The American Review of Public Administration, Ahead of Print.
Government bureaucracy is widely ignored, condemned, ridiculed, and misunderstood. In this article, combined stories by reporters for The New York Times and The Washington Post reveal that federal agencies seldom reach planned goals unambiguously without complication from external forces. A total of 28 articles is summarized, classified under five ideals, and equally divided between failures and successes. A later companion piece is entitled “Bureaucracy’s Welcome News: More Women at the Helm,” based on data in successive editions of the United States Government Manual.