What is and what should be the role of government and the bureaucracy?

Government can be seen as being split between roughly two categories: politicians and bureaucrats. Politicians make decisions, and the bureaucracy is the connection between the government's goods and services and its citizens. The United States exists in a divided government. The types of government that exist in the United States are Federal, State, and Local. Within each set type of government there exist different bureaucratic agencies. These agencies are in charge of a specialized area of government. As is obvious by the number of services the government provides, and the different types of government, organization is needed to ensure efficiency, accountability, and effectiveness within government.

As taken from the U.S. Constitution the role of government is to establish law and order, protect the nation, promote welfare and growth, and ensure liberty. These very vague terms can be expounded to reveal the types of services and protections the government is expected to provide: Education, Transportation, Defense and Safety (in all senses), Business, etc (Riley 1-4).

The Seat of Government

Government spending

The western front of the United States Capitol. Th...

The United States exists in a divided government. As it is a very large and diverse country, responsibility is divided within different formations of government (Gianos 1-4). The types of government that exist in the United States are Federal, State, and Local.

The federal government is in charge of the larger, more over-arching government services, such as entitlements, defense, national spending, and immigration. The state governments, are in charge of the services that can very by region due to various factors such as population, environment, and to some extent culture (Kettl 31-38). The main services that are allocated by the state are education, transportation, utilities, public safety, and other special districts. Bureaucracies, then, step in with both the federal government's services, as well as the state governments, to fill in the gap between citizen and service,