A Tough ACT to Follow?: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the Separation of Powers Failure

As the Federal Government has expanded its powers and interference in the private economy (for good or ill depending on your point of view), it became clear that not everything Congress was trying to do could be handled in the political process and still get done. So, they created agencies, commissions, and whatever office they felt like creating in order to do the work they did not have the political courage or efficiency to handle. One of those creations, in 1934, was the Federal Communications Commission (the FCC). It is the contention of the author of this book, Harold W. Furchtgott-Roth (FCC commissioner from 1997-2001), that it was the way the FCC was designed, with combined powers to legislate its own rules, execute them, and the judge the outcomes, that has led to the many problems over many decades that led to the attempt to reform the FCC in 1996. He presents clear arguments for his thesis and shows how the FCC got into trouble before 1996 and how the nature of this kind of bureaucracy is to exploit ambiguities in the rules given it by Congress, end up using is power of discretion as a kind of favoritism for or discrimination against constituents for whom their stance should be neutral. If you want to understand how government bureaucracy can lead to poor results even with the best of intentions of very good people, this is an excellent guide. If you want to see what is going on at the FCC and why the popular notions about its failures are not valid, this book makes an excellent case. Obviously, not everyone will agree with the author, but I find his position quite persuasive given my experience with bureaucracies of all types over the years.