Because of the great number of citizens in the state, their power over the bureaucracy tends to be much more diffuse than that of the legislature, governor or interest groups. Consequently, it is rare that individuals or unorganized groups set the policy agenda by proposing new programs or policies for analysis, discussion and ultimately implementation. Also, because they are relatively removed from the actual apparatus of policy formulation, unorganized individuals have difficulty "riding herd" to monitor proposals once they have entered the policymaking maze.
The general public experiences the same kinds of collective action problems in trying to influence bureaucracies as they do when trying to achieve other political goals. In short, most folks lack the concentrated resources and sustained interest - as well as daily interactions with policymakers - necessary to finely tune policy decisions. You can review the problems of collective action efforts in the Texas Politics Interest Groups chapter.
Despite these challenges, citizens can and do exercise both positive and negative control over the bureaucracy. Voters elect the six most senior officials of the executive branch, including the governor and lieutenant governor. Additionally, they elect the three members of the railroad commission, the agriculture commissioner and the fifteen members of the State Board of Education (SBOE).
Citizens also can communicate their demands and needs through their elected officials, including those elected to head the major state administrative departments. Their demands are strongest when they are focused, seeking policies that benefit a specific geographic area of the state, like where to build a new state prison. Narrow geographic or subject focus tends to make popular pressure more concentrated, energetic, and effective. If these demands are strongly felt and numerous, state legislators from that area also will be more likely to work hard to advance the cause.
On the individual level, citizen complaints about the quality of service constitute a steady stream of feedback and control (those fire alarms again!) on how well the bureaucracy is functioning. Citizens may use the specific mechanisms that individual agencies may create for channeling such feedback (e.g., customer service hotlines or electronic forms on agency websites), or they can register their concerns with their state legislators, who view such complaints as valuable opportunities to serve their voting constituents. Interceding with the bureaucracy on behalf of citizens in this way is known as casework.
The sunset review process also provides regular opportunities for groups of citizens to weigh in on the performance of government agencies. For example, the most recent sunset review of the Texas Ethics Commission in 2003 triggered public rallies by a range of groups dissatisfied with the design and performance of the commission. In this case, however, the sunset process resulted in only minor changes. The Texas Politics video feature Designed to Fail? (also featured in the Voting, Campaigns, and Elections chapter) contains footage of a rally organized by groups attempting to call attention to what they saw as the need to strengthen the commission. As discussed previously, in this chapter's section on the sunset process, the Sunset Advisory Commission website provides extensive suggestions for participating directly in the review process.
Citizen pressure to set the policy agenda in local county or municipal government can be much more effective than on the state level. Whether they're fighting property taxes, demanding new programs for local schools, seeking funds to refurbish local parks and playgrounds, or petitioning for "traffic calming" devices (previously known simply as speed-bumps), citizens often wield considerable positive ability to set the agenda and negative power to oppose or restrain local government. In turn, the increased influence over smaller scale decisions by elected officials also increases the possibility of influencing local bureaucracy.
The "Interest group tools and techniques" section in the Interest Groups chapter discusses various means of influencing government - techniques that can be readily modified for organizing efforts to influence state or local bureaucracy.
