Bureaucracy Blog Post

Chris Kemp

4/17/16

The Development of the Bureaucracy

The article I found discusses the development of the Bureaucracy, which is run by millions of bureaucrats.  The article begins by discussing that the original bureaucracy was very small and was made up of employees from the State, Treasury, and War departments.  George Washington stated “as shall be the best qualified” in relation to who would be hired for political employment.  Once Thomas Jefferson was elected president the system of patronage, or filling political jobs with friends and members of the party, became the new premise for political employment.  Andrew Jackson is recognized as the President who entrenched the spoils system, which he felt brought in a better rotation of workers in office.  The article then discuss’ the creation of thousands of jobs after the Civil War in order to handle the strenuous demands of war as well as the expenditure of the Post Office.  The article begins to cover the topic of the Pendleton Act which was established in 1881 which basically got rid of the spoils system and led to the merit system.  The article then discuss’ the growth of the 20^th century and the creation of independent regulatory commissions, the first of which was the Interstate Commerce Commission.  During the last half of the 20^th century the federal bureaucracy didn’t really expand that much but each individual did gain an increase in influence.  The article then discusses the organization of the bureaucracy and how overlapping duties and counterparts make things much more complicated.  The bureaucracy is controlled by both the president and Congress, who has the power to create, organize, and disband federal agencies.  The article concludes by breaking down and explaining the four broad types the bureaucracy typically falls under.  These four types are the Cabinet departments, government corporations, independent agencies, and regulatory commissions. 

This article clearly pertains to our current unit of study regarding the Bureaucracy.  I chose this article considering it discusses the organization of the Bureaucracy, the merit and spoils system, as well as departments and development of the bureaucracy.  This article covered many of the topics we are discussing, like the spoils and merit system which we made a poster about during class.  This article also discussed regulatory commissions as well as the Pendleton Act which are also topics we have discussed/made posters about.  In conclusion the majority of this article directly coincides with the content we are learning in class. 

http://www.ushistory.org/gov/8a.asp

Chris Kemp

4/1/16

A.P. Gov

22nd Amendment Blog post 4

22nd Amendment

The article I chose was The U.S.  Constitution’s Twenty-Second Amendment: Setting Presidential Term Limits.  This amendment corrected the original Constitution which stated in Article ll, Section 1 that a president’s term limit was four years, although it failed to establish as set limit of times that they president was eligible for reelection.  The article then discuss’ how George Washington decided to step down from the presidency after two terms even though he would surely be reelected for a third term.  The danger of a president being able to be elected numerous times was later recognized by Thomas Jefferson.   Jefferson wrote in 1807 “If some termination to the services of the chief Magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life.”  Washington established an unwritten rule that presidents should only run for two terms which was followed by those such as Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.  This unwritten rule remained followed until 1940 when FDR ran for a third term.  The article then discusses how Roosevelt attempted to run for a third term against the unwritten rule and tradition.  In order for the unwritten rule to avoid being flouted again in the future the 22^nd Amendment was passed in 1951.  “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”  The article then concludes by explaining what the above statement means and listing a few fun facts.  Like the idea of repealing the Amendment has been suggested numerous times and that there is no limit on the number of times a Vice President can be reelected.  A Vice President can really ride a popular presidents coattails leading to numerous reelections, and the ability to create a massive impact over time. 

This article clearly relates to our in-class discussions because we are currently covering the topic of the POTUS and this article is concerning an Amendment that greatly impacts the presidency.  We has also covered the 22^nd Amendment in class and this article grants the reader a deeper understanding of what it means and its implications.  The 22^nd Amendment similar to the 25^th Amendment are very relevant to our discussion in class and are both very import Amendments in relation to the president and the vice president.  After the implication of the Amendment even popular presidents can fall victim to dreaded Lame Duck title. 

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-us-constitutions-twentysecond-amendment-settin.html