 POLITICS IS CONFLICTUAL
Watch these two scenes from Futurama, a cartoon series presented by Comedy Central.
“Bureaucrat's Joy”
Futurama
Comedy Central
First aired 2/1/2008
“Bureaucrat's Song”
Futurama
Comedy Central
First aired 2/1/2008
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| 1. What do these scenes suggest about popular perceptions of bureaucrats and bureaucracy? Are these fair assessments? Why might people have these perceptions? |
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| 2. What if there stereotype were reversed and bureaucracies had none of the qualities lampooned by Futurama and countless movies, television shows, novels, and even think tank reports? How well functioning would the federal government be then? |
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 Process Matters
Spend some time looking through the organizational charts describing the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS), State (DOS), and Veterans Affairs (VA). Then look over the basic structural schemes of the major executive agencies on the USA.gov website.
Department of Homeland Security
Department of State
Department of Veterans Affairs
USA.gov Website
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| 3. Why is it important to clearly map out the relationship between different offices within each agency? How accurate do you suppose these organizational charts are? How rigidly should they be adhered to? Is your answer the same for every agency, or does it vary? What factors might influence bureaucratic organization in any given agency? |
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...  POLITICS IS EVERYWHERE
Visit Google Maps and type in “social security, [state name]”. For example, you could type “social security, Texas,” or “social security, Indiana.” Try this for a few different states. Each dot that appears on the map indicates the location of a Social Security Administration office. You can click on the dots to get more information such as SSA office phone numbers and addresses. |
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| 4. How would you describe the location of Social Security Administration offices throughout the country? Are there many or few offices? Where do they tend to be located? Do you suppose there are many people who do not live reasonably close to an SSA office? |
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| 5. Why is it important that such a government agency such as the SSA be so widespread? Does every agency need to physically locate itself throughout the country? Why or why not (use specific examples)? Even if an agency does not have offices throughout the country, can it still be “everywhere”? |
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