Learning Objectives

  • Explain how bureaucracy makes and implements policy,
  • Describe why rural states with smaller populations often have more bureaucracy than urban states with larger populations,
  • Relate the advantages and disadvantages of using a traditional bureaucracy to deliver public services,
  • Explain how the key organizational characteristics of bureaucracy help ensure neutral competence,
  • Discuss how public labor unions and affirmative action have changed the merit system, and
  • Summarize efforts at bureaucratic reform.