Cornell Notes

Lecture, reading/chapter/novel/article Name: _______Arturo Montemayor_________________________

during class, power point, movies (if need
to collect info.) Class: ____Government_____ Period: __9/10A__
Topic:_The Administrative Date: _03/16/2023________________________
State_
Essential Question: Are the current systems in place adequate to assure the public interest is
served?

Questions/Main Ideas: Notes:

bureaucracy: A type The state administration is an important, but complicated

of organization that is system to carry out government policies. Three
characterized by characterists that make this system confusing are: The
hierarchy, specialization, lack of organizational patterns, it makes exceptions to
fixed and official rules, traditional notions of bureaucratic hierarchy, and an
and relative freedom unbalanced system in which some agencies don’t do as
from outside control. much as the others.

hierarchy: Levels of The state adminstration has agencies with elected

authority in an executives in each of them. The elected executives are the
organization, with the attorney general, comptroller of public accounts,
maximum authority on commissioner of the general land office, and the
top. commissioner of agriculture.
Some agnecies have appointed executives like the e
Office of the Secretary of State.
pseudo laissez-faire: A
phrase referring to the
tendency of
entrepreneurs to oppose
government involvement
in the economy at the
general philosophical
level, but to seek
government assistance
for their particular
business.
Multimember boards or commissions are there to lead a
state adminstrative and to policies for them.
devolution:
Cornell Notes
Lecture, reading/chapter/novel/article Name: _______Arturo Montemayor_________________________
during class, power point, movies (if need
to collect info.) Class: ____Government_____ Period: __9/10A__
Topic:_The Administrative Date: _03/16/2023________________________
State_
Essential Question: Are the current systems in place adequate to assure the public interest is
served?

Questions/Main Ideas: Notes:

Redistributing power,
responsibility, and
funding from the
national government to
the states for many of the
programs shared by the
two levels of
government.
The country was once an independent nation who needed
no government to a country that depends on the
government. It all happened due to pseudo laissez-faire.
Then WW2 caused the expansion of the government.
Much later when Regan became president, changed the
government in a strange way.
reinventing or
reengineering
government: A national
and state movement in
the 1990s to improve
government
performance; sometimes
called “reengineering”.
The Bureaucratic structure is more or less a system used
to organize people. But within the system, there are
certain charcteristics about it that form it depedning on
the type of structure it is, like having authority be in a
system of ranking or having indivduals perform certain
tasks in a traditional bureaucratic structure. A modern
bureaucratic structure mostly follows how European
organizations acted.
Cornell Notes
Lecture, reading/chapter/novel/article Name: _______Arturo Montemayor_________________________
during class, power point, movies (if need
to collect info.) Class: ____Government_____ Period: __9/10A__
Topic:_The Administrative Date: _03/16/2023________________________
State_
Essential Question: Are the current systems in place adequate to assure the public interest is
served?

Questions/Main Ideas: Notes:

clientele group: The

interest group or groups
that benefit from or are
regulated by an
administrative agency.
The source of Bureaucratic Powers comes from clientel
groups, the legislature, the chief executive, the public,
expert infomation, leadership, and interal organizations.
civil service system: A
personnel system in a
government
administrative agency in
which employees are
hired, fired, and
promoted based on
merit.
administrative While bueracrats can’t really mess with public policy,
discretion: The freedom they do have some other ways to get involved to alternate
that administrators the public policy.
(bureaucrats) have in
implementing and
interpreting laws.
While all of these policies can be changed, the public
interest may or may not be forgotten.
sunset reviews: The
process by which the
legislature reviews the
performance of
administrative agencies,
and then renews,
Cornell Notes
Lecture, reading/chapter/novel/article Name: _______Arturo Montemayor_________________________
during class, power point, movies (if need
to collect info.) Class: ____Government_____ Period: __9/10A__
Topic:_The Administrative Date: _03/16/2023________________________
State_
Essential Question: Are the current systems in place adequate to assure the public interest is
served?

Questions/Main Ideas: Notes:

reorganizes, or
eliminates them.
In the adminstrative state, the governor has power over
the leglsative. However, the government is limited to
most things.
Sunshine Law: A law
that provides for public
access to the records of
administrative agencies.
The legislative can oversee the bureaucracy with two
main tools, which are the legislative oversight and the
Texas Sunset Act.
whistle-blower:
Someone who “blows
the whistle,” that is,
informs on a government
official who is guilty of
misdeeds or malpractice.
The public can take control over the bureaucracy with
elective accountability, open records and meetings, and
whistle-blower protection.

Summary: The bureaucracy of Texas is a complicated system that is run by certain

executives. The pseudo laissez-faire philosophy has led to the growth of the
administrative state. The Texas state administration has traditional characteristics
that determine how it’s run. With all of this, sometimes the bureaucrats can lead
away from the public and go away from the law. While it is a hard thing to harness
the state adminstrative, there is a bit of a push to give Texas citizens bureacratic
responsiblities.