Describe the organizational structure and composition of the federal bureaucracy.Specifically,what are the differences between departments,agencies,and bureaus and what are the lines of authority within the executive branch? How representative is the federal bureaucracy of the American public,how is it staffed,and how has this changed since the nineteenth century?

There are three components to this question.
a.Departments,agencies,bureaus,and lines of authority within the executive branch: The president is the chief executive.Departments,agencies,and bureaus are the operating parts of the bureaucratic whole.At the top is the head of the department (called the "secretary").Below the secretary and the deputy secretary is a second tier of "undersecretaries," who have management responsibilities for one or more operating agencies.Those operating agencies are the third tier of the department,yet they are the highest level of responsibility for the actual programs around which the entire department is organized.This third tier is generally called the "bureau level." Each bureau-level agency usually operates under a statute,enacted by Congress,that sets up the agency and gives it its authority and jurisdiction.
b.Representativeness of the federal bureaucracy: Federal bureaucrats are distributed around the country,with nearly four out of five federal employees working outside of Washington,D.C.Compared to private-sector workers,members of the full-time civilian federal workforce are more educated and are more likely to hold professional occupations in science,engineering,diplomacy,and other advanced fields.Federal workers are more racially and ethnically diverse than the private workforce and nearly one-third of federal workers are veterans.
c.Staffing the federal bureaucracy: More than a century ago the federal government attempted to imitate business by passing the Civil Service Act of 1883.This law required that appointees to public office be qualified for the jobs to which they were appointed.This policy came to be called the merit system; its goal was not merely to put an end to political appointments under the "spoils system," which awarded jobs based on political connections,but also to create a system of competitive examinations through which the very best candidates were to be hired for every job.At the higher levels of government agencies,including such posts as cabinet secretaries and assistant secretaries,many jobs are filled with political appointees and are not part of the merit system.