WEEK 5 DQ

"In Politics" Please respond to the following:
·
Some top administrators
believe that...

Question

WEEK 5 DQ

"In Politics" Please respond to the following: 
·
Some top administrators
believe that they should welcome congressional oversight in areas in which
committees or members have legitimate concerns. Discuss two or three (2-3)
reasons a public administrator might hold this view.

"Agency
Legislation" Please respond to the
following:
·
Using the e-Activity, discuss one or two current rulings and comment on how the agency
head is impacted by one or two political environments in which the agency must
operate (refer to Figure 2.4 in Chapter 2).
·
e-ActivitiesGo to the Federal Digital System Website,
located at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/, and type in your
selected agency’s name (THE ADMINISTRATION FOR
CHILDREN & FAMILIES )in
the search engine and review three of the agency’s latest rulings. Be prepared
to discuss.

Robert · Accepted Answer

Title 
Student Name   
Course/Number  
Date  
Instructor Name 
3 pages
1
In Politics 
The core objective of congressional oversight is to “hold executive officials 
accountable for the implementation of delegated authority” (Oleszek, 2010). Beyond this, 
there are many good reasons a public administrator would believe that congressional 
oversight should be welcomed. The three that this paper will focus on are legitimacy, 
perspective and professionalism. 
Legitimacy is increasingly a problem in a system in which people have to run for 
office at all levels, and therefore are dependent upon special interests for their campaign 
funding. In such a scenario,. Even if one is completely free of outside influence and the 
corrupting effect thereof, it is critical that a public office holder is seen to be dedicated first 
and foremost to their position, not beholden to the interests that funded them getting it. 
Congressional oversight provides a clear mechanism by which this legitimacy is enforced, 
since it pays no heed to the special interests that funded that person gaining power. 
In terms of perspective, large governments all suffer from a single issue; it is almost 
impossible to understand how any given part of the system relates to the rest of the system. 
This problem is compounded by the degree of specialisation that is required to run any given 
agency; as one develops their career in a particular direction, they are forced to lose a broad 
perspective, and are much more likely to make decisions that are locally beneficial without 
considering how such decision affect the system broadly.  
Finally, true professionalism requires a willingness to be fully transparent and 
accountable, as well as the admission that everyone makes mistakes, and accepting that even 
if one is at the top of one’s administrative structure, an overseer is required to checking the 
work being done. If nothing else, this increases the faith which those below you have in both 
the leadership and the structure itself. Transparent government is often used simply as a 
slogan, and practices of it are avoided in order to better cover the mistakes a given 
2
bureaucracy makes. By opening themselves up to congressional oversight pre-emptively,

WEEK 5 DQ "In Politics" Please respond to the following: · Some top administrators believe that they should welcome congressional oversight in areas in which committees or members have legitimate...

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