History of US Bureaucracy

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Dear Student,
Hi and thank you for your patience. I hope this solution gets to you in time. If you have any questions about it, just let me know via the feedback section. You can also use the listed resources to further explore the topic. Btw, if you are unfamiliar with the term genealogy, it is a term used to refer to a history of structures/systems. A family is a structure so we say family genealogy when we research our ancestry. The term below has been used to describe the history of the idea that is the US bureaucracy.Good luck with your studies

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OTA 105878/Xenia Jones
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Bureaucratic Genealogy

The genealogy of American government begins in the period of the establishment of the Articles of Confederation prior to the American Revolution (Tindall, et. al., 2009). This was the seed that become the basis for the American Constitution. This document served as the source of authority of the US government as well as its design and structure. It is from it that the power, authority and scope of responsibility of the branches of government is defined and made manifest in what became the American Nation. The Constitution of course of is over 2 hundred years old and has gone through so many amendments. But this is the beauty of way the country was organized - it is open to amendment and changes for the purpose of ensuring relevance of policies and legislation to the changing dynamics of American society. As such, bureaucracy's design also changed over time, shaped by politics and new ideas of social organization.

A concept that did is ever enduring in terms of bureaucracy, power and control is the element of Federalism. Federalism's simple description is that it is a political theory in which its members are bound by a covenant governed by a representative leader from among them. In the US, a central governing authority shares power with states and while the central or Federal government has the responsibility over the entire nation, each state is autonomous in that they have their own state constitutions and governments subject, of course to the federal union.

In George Washington's time, the federal bureaucracy began with 3 cabinets departments - Secretary of State, secretary of Treasury and the office of the Secretary ...