ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the federal bureaucracy came to occupy such a controversial position in American government and whether its critics are right. The great mass of the federal bureaucracy consists of career civil servants. Yet bureaucracy and civil servants bring valuable, even vital, qualities to American government. Unlike politicians who come and go, the federal bureaucracy brings a sense of permanence and continuity to American government. President Reagan certainly gained increased control of the bureaucracy through making ideological sympathy and personal loyalty determining factors in appointments. The principal instruments of congressional control of the bureaucracy are its general legislative power and its appropriations power the power of the purse. There is a very fine line between strengthening presidential control of the bureaucracy and politicising the bureaucracy. The tensions that exist between the president and the bureaucracy give rise to conflicting and seemingly insoluble concerns about an ineffective presidency and an overpoliticised bureaucracy.
