Administrative efficiency and responsiveness to the public's needs have always been central concerns for any examination of the executive branch bureaucracy. Regardless of political orientation, we all have had personal frustrations with government agencies, even though we often look to them for the provision of individual services and the protection of the public interest through the enforcement of laws.

In the current environment of fiscal distress in the states, existing pressures to reinvent, redesign, or otherwise reorganize the bureaucracy may intensify. Changes to this fourth branch of government, however, will be only partial and limited, because the bureaucracy is subject to the overlapping control (through the constitution, and state and federal laws) of a broad range of institutions, interest groups and individuals. To return to the consolidation of public health and human services agencies in Texas discussed at the beginning of this chapter one last time, though several of the changes made were dramatic, they did not undo the multiple layers of control over these agencies. Nor did reorganization involve reworking the rest of the state bureaucracy.

Democratic institutions that rely on organized interest groups also work to prevent rapid wholesale change to the state bureaucracy. In Texas, as elsewhere, the bureaucracy has often been splintered and in some instances captured by particular interests seeking to secure a monopoly of control over the specific areas of public policy that most impact their economic well being. Whether it's highways, mineral extraction, agriculture, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, or some other area, powerful interests will always find ways to secure public funding, state contracts, or favorable legislation - sometimes even at the expense of the public interest. The historically fragmented executive branch in Texas, another element of democratic institutional design, facilitates interest group influence over "pieces" of the bureaucracy.

More fundamentally, there will be many future attempts to "reinvent" government in an effort to respond to new challenges created in dynamic, diverse societies like the one in Texas, which is always in a state of ongoing transformation. These transformations affect the structure and functions of the bureaucracy, even as they are shaped by political as well as policy priorities.

Citizens can help shape the ongoing development of the bureaucracy in Texas, or particular parts of the bureaucracy. But it takes savvy, commitment to your cause, and a keen awareness of the time and resources it takes to mount such an effort. This chapter presents some of the fundamental knowledge about how the bureaucracy works and is shaped, which can help in developing that savvy. Marshalling commitment, time, and resources are the hard work of grass roots politics.