Bureaucracy in the United States and Canada: Social, Attitudinal and Behavioral Variables.

The article focuses on aspects of bureaucracy in the United States and Canada. Two theoretical conditions namely political culture and political structure seem useful in explaining the role and ideology of modern bureaucracy variations. These may be conceptualized as independent, systemic variables. The level of popular participation, resting in part upon educational opportunity in a given society, provides one aspect of political culture that affects bureaucratic responsiveness to popular claims. In the presidential system, by contrast, with the notable exception of foreign affairs, bureaucratic power is strongly challenged by permanent, substantively-sophisticated legislative committees, individual legislators possessing viable local and state power bases and the attending seniority system which often enables legislators to develop considerable personal power. As a result, the role of the higher American bureaucracy often seems less one of initiating policy than the subordinate and occasionally negative one of carrying out policy shaped mainly by elected officials and prestigious aides appointed by the President to fill strategic political posts at the secretary, undersecretary and assistant secretary levels. In the Canadian system, different norms and political structure tend to thrust greater policy influence into the hands of permanent deputy ministers. Meanwhile, a more deferential political culture reinforces their autonomy.