Essay On Texas Bureaucracy

A bureaucracy is the system of non-elected officials administering government policies and programs. Building roads, inspecting gas pumps, inspecting facilities for cleanliness, writing tickets, educating, operating transit systems and Game Warden are the many tasks of a bureaucracy. In the Federal Bureaucracy the president is the CEO. His job is to appoint all officials and being elected to lead this diverse group of organizations. However, Texas does not have a CEO, the power and blame is spread across the various bureau heads. This allows each bureau head to do as they wish in their department, unless the state runs out of money. The governor does not hold this responsibility, but the voters do. Unlike the Bureaucracy of Texas, the responsibility

is held in the federal government in the Federal Bureaucracy.
Like every system, the Bureaucracy of Texas needs to be organized within its agencies/departments. The first way you can organize them is by the position of an individual or group position. The second way you can organized them is how they received their position. First you have to set them apart by if they were voted, appointed into their office, or by ex officio. Ex officio is a special method in which board members serve because they serve some other position. That is by assuming that the members have prior experience of the position. The third way you can organize them is by certain level they are on.
A state agency is an appointed commission that is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight of specific jobs.

The three agencies that caught my attention are: the Secretary of State, the Comptroller and the Texas Education Agency. The Secretary of State is one of my favorite agencies because he plays a big role in our state and they are the historian/archeologist of our beautiful state. His/her main duties is to protect the state seal and records, chief election official and governor’s right man. The Comptroller is Texas’ accountant, this makes this position important. The comptroller balances the states checkbook and ensures the state has the revenue it thinks it does to balance its budget as required by law. This agency/position is my second favorite because of the responsibility and being an accountant is my dream job. The Texas Education Agency is the states lead educator. Their job is regulate education in the state of Texas. The Texas Education Agency is my third favorite because education is the key to success. In my opinion, not only are these positions/agencies my favorite, they are the most important. Without these three, the state of Texas would be a lot

different.
The first bureaucratic characteristic is neutrality. This means that they have to separate politics from the administration as much as possible, ensure hiring on the merits not the spoils and should not endorse one candidate over another. The second bureaucratic characteristic is oligarchy, this is a type of government in which a small group of people hold power. There is also a hierarchy within the agency, but not amongst the other agencies. Expertise, is the next characteristic that states that the officials of the agencies should be experts in the field that said agency is involved in. The last characteristic is size. Size concerns include privatization, inefficiency and federal influence. In my opinion, the most important to control is neutrality because it is hard to maintain balance within two or more things. Maintaining balance between politics and administration is important and difficult. Without neutrality and balance there would be complete chaos.