Bureaucrat bashing: causes and effects

A common theme in the public conversation is Bureaucrat Bashing. What are the sources of the public antipathy toward public administration? Are there constructive steps that may be taken by public administrators to reduce the amount of the dissatisfaction with government?

The antagonism that the public has been showing against the bureaucracy and against the political system seems to have fermented into what we can see today on the streets. The Occupy Wall Street movement is one active demonstration that questions the affects of corruption, social and economic inequality, unemployment, greed as well as the role of corporations on the government. (Gabbatt and Devereux)

This antipathy has stemmed from the government's policy measures that seem to be lacking a sense of right and wrong and those that seem to be favoring corporations and the elite one percent while ninety nine percent of the population suffers from the effects of recession - which has left debris of bankrupt businesses and foreclosed homes in its wake.

The recent spate of resentment among people that has led to anti-government rhetoric has precipitated over a period of time when the government meted out policies after polices that favored the big guns. Among such measures were bailout packages announced for banks and financial institutions to save them from sinking, when these should have been penalized for taking risks far beyond their means. The derivatives markets and the credit default swaps all lead to a highly leveraged situation that left the banks vulnerable to risk. Moreover, instead of regulating them, the government spread moral hazard throughout the system by saving the few big ones, encouraging other banks to take more risks and deteriorating the situation. But even after three years of the recession, the economy seems to show no sign of recovery and the government has not been able to do much about it.

The reasons for its stagnancy lie in the fact that the government is sponsored by companies and lobbyists who impose their views on the government, making it a fallacy of the system to be subservient to those who inject money to it. And this is what has led to widespread unemployment and increased bankruptcies leading to lay-offs, which in turn have a direct impact on people. And now that this impact is being experienced by the public at large as a part of their lives, there is increased dissatisfaction in the country.

There are steps that can be taken by the government in order to stem the burgeoning tide of dissent and dissatisfaction that have been marking the end of the Obama years. What started as a campaign for change has brought about nothing but a continuation of the previous government's policies. The war in Afghanistan and Iraq still wages, and having learnt nothing from it, the government continues to get involved with the Middle East unrest providing troops and fueling the war machine wasting precious taxpayer dollars in the process.

The steps that can be taken include at the highest level taxation reforms that tax the rich elites higher as compared to those in lower brackets. It will ensure equitable distribution of income and help in uplifting the economy. Moreover it has long been realized that the power of developed economies has traditionally been on the back of the middle class masses and this is what the government should b looking at in its policy making.