Goals of this exercise

• Illustrate the complexity of the Department of Homeland Security.
• Explore the collective action problems that pertain to such a complex organization.
• Demonstrate how the Department is empowered with institutional powers and resources designed to overcome its inherent collective action problems.

Department of Homeland Security Organizational Chart

Examining Principle #1

Principle #1: How Much Complexity? How Many Bureaucratic Cultures?

• The Under Secretaries of each “directorate” must coordinate the activities of several agencies with different bureaucratic cultures from different federal departments.
• Each Division of the Department of Homeland Security coordinates the work of numerous pre-existing agencies.
     -   Division 1: Border and Transportation Security -> 7 agencies from 5 departments
     -   Division 2: Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection -> 5 agencies from        5 departments
     -   Division 3: Emergency Preparedness and Response -> 5 agencies from 5        departments
     -   Division 4: Science and Technology -> 4 agencies from 3 departments
• Overall, the Department of Homeland Security coordinates the activities of 22 pre-existing federal agencies which were controlled by 11 separate Cabinet-level Departments.

Examining Collective Action Principle #2

Principle #2: Cooperation through collective action is difficult, and the difficulty mounts as the number of people grows.

• Size and diversity are traditionally viewed as impediments to collective action that must be overcome through institutions and processes designed to provide coordination and leadership.
• Consider the collective action from of a Department of Homeland Security that must coordinate the activities of -> 22 different agencies and organizational cultures from departments as diverse as the Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Commerce to the Departments of Defense and Justice.

Providing incentives for collective action

Examine the following proposals for action in the Administration’s 2004 Proposed Budget for DHS.

For each provision, answer the following question:

• What is the primary impediment to collective action?
• What mechanism is being proposed to overcome that impediment?

Question 1: Spend $146 million to provide “basic and advanced training to more than 76 federal agencies” as well as state, local, and international officials on the subject of border and transportation security.

Question 2: Provide DHS with the authority to speed up Food and Drug Administration approval process on “needed vaccines and medication for biodefense.”

Question 3: Provide $350 million in grants to private companies, academic researchers, and government agencies to conduct research.

Question 4: How might the purposive, goal-oriented behavior of the different agencies and actors with which DHS must cooperate serve as an impediment to such efforts?

Question 5: If the central task of DHS is to provide coordination and collective action to security efforts, how does the Department use its resources to accomplish these aims?

Question 6: What are the potential dangers of giving the Secretary of DHS the requisite powers needed to overcome all of these collective action problems?

Citations

• DHS Organization, DHS Agencies “Who Became Part of the Department?”, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=10&content=5271), accessed 6/28/2006.
• Department of Homeland Security, “Budget in Brief” http://www.dhs.gov/.