What costs and limitations are associated with presidents' efforts to reform the bureaucracy?Provide examples

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The ideal answer should:
a. Identify that presidents use different strategies, including politicization, centralization, and bureaucratic redesign or restructuring, to assert political control over the bureaucracy at different times and under different circumstances, and that each of these strategies comes with costs and limitations.
b.Describe how reform efforts through politicization can adversely affect agency performance through loss of agency effectiveness and difficulty in clarifying agency goals, reconciling planning issues, and producing desirable results. An example could be Michael Brown's performance as head of FEMA.
c. Evaluate how politicization can also degrade administrative operations by contributing to loss of institutional memory through high turnover of staff.
d.Discuss how centralization can exacerbate political tensions between the executive and legislative branches, increasing the chances for the president to be confronted with pushback during implementation of policies and congressional attempts at oversight or budget constraints.
e. Review the limitations on the president's efforts to reform government, such as the need for Senate confirmation of some appointments, potential legislative resistance or breakdown, and the possibility of undesirable consequences such as loss of accountability and a lack of information flowing to the president.
f.Note that political appointees can cause problems for the president through scandal, such as the Teapot Dome scandal during Harding's administration.