Chapter 12

Question 1

what is the spoils system?

Answer 1

a system in which government jobs are given out are political favors

Question 2

what is universalistic politics?

Answer 2

a government that is run according to transparent rules, impartially applied

Question 3

what is the Pendleton Civil Service Act?

Answer 3

the law that shifted American government toward a merit-based public service

Question 4

what are the five key forces that pushed America toward a modern democracy?

Answer 4

1. war; bureaucracy grew after we mobilized
2. morality; enforcing moral rules led to the creation of increasingly sophisticated agencies
3. economics; federal govt assuming responsibility for economic performance created new government offices
4. geography; the quickly growing US led to the need for a more sophisticated Post Office, transportation, distribution of public land, etc.
5. race/ethnicity: slavery and civil rights made big changes

Question 5

what are the 5 pillars of how a bureaucracy is SUPPOSED to work?

Answer 5

1. hierarchy
2. division of labor
3. fixed routines
4. equal rules for all
5. technical qualifications

Question 6

what are bureaucratic pathologies?

Answer 6

the problems that tend to develop in bureaucratic systems

Question 7

what are the 5 most common bureaucratic pathologies?

Answer 7

1. rote; slavishly following standardized routines
2. imperialism; competition between bureaucracies
3. turf wars; agencies often do overlapping jobs and get pissy
4. lack of coordination; routines are agency-specific, which can be bad
5. clientelism; agency routines may favor some constituencies over others

Question 8

what is a proposed rule?

Answer 8

a draft of administrative regulations published in the Federal Register for the purpose of gathering comments from interested parties

Question 9

what is a final rule?

Answer 9

the rule that specifies how a program will actually operate

Question 10

what are street-level bureaucrats?

Answer 10

public officials who deal directly with the public

Question 11

what is the Welfare State?

Answer 11

the role states play in protecting the economic and social well being of all of its citizens through redistributive taxing and spending programs

Question 12

what is the public sector?

Answer 12

the government delivery of goods and services

Question 13

what is the private sector?

Answer 13

all economic activity undertaken outside the purview of the state, by individuals or private corporations

Question 14

what is progressive taxation?

Answer 14

tax rates go up as income goes up

Question 15

what is progressive redistribution?

Answer 15

programs that act like Robin Hood and take from richer folks and give to poor people

Question 16

what is regressive taxation?

Answer 16

taxes that tend to benefit

Question 17

why is redistribution lower than expected?

Answer 17

people are r00d, they think poverty as a result of individual choices or lack of effort should not be rewarded and poor people think that they would suffer from any tax increases rather than benefit from redistribution

Question 18

what is social insurance?

Answer 18

forms of insurance that are available to all citizens, regardless of ability to pay

Question 19

what are 3 reasons why all democracies provide social insurance?

Answer 19

1. political identity
2. avoiding depopulation
3. market failures

Question 20

what are 2 reasons why some wealthy democracies engage in more economic redistribution than others?

Answer 20

1. labor unions; the better the organized labor is in a country, the less likely there are to be generous welfare policies “they already have it”
2. the left-right economic divide; the salience of political identity complicates the task of politicians who want to focus on taxes and spending “not hotbutton issues”

Question 21

what is the soft repression thesis versus the hard repression thesis?

Answer 21

not repressed enough versus repressed too much

Question 22

why is repression greater in the US than in Australia?

Answer 22

the National Guard

Question 23

what 6 things must the rule of law have?

Answer 23

1. generality; apply to broad categories of people
2. prospectivity; apply to future action
3. publicity; known and certain, reliably enforced
4. consent; we consent through electing officials
5. due process; administered impartially
6. specificity; not vague