Solutions to the Growing Bureaucracy

The overgrowing demand for governmental agencies has grown tremendously since the 18th century. Originally George Washington in 1789 had only three government departments, Treasury, Foreign Affairs, and War. With the end of the Civil War, many problems arose and so did the bureaucracy. In 1870 much of the problems were remedied with the creation of the Department of Justice. Starting in the 19th century the size of the federal executive branch and the bureaucracy expanded as demand for new departments also grew.

With the rise of the new national government many Anti-Federalists feared that it had exceeded its desired size. When at one point nine people controlled a department, now hundreds of government employees are appointed to the jobs. The continual downfall of the representation of the people has brought huge controversy over how to accommodate the needs of the people properly. For example, if a farmer has a bad growing season due to a flood or drought, he needs local advice and a loan to help him through a cashless crop season. To help improve this situation local representation should be established.

In the early days of the telephone there was no competition for phone service providers like there is now. With no competition the phone company (Bell) was able to have a monopoly and run up the prices for a call. The national government would recommend a change in rates but the phone company would take its time with the decision taking days, months, or even years. To change this, the federal government should go after monopolies and allow competition on the local level. By increased competition, it would keep prices at a honest level and keep things market driven which would make for a more creative and competitive environment.

There are many different ways that Anti-Federalist could make the bureaucracy more responsive to the people. With the increasing demand for new departments comes the less control that citizens have. A final and what I believe to be the best solution to the problem at hand would be to leave anything that the federal government doesn't need to control, leave the powers with the states. With this being implemented more control of the national government would be at the local level.