Comments on: Do Our Votes Touch Policy? http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/6638.html Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago boys including those pictured above. Fri, 25 May 2012 18:12:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: sol vason http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/6638.html/comment-page-1#comment-291078 sol vason Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:18:24 +0000 http://chicagoboyz.net/?p=6638#comment-291078 "FOR EIGHT years George W. Bush pulled the levers of government—sometimes frantically—never realizing that they were disconnected from the machinery and the exertion was largely futile. As a result, the foreign and security policies declared by the president in speeches, in public and private meetings, in backgrounders and memoranda often had little or no effect on the activities of the sprawling bureaucracies charged with carrying out the president’s policies. They didn’t need his directives: they had their own." The bureaucracy makes its own foreign and domestic policy and this policy often conntradicts the policy of the President. The only way to change policy is to replace the bureaucrats with people loyal to the new President. But this is impossible because the civil service laws and the public employee unions prevent replacement of any one bureaucrat for political reasons, let alone wholesale replacement of all bureaucrats for political reasons. This bureaucratic disease is not limited to the US. The first occurence of this disease was in China about 2000 years ago. Marco Polo brought the disease to Europe. A charismatic leader, like Hitler or Mussolini, can persuade the bureaucrats to follow the Leader - although it helps to have a gestapo or some sort of political secret police to ensure the bureaucrats remain loyal. Alternatively, revolutionaries simply kill off the current bureaucrats and replace them with loyalists - eg, Castro, Nassar, Stalin, Mao, et alia. In the US, FDR, Johnson and Clinton obtained bureaucratic loyalty by simply creating new Departments and staffing them with loyalists. Revolution and war are the two time honored ways for removing bureaucrats from power. Unfortunately, revolution and war are messy. The best solution is not to have bureaucrats, or to have very, very few. This is called small government. “FOR EIGHT years George W. Bush pulled the levers of government—sometimes frantically—never realizing that they were disconnected from the machinery and the exertion was largely futile. As a result, the foreign and security policies declared by the president in speeches, in public and private meetings, in backgrounders and memoranda often had little or no effect on the activities of the sprawling bureaucracies charged with carrying out the president’s policies. They didn’t need his directives: they had their own.”

The bureaucracy makes its own foreign and domestic policy and this policy often conntradicts the policy of the President. The only way to change policy is to replace the bureaucrats with people loyal to the new President. But this is impossible because the civil service laws and the public employee unions prevent replacement of any one bureaucrat for political reasons, let alone wholesale replacement of all bureaucrats for political reasons.

This bureaucratic disease is not limited to the US. The first occurence of this disease was in China about 2000 years ago. Marco Polo brought the disease to Europe.

A charismatic leader, like Hitler or Mussolini, can persuade the bureaucrats to follow the Leader – although it helps to have a gestapo or some sort of political secret police to ensure the bureaucrats remain loyal.

Alternatively, revolutionaries simply kill off the current bureaucrats and replace them with loyalists – eg, Castro, Nassar, Stalin, Mao, et alia.

In the US, FDR, Johnson and Clinton obtained bureaucratic loyalty by simply creating new Departments and staffing them with loyalists.

Revolution and war are the two time honored ways for removing bureaucrats from power. Unfortunately, revolution and war are messy. The best solution is not to have bureaucrats, or to have very, very few. This is called small government.

]]> By: Jonathan http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/6638.html/comment-page-1#comment-291031 Jonathan Sat, 17 Jan 2009 05:12:45 +0000 http://chicagoboyz.net/?p=6638#comment-291031 Bush's inability to explain his ideas to the public has made him something of a tragic figure. He gets credit for nothing, blame for everything, and the officials who have relentlessly and disloyally subverted his policies escape most criticism. Bush’s inability to explain his ideas to the public has made him something of a tragic figure. He gets credit for nothing, blame for everything, and the officials who have relentlessly and disloyally subverted his policies escape most criticism.

]]>