Evolution Of The Federal Bureaucracy

Despite the fact that the federal bureaucracy was never explicitly laid out in the constitution, was never instituted and planned, and was evolved by the gradual accretion of agencies and tasks over time, the federal bureaucracy proves to be one of the most influential and powerful departments in American government.
The original bureaucracy of the federal government began as a small group of people from three departments: the State, Treasury and War departments. This group of people formed together under George Washington’s presidency to form the first bureaucracy, appointed by Washington to advise him as president according to Article 2, Section 3 of the constitution. This small group of white male elites quickly grew to an astounding three
As the country expanded westward new agencies were needed to manage the land and its settlement. And as people moved into the new areas, a greatly expanded Post Office was necessary. The Civil War sparked the creation of thousands of government jobs and new departments to handle the demands of warfare. After the war, the Industrial Revolution encouraged economic growth and more government agencies to regulate the expanding economy. This quick expansion of government bureaucracy came to a screeching halt in 1881 due to the assassination of President James Garfield. President Garfield was assassinated by a disappointed office seeker Charles Guiteau because he was not granted a government job. This quickly caused need for a reform on how the federal bureaucracy was ran, and most importantly on how government workers were
Contrary to popular opinion, the federal bureaucracy did not grow in numbers significantly during the last half of the 20th century. Federal bureaucrats did, however, greatly increase their influence. During this later half of the 20th century, the Cold War was in full swing. This caused the increase in size of the Department of Defense and associated agencies, which in turn caused all branches of the armed forces to grow significantly. In 1978 the U.S. Civil Service Commission was renamed the “Office of Personnel Management” or OPM for short. The OPM manages all civil service programs for the federal government such as civil service laws, rules, and regulations. It also administers written examinations for competitive