What roles do government bureaucrats perform?
• Bureaucrats communicate with one another, maintain paper for accountability, interpret the law, and implement the objectives of the organization. • Congress has delegated a significant amount of authority to the federal bureaucracy by granting the agencies the power to draft federal regulations (rule making) and to adjudicate conflicts over these regulations. • Presidents use the rule-making power of bureaucracies to shape policy. • Before 1883, bureaucrats were political appointees—the product of the spoils system. • The Civil Service Act of 1883 created the merit system by requiring that appointees to public office be qualified for the job, thereby ending the spoils system.
