Government Department

To most readers, the term government department is a category that one uses in a telephone directory or a reference volume that lists an array of bureaucratic offices and agencies. But this assumption can be misleading. A straightforward dictionary-like definition actually obscures a range of complex and conflicting ideas.

The two words that are the subject of this entry seem, on their face, to be closely related. But like so many topics related to bureaucracy and governance, the two words should be analyzed separately because they reflect different lenses and values. The word department can be defined in a way that goes beyond public-sector activity and, instead, includes meanings that relate to generic organizations.

The concept of a department is embedded in the classical definition of a bureaucracy offered by Max Weber. A department is a specialized unit of a bureaucracy or organization found within a hierarchical structure. Departments can be found within private and nonprofit organizations as well as in public agencies although they may be organized differently. Like the functions in a factory, the units within the organization are defined as embodying separate and clear work responsibilities.

These units can be organized in terms of function or by jurisdiction. Functional responsibilities are the most common form where a major organization is assigned responsibilities to carry out specific functions. At the federal level in the United States, departments are organized to embody specific policy functions such as agriculture, labor, education, commerce, health and human services, justice, and others. These departments are usually called cabinet departments and are headed by political appointees of the current occupant of the White House. Departments in states and localities often follow this same pattern but are organized around particular jurisdictional boundaries. Thus, states and localities have departments of education, health, justice, environment, transportation, and others. Although we usually use the term department to refer to all of these units, sometimes they are called agencies or other terms.

The original concept of a department is linked to a specialized, separate set of functions, but increasingly these separate units do not adequately reflect current policy or program realities. The boundaries between policies or sectors have been blurred during the past few decades, and it is difficult to establish the kind of clear lines of specialization that have been traditionally found in departments.

For example, concern about rural issues is not limited to programs within departments of agriculture. Changes in the economy and society have resulted in rural communities that are isolated units and that are minimally related to agricultural issues. In the past, it was assumed that almost all rural issues were appropriately located in the Department of Agriculture. But now, instead, if one is concerned about rural programs, it is necessary to find ways to develop interdepartmental relationships involving education, health, environment, economic development, and other departmental units. The classical departmental organization emphasizes separate and discrete units and makes it difficult to develop horizontal relationships that cut across those units. Thus, to address rural issues, it is important to create venues that allow multiple departments to interact and to acknowledge that no single department has the resources or authority to address these issues. Similarly, policy networks also have been developed that cut across sectors.

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