Bureaucratic Discretion In Public Administration

Bureaucratic discretion is defined as the ability that public administrators (i.e bureaucrats) have to shape and implement public policy within the government. The ability for a public administrator to shape and implement critical public policy based on the discretion granted to them by the elected is a central role with the field of public administration. Within the past century, public administrators have been granted increased authority and discretion by the elected officials in government. As public administrators have been granted more discretion in their roles elected officials approved laws that primarily focus on the broad principles and frameworks that level individual program related decisions up to the public administrators within …show more content…
In 1829, Andrew Jackson was elected as President of United States and appointed a number of close friends into administrative roles throughout the federal government. These appointed officials took part in what is known as today as the spoils system. Federal administrator has the authority to hire and fire any person within their agency without merit or cause. This led many federal agencies to become ill-equipped in meeting the demands of the elected officials and the public interest. In many cases those who were selected to serve as administrators felt they were above the law and the elected. These administrators in many cases would not comply with the laws approved by elected and only served their own personal interests. However, this all changed in 1883 with the approval of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act which established that federal government jobs would be award based on merit and not political affiliation. For the first time the federal government had the ability to hire experts in the field and remove those who appointed solely on political affiliation. Once again in 1946 the Administrative Procedure Act radically changed the way administrative agencies were governed. This act established that federal agencies are unique bodies which can exercise power in all three branches of government. In response to …show more content…
On September 11, 2001 George Tenet was finishing breakfast when the worst terrorist attack in the nation’s history was committed by elements of al-Qaeda. A week later, the United States was at war the rules of war had changed and the federal government need new policies and rules to effectively transmit information across federal agencies and engage an enemy that had never been faced before. In order to rapidly meet the needs of a nation under act George Tent was authorized to rapidly increase the capabilities of our nation’s intelligence community. George Tent was granted the discretion of planning and the execution of the worldwide War on Terror approved by the elected officials in Washington D.C.. The War on Terror called for a global war on all organizations and regimes designated as terrorists which would spearheaded through the use of covert operations. These covert operation units received orders from agency administrator based on the broad act of war that was approved the legislative branch and overseen by the George Tenet and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. By using effective bureaucratic discretion of George Tenet which utilized propaganda and lethal cover action to stop future acts on the American homeland while following the