Bureaucratic accountability refers to the extend bureaucrats are held responsible for their actions as they exercise power given to them. The Presidency, Congress and the Judiciary hold these bureaucratic institutions accountable. The President has the authority of organizing agencies for oversight of bureaucracies and giving such agencies the tools to carry out their roles (Terry, 2015). The President may not have the capacity to carry out personal oversight of the bureaucratic institutions. Each agency has a political leader, who is appointed by the President. The function of such agencies is simply limiting the discretion of bureaucrats.
Since there are many distinct agencies for enforcing accountability of bureaucracies, the President cannot coordinate their activities by himself or herself. There are incidents in the past that have proved this fact. For instance, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in the year 2001 coupled with the failure to include Umak Farouk, a terrorist, on the ‘no fly list’ by revoking his visa proves that the President must have agencies overseeing the activities of bureaucracies. A number of executive officials are picked by the President to oversee the daily activities of the bureaucracies (Dubnick & Frederickson, 2009). These executive officials are expected be representatives of the President in terms of overseeing the daily operations of the bureaucracies and instill accountability.
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Additionally, the Congress exercises influence over the bureaucracies through its authorization and funding powers. The Congress is able to use its methods to hold bureaucrats accountable to their actions. It can choose to stop approving funding or limit the funds to a given bureaucracy (Carpenter & Krause, 2015). Moreover, it is important to note that the Congress has a direct oversight function over the bureaucrats. It ensures the bureaucrats comply with the laws governing their operations. The judiciary also may compel a bureaucrat to comply with a given provision of the law.
References
Carpenter, D., & Krause, G. A. (2015). Transactional authority and bureaucratic politics. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory , 25 (1), 5-25.
Dubnick, M. J., & Frederickson, H. G. (2009). Accountable agents: Federal performance measurement and third-party government. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory , mup039.
Terry, L. D. (2015). Leadership of public bureaucracies: The administrator as conservator . London: Routledge.
