duties. Sure, all of their practices and actions may not be perfect, and there is certainly room for improvement, but the mindless bashing of a “shadow government” leads to no results. Bureaucrats are only a shadow government and faceless because people do not pay attention to or focus on them. Despite this, street level and federal bureaucrats are still serving the public the way they are tasked to, and will continue to do so even if no one is watching.
Works Cited and Consulted :
Susan Milligan. 2019 “The Bureaucracy Strikes Back” U.S. News
Smith, Steven Rathgeb. 2012. “Street-Level Bureaucracy and Public Policy.” Sage Handbook of Public Administration, eds. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre. London: Sage Publications Ltd. (431-447)
Bovard, Rachel. “The Trump Administration’s Successful War against Bureaucratic Bullies.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 16 Oct. 2019, www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/10/16/bureaucratic-bullies-trump-administration-successful-war-against-column/3974449002/.