AP Government Chapters 14-15 Key Terms Review

Question 1

budget

Answer 1

A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures).

Question 2

deficit

Answer 2

An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues.

Question 3

expenditures

Answer 3

Federal spending of revenues. Major areas such as spending are social services and the military.

Question 4

revenues

Answer 4

The financial resources of the federal government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of these.

Question 5

income tax

Answer 5

Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The Sixteenth Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy this.

Question 6

Sixteenth Amendment

Answer 6

The constitutional amendment adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax.

Question 7

federal debt

Answer 7

All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today it is more than $8 trillion.

Question 8

tax expenditures

Answer 8

Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions on the federal tax law.

Question 9

Social Security Act

Answer 9

A 1935 law passed during the Great Depression that was intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save them from poverty.

Question 10

Medicare

Answer 10

A program added to the Social Security system in 1965 that provides hospitalization insurance for the elderly and permits older Americans to purchase inexpensive coverage for doctor fees and other health expenses.

Question 11

incrementalism

Answer 11

The belief that the best predictor of this year’s budget is the last year’s budget, plus a little bit more.

Question 12

uncontrollable expenditures

Answer 12

Expenditures that are determined not by a fixed amount of money appropriated by Congress but by how many eligible beneficiaries there are for a program or by previous obligations of the government.

Question 13

entitlements

Answer 13

Policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number of recipients that must be eligible for the benefits.

Question 14

House Ways and Means Committee

Answer 14

The House of Representatives committee that, along with the Senate Finance Committee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole.

Question 15

Senate Finance Committee

Answer 15

The Senate committee that, along with the House Ways and Means Committee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole.

Question 16

Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974

Answer 16

An act designed to reform the congressional budgetary process. Its supporters hoped that it would also make Congress less dependent on the president’s budget and better able to set and meet its own budgetary goals.

Question 17

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

Answer 17

Advises Congress on the probable consequences of its decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the president’s OMB.

Question 18

budget resolution

Answer 18

A resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs.

Question 19

reconciliation

Answer 19

A congressional process though which program authorizations are revised to achieve required savings. It also usually also includes tax or other revenue adjustments.

Question 20

authorization bill

Answer 20

An act of Congress that establishes, continues, or changes a discretionary government program or an entitlement. It specifies program goals and maximum expenditures for discretionary programs.

Question 21

appropriations bill

Answer 21

An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. It usually covers one year.

Question 22

continuing resolutions

Answer 22

When Congress cannot reach agreement and pass appropriations bills, these resolutions allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year.

Question 23

bureaucracy

Answer 23

According to Max Weber, a hierarchical authority structure that uses task specialization, operates on the merit principle, and behaves with impersonality. It governs modern states.

Question 24

patronage

Answer 24

One of the key inducements used by political machines. A patronage job, promotion, or contract is one that is given for political reasons rather than for merit or competence alone.

Question 25

Pendleton Civil Service Act

Answer 25

Passed in 1883, an Act that created a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage.

Question 26

civil service

Answer 26

A system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create a nonpartisan government service.

Question 27

merit principle

Answer 27

The idea that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotion ratings to produce administration by people with talent and skill.

Question 28

Hatch Act

Answer 28

A federal law prohibiting government employees from active participation in partisan politics.

Question 29

Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

Answer 29

The office in charge of hiring for most agencies of the federal government, using elaborate rules in the process.

Question 30

GS (General Schedule) rating

Answer 30

A schedule for federal employees, ranging from 1 to 18, by which salaries can be keyed to rating and experience.

Question 31

Senior Executive Service (SES)

Answer 31

An elite cadre of about 9,000 federal government managers, established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, who are mostly career officials but include some political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation.

Question 32

independent regulatory agency

Answer 32

A government agency responsible for some sector of the economy, making and enforcing rules to protect the public interest. It also judges disputes over these rules.

Question 33

government corporations

Answer 33

A government organization that, like business corporations, provides a service that could be provided by the private sector and typically charges for its services. The U.S. Postal Service is an example.

Question 34

independent executive agency

Answer 34

The government not accounted for by cabinet departments, independent regulatory agencies, and government corporations. Its administrators are typically appointed by the president and serve at the president’s pleasure. NASA is an example.

Question 35

policy implementation

Answer 35

The stage of policymaking between the establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people whom it affects. It involves translating the goals and objectives of a policy into an operating, ongoing program.

Question 36

standard operating procedures (SOPs)

Answer 36

These are used by bureaucrats to bring uniformity to complex organizations. Uniformity improves fairness and makes personnel interchangeable.

Question 37

administrative discretion

Answer 37

The authority of administrative actors to select among various responses to a given problem. It is greatest when routines, or standard operating procedures, do not fit a case.

Question 38

street-level bureaucrats

Answer 38

A phrase coined by Michael Lipsky, referring to those bureaucrats who are in constant contact with the public and have considerable administrative discretion.

Question 39

regulation

Answer 39

The use of governmental authority to control or change some practice in the private sector. They pervade the daily lives of people and institutions.

Question 40

command-and-control policy

Answer 40

According to Charles Schultze, the existing system of regulation whereby government tells business how to reach certain goals, checks that these commands are followed, and punishes offenders.

Question 41

incentive system

Answer 41

According to Charles Schultze, a more effective and efficient policy than command-and-control; in the incentive system, market-like strategies are used to manage public policy.

Question 42

deregulation

Answer 42

The lifting of restrictions on business, industry, and professional activities for which government rules had been established and that bureaucracies had been created to administer.

Question 43

executive orders

Answer 43

Regulations originating from the executive branch. They are one method presidents can use to control the bureaucracy.

Question 44

iron triangles

Answer 44

A mutually dependent relationship between bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees or subcommittees. They dominate some areas of domestic policymaking.