Midterm Exam
Question 1: The single greatest social change that has taken place in the last generation was the internet and in recent years it has become so streamlined that thoughts and events written or recorded by anybody can be seen by the entire country live as it occurs. The internet has such massive volume that it is almost impossible to regulate or control. It will inevitably become the single greatest instrument in judging and holding politicians and administrators accountable. The internet also exponentially amplifies all other elements of social change such as working over full time in poverty, minimum wage, worker rights, marriage equality, voting rights, campaign finance disapproval, lobbying disapproval, healthcare, and anti-corporatism to name a few.

A recent study called "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens." by Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin I. Page of Northwestern University. (1) quantifies the will or opinion of the American people on a variety of issues from pieces of legislation to Supreme Court rulings. Then the will of hyper wealthy Bankers, Corporations, Lobbying firms, and other interest groups was quantified. The demands of these individuals and entities almost always conflicted with the will of the vast majority of American people. This study found that over 90% of the time, legislation and court rulings served the will of the very few. This study effectively proved the United States no longer a Democracy, but an Oligarchy.

This study, made possible by the advent of the internet, proved what the American people had suspected for a long time and that was that the American government serves a wealthy few and does little to address the concerns of the American people. So my answer to this question is that administrative agencies have not kept up with the expanding responsibility that arises from the social changes that I listed.

The issues of the people are not being addressed and the primary social change, which was the internet, has exposed and made viral this lack of representation plaguing our government. Minimum wage and poverty issues are not being addressed, campaign finance reform is being blocked, restrictive voter registration laws are running rampant, we can’t have a real debate over what constitutes sensible gun control or over militarizing of police forces. Nothing is getting done.

All of these social issues and the rise of the internet have in fact displayed irrefutably the American Government’s incapability and unwillingness to adequately respond to the expansion of administrative responsibilities in America. If this neglect of social and economic issues continues, along with the increasing power and reach of the internet, I believe that a revolution will be the next “social issue” that our government will be unable to deal with. At some point the American people will cease to tolerate this rampant and blatant lack of representation.

Question 2: In order to increase government accountability, we must first look at the root problem which would impede the effectiveness of subsequent steps. This root issue is the American people’s self-evident lack of concern for the actions of their government. People simply have too many reality television shows to watch, too many parties to attend, too many one night stands to have with people they’ve just met, and not enough concern for preserving their right to affect change in the body that governs them. The bottom line is that the American people, my generation in particular, have an unprecedented level of apathy for any and all important issues. “It is said that evil can only prevail while good men stand by and allow it.” The population of this country sits in

bars and in front of televisions while crooked businessmen and banks buy their government and along with it, the legal rights to rob the country blind. Democracy 101 states that a government’s legitimacy is derived by the consent of its people to be governed. How can a government be held accountable if its citizens simply don’t care? The first and most important step in increasing government accountability is having a citizenry that is organized, educated, and willing to hold its government accountable. Convincing our population to prioritize their right and duty to participate in government will be the most effective step.

Once the citizens are willing to hold their government accountable, the next logical step is to make sure that their government is not accountable to anybody else. That brings us to the next step which is the urgent issue of campaign finance reform. With the Citizens United and McCutcheon rulings by the Supreme Court, private interests now have unprecedented access to political candidates. Corporations, banks, political action committees, and private individuals can give nearly limitless sums of money to political campaigns. In order to hold the government accountable to the people, it must be prevented from being held accountable to private interests. There must be campaign finance reform and lobbying needs to be regulated.

The next step is to streamline citizen discipline. Ranking members of the 3 branches consistently see annual pay raises regardless of performance. Additionally it is seldom that we see any recall elections and many members of the legislature and governors have stated “these (recall elections) shouldn’t become commonplace.” Obviously that would be contradictory to their interests. Elected officials like the “set it and forget it” mentality of the voters. Recall elections should be commonplace. The threat of recall should be ever-present to ensure that officials serve the interests of the people as a whole. This of course requires the implementation of step 1 which states the importance of the citizenry prioritizing participation in government. Given the extreme nature of recall, there should be additional, intermediate measures of ensuring accountability to the American people. I believe it would be effective to tie the salaries of elected officials to their approval ratings and other economic factors. The idea that once elected, an official is immune from any type of disciplinary action or threat of removal until the next election is preposterous. Question:2 asks for my opinion and is therefor not sourced.

Question 3: Intergovernmental relations and their effects are typically unpredictable due to the inability to predict human behavior and interactions. Additionally, the vast scale at which informal and formal exchanges of opinions and information among officials regarding multi-governmental challenges creates a scattered and chaotic decision making environment. The involvement of public, private, and nongovernment parties at multiple levels in government creates a worsening of this problem and an incomprehensive structure. (2)
Intergovernmental fiscal relations is how the tax and spend responsibilities are divided up. The Federal Government is responsible for the fewest public services whereas local governments provide the most services despite collecting the least in taxes. State Governments have less area and population to account for along with less diverse economies than the Federal government. (3)
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocated more money than ever for state and local governments. It also made direct efforts to control state budgets, policies, and administration along with expanded use of project grants and blurred, entangled, uncertain, and varied division of responsibilities. The act also created greater influence for the president and other federal government administrators with strong interest in reducing differences across state and local governments in outcomes and resources. It continued emphasis on accountability based on results, evidence-based practices, and greater concern about data quality. (4)

In contemporary intergovernmental relations, programs are organized by function. They are also plagued by the political and managerial struggle between elected and administrative officials and an elevated degree of tension between centralized and decentralized authority. (5) In today’s administrations, there is a far greater amount of decentralized authority. Technology greatly increases the degree of effectiveness and discretion of government employees. Additionally, the broadening scope of responsibility makes micromanaging or anything close to it next to impossible.

Lastly, modern IGR is plagued more than ever by political bipartisanship. Asking for aid or relief from an official of an opposing party greatly reduces the chances of approval regardless of the legitimacy of the need.

Question 4: In recent times, administrative hierarchy has shifted heavily toward decentralization. Authority brackets grow wider and flatter as layers of management continue to decrease. Discretion and authority are being delegated in greater degree to employees.
With America’s population rising, administrations are being saddled with more oversight challenges and greater challenges. With the technological revolution, employees are able to accomplish more and address more of these issues in a shorter amount of time. These factors make it nearly impossible to micromanage employees and thusly create a culture of greater employee discretion.
With these greater levels of responsibility, it becomes necessary to flatten organizational hierarchies. In today’s day and age, more layers of management would create greater confusion and breakdowns in communication. Too many levels of management also tend to alienate employees and create dissatisfaction with the organization. (6)

The internet and communication technology has made it possible for administrators to supervise more people, further flattening the hierarchy bracket. With this comes more discretionary powers for employees. A major risk of this trend is a much higher degree of vicarious liability. Supervisors are not only responsible for more employees, but those employees are responsible for more tasks and have a greater degree of independent decision making power. This trend dramatically increases the likelihood that a mistake or negligence could lead to action being taken against a supervisor.
The benefit of decentralization is a vast increase in efficiency provided that employees are trained properly and given clear objectives and guidelines. Employees can accomplish a much greater degree of tasks when allowed to operate independently without being micromanaged or nagged at. This trend also allows supervisors to focus more on their own organizational tasks without having to babysit employees. Information also travels much faster given that there are fewer levels of management to travel through and the internet enhances this even further. The internet also allows for detailed instructions and status updates to be transmitted instantly.

Sources: (1) https://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf (2) Thru (5) https://moodle.oakland.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=1782851
(6) https://moodle.oakland.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=1787755