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Jennifer Pahlka, deputy U.S. chief technology officer from 2013 to 2014, is the author of “<a href="https://amzn.to/44LGoow" target=_blank>Recoding America</a>” and a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center and the Federation of American Scientists.

Former president <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> wants to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/16/trump-indictment-threatens-prosecution-biden-deep-state/" target=_blank>“obliterate the deep state.”</a> As a Democrat who values government, I am chilled by the prospect. But I sometimes partly agree with him.

Certainly, Trump and I are poles apart on the nature of the problem. His “deep state” evokes a shadowy cabal that doesn’t exist. What is true, however, is that red tape and misaligned gears frequently stymie progress on even the most straightforward challenges. Ten years ago, Steven M. Teles, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University, <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/kludgeocracy-in-america" target=_blank>coined the term “kludgeocracy” </a>to describe the problem. Since then, it has only gotten worse.

Whatever you call it, the sprawling federal bureaucracy takes care of everything from the nuclear arsenal to the social safety net to making sure our planes don’t crash. Public servants do critical work; they should be honored, not disparaged.

Yet most of them are frustrated. I’ve spoken with staffers in a dozen federal agencies this year while rolling out my book about  government culture and effectiveness. I heard over and over about rigid, maximalist interpretations of rules, regulations, policies and procedures that take precedence over mission. Too often acting responsibly in government has come to mean not acting at all.

Kludgeocracy Example No. 1: Within government, designers are working to make online forms and applications easier to use. To succeed, they need to do user research, most of which is supposed to be exempt from the data-collection requirements of <a href="https://pra.digital.gov/" target=_blank>the Paperwork Reduction Act</a>. Yet compliance officers insist that designers send their research plans for approval by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) under the act. Countless hours can go into the preparation and internal approvals of a “package” for OIRA, which then might post the plans to the Federal Register for the fun-house-mirror purpose of collecting public input on a plan to collect public input. This can result in months of delay. Meanwhile, no input happens, and no paperwork gets reduced.

Kludgeocracy Example No. 2: For critical economic and national security reasons, Congress passed a law mandating the establishment of a center for scientific research. Despite clear legislative intent, work was bogged down for months when one agency applied a statute to prohibit a certain structure for the center and another applied a different statute to require that structure. The lawyers ultimately found a solution, but it was more complex and cumbersome than anyone had hoped for. All the while, the clock was ticking.

What causes such maddening bottlenecks? The problem is mainly one of culture and incentives. It could be solved if leaders in each branch — in good faith — took the costs seriously.

Leadership on the left too often accepts that delays, false starts and perverse outcomes are simply the costs of a fair and equitable democratic system. That’s not good enough. While we take <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-does-permitting-for-clean-energy-infrastructure-work/" target="_blank">years to approve renewable-energy plans</a>, the planet warms. While lawyers fight over fine print for infrastructure investment, bridges and roads collapse. While our armed services procure billion-dollar assets just as they become obsolete, the global order destabilizes.

Danielle Allen:  America is in a ‘Great Pulling Apart.’ Can we pull together?

There is no single solution to kludgeocracy. Some laws must change, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, which ironically <a href="https://ceq.doe.gov/docs/nepa-practice/CEQ_EIS_Timeline_Fact_Sheet_2020-6-12.pdf" target=_blank>slows the building of green infrastructure</a> needed to get off fossil fuels. Some behavior needs to shift: Activists’ penchant for lawsuits actually erodes the ability of government to act on their behalf. But much of the change needs to happen in the culture of government.

After the norm-busting of the Trump years, it’s natural to want to double down on safeguards. But the Biden administration and others must work harder to balance the increasingly urgent need to act with the desire to reassure the bureaucracy that the rule of law will be respected.

What would a better culture look like? Lawmakers of both parties and at all levels of government would subtract from the kludge, not add to it: They would strip away procedural requirements, not pile more on to agencies sinking under the weight of those imposed by their predecessors. Making hiring fairer and faster would be a good first step. Right now public servants must jump through hoops for months to plug the growing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/07/fauci-government-workforce-aging-hire-young/" target="_blank">gaps in the aging federal workforce</a>.

The stakes are high. If those who believe in the mission of democratic government can’t get this right, the “deep state” rhetoric will only gain more traction among disgusted voters, and that could lead to more authoritarian versions of reform. Trump has vowed, for instance, to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/19/trump-plan-federal-takeover/" target=_blank>re-implement Schedule F</a> if elected again next year, to make it easier to fire civil servants who thwart his will.

What’s needed instead are changes that allow the federal government to do its work of advancing the general welfare. Public servants know the difference; one might even argue that is the job they’ve been hired to do. They would like to be trusted to get on with it.

Jennifer Pahlka

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Why can our government get nothing done? Kludgeocracy.'

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