Bureaucracy

Why is it difficult for the public to accurately make judgments about efficiency and waste in bureaucracies given the political nature of the portrayal of bureaucracy in general?
Public opinion is exactly what it lends itself to be. The difficulty exists with public opinion about how the bureaucracy works is mainly due to the fact that the average person is not informed. This paper elaborates on that fact. It is easy for the public to say that they are not happy with government spending, assignments, decisions, and waste, but how much do they actually know about how assignments are decided upon or the actual costs involved. Naturally the special interest groups and lobbyists want bigger government and increased spending and the public who feels
the effects of those higher taxes and larger costs with what they see as a waste of time and money have in the past and certainly to date a disillusionment on how things in the government are decided upon. Ultimately it is the taxpayer who pays the price of government error.
(150) The opinion that government is much too big and should be considerably reduced is not only the opinion of the public, it was also the opinion of President Reagan. Reagan felt that the problem was the government. President Reagan wanted government reduced which included spending cuts, and many things returned to the private sector. Regan relayed that government was getting to big and bureaucrats were becoming complacent and lazy.
The writers of this paper points out that when there is a rush to judgment with the performance of the government and what the results of oversimplifying would be. “Verbal bludgeoning of bureaucrats can actually create a vicious cycle in which improvements can become more difficult”(150).
(151) Challenges that need to be faced in moving decisions from public sector to private sector are not easily made. Problems will arise if the return to the private sector happens too swiftly. There must be a delicate but decisive balance between the two to insure an effective and prosperous economy that benefits the entire country.
(152) Running the country as a business is the consensus of many, however difficulty arises to thoroughly complete this task.
While it is true that a more businesslike approach would create a tighter environment, it must be remembered that there are different branches to consider. Government does not have one CEO as a business employs. (153) Decisions must be addressed by congress, senate, and the executive branch the costs for those decisions are funneled to the taxpayers and when taxes go up it causes distrust in actual costs involved. Since the costs of schools, infrastructure, military are high it brings up the question as to how much of the money spent on those things are wasted. (154) While it is true there is evidence of waste and inefficiency in business as well as government how is the happy medium found. There are many complex decisions to be made in government and some of those decisions may on the outside look ill-advised and tend to be easily condemned. In a perfect world, the outcome would make everyone happy however; even coming to a middle road can be difficult at times. When the outcome does not please the vast majority, often results in stereotyping the entire bureaucracy as something that should be eradicated which of course will hopefully never happen. What needs to happen is that well informed dedicated people should become involved in government. the populace should elect officials that will work together with others in government to make better
decisions. Bureaucracy that is inefficient is not expressly at fault on its own, since the people elected the bureaucracy to begin with, therefore the people are equally responsible and should not so easily condemn.