Critique of Public Administration Research Paper

Critique of Public Administration - Research Paper Example Rubin’s article narrows down on the effect that these bureaucrats have on the budgeting process. Overall, the three articles deal with how these unelected officials have more effect on public administration and policy than the elected officials do. Summary In his article, the Critical Role of Street-level Bureaucrats, Lipsky undertakes an examination of the functions and roles, which bureaucrats perform at what he refers to as â€Å"street level†, have in the process of policy formulation, as well as the process of its implementation. While the public policy theory model traditionally assumes that choices on policy are done by the political executives elected by the electorate, with the implementation of the policy choices left to bureaucrat jurisdiction, Lipsky challenges this model. He bases his argument on his belief that since the bureaucrats at the street level possess a wider room for discretion during the performance of their work, they are actually the ones who make these policy choices (Lipsky, 2010: p4). On top of implementing them, they also create them. JQ Wilson, in his article the Rise of the Bureaucratic State, raises pertinent issues concerning the power wielded by bureaucratic agencies, as well as their lack of accountability towards the legislature and the public that formed them. He also covers the discretion that these agencies possess in carrying out government affairs. The author goes further to talk about the agencies as self-perpetuating. These self-perpetuating agencies are created by the separated powers regime, which acts to protect them from the change that is unwelcome since the major change is new legislation, which, in effect, must maneuver similar hurdles to those faced by the original law (Wilson, 1975: p9). This time, however, one hurdle they must clear is the wish of the particular agency, as well as its clients, which is raised higher. The agency, therefore, once created, becomes almost impossible to disband. Th e author concludes that this process of public power delegation to private interests that go unchallenged, as well as various factional interests, is able to set a public agenda sans modification of competing interests or scrutiny. Irene Rubin, in her article the Politics of Public Budgeting, shows how political interests beset public budgeting. She argues that this allows short-term goals to trump long-term goals interests of the public, the erosion of public and institutional capacity to deal with collective issues, and erosion of the democratic process. When Rubin presents a local, state, and federal budgeting in a framework that is competitive, he gives attention to federal issues that are reactive to power struggles between various levels and branches of government (Rubin, 1997: p190). She addresses issues such as how much autonomy is present at each government level, as well as what influence elected officials have on priorities of the government. Through an analysis of each p rocess of decision-making, she shows the coordination that is involved when passing a budget and achieving some accountability. One of her conclusions is that the public budgeting process must be divorced from politics.  Ã‚  

THE DREAM ACT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

THE DREAM ACT - Essay Example ve become the victims of government deportation due to their illegal immigrant status in the United States and have found themselves in very different environments from what they know, not able to fit in the culture, and not knowing the languages of the countries in which they were born but not raised. This has been a gross injustice on the part of the American government because whichever way they got to America, these so called illegal immigrants are still American through culture, language, and thought, and should be recognized as such. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act is a bipartisan legislation that was pioneered by the Republican senator Orin Hatch and Democrat senator Richard Durbin, with the intention of solving this injustice in the American society. Under its provisions, qualifying undocumented youth would be eligible for a six year long process which would require them to complete a college degree or to serve at least two years in the military, and would eventually lead to their gaining American citizenship. This piece of legislation has come up twice for a vote in the senate, once in 2007 and again in 2010, but both times, it has failed to pass. In June 2012, the Obama administration issued a policy directive which would make over a million young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children free from deportation proceedings and which would make them eligible to get work permits. The government had been under considerable pressure from various circles to take action on behalf of those young immigrants due to the fact that Congress had been deeply split about the DREAM Act legislation. Furthermore, since this is an election year, this move by the Obama administration was most likely aimed at securing the votes of Latino voters, considering that the bulk of those would have been deported if this policy had not been put in place would have been Latino. According to Welner, K and Chi, W (178) every