Bureacracy

Question 1

What is bureaucracy?

Answer 1

Organization that operates through impersonal uniform regulations and procedures.

Question 2

What is a bureaucrat?

Answer 2

Negative term for describing a career government official who is non-elected.

Question 3

What is the bureaucracy responsible for under the constitution?

Answer 3

Faithfully executing laws on behalf of prez, Congress, and judiciary.

Question 4

What role does the president play? What role does congress play in the bureaucracy?

Answer 4

President determines how it looks but Congress approves the structure.

Question 5

What other three functions does bureaucracy serve (other than implementation)

Answer 5

Administration: routine administration, red tape stuff
Regulation: issue rules and regulations that impact public (little things Congress can’t focus on, specialized)

Question 6

What were framers decisions about bureaucracy that shape administration? (3)

Answer 6

1. Prohibit members of house and senate from holding executive positions
2. Prez can nominate senior officers and senate confirms
3. Congress creates new dept. and agencies through legislation

Question 7

What was Article 2 Section 6 of the Constitution?

Answer 7

Congress cannot create executive branch jobs for its members.

Question 8

What are the characteristics of bureaucracy? (3)

Answer 8

1. Government is administered through dept.
2. Highly trained professionals conduct business.
3. Hierarchal structure (red tape)

Question 9

What is red tape?

Answer 9

Rules that ensure credibility of a bureaucrat.

Question 10

What are the 4 types of federal organizations?

Answer 10

Departments
Independent and stand alone agencies
Independent regulatory commissions
Government corporations

Question 11

What are departments?

Answer 11

Most familiar and largest organizations. Have most missions and biggest budget. They have inner cabinets (more important) and outer cabinets (less important)

Question 12

What are independent stand alone agencies?

Answer 12

Have fewer federal employees and have more focused missions. Separate from traditional department.

Question 13

What 3 approaches were used to create the 15 federal dept.?

Answer 13

1. Merger of existing agencies to create a new big one.
2. Breakup of dept. to be separate ones
3. Elevation of a stand alone agency to dept.

Question 14

What is an independent regulatory commission?

Answer 14

Insulate agency from Congress and president.

Question 15

What are government corporations?

Answer 15

More like businesses. Supposed to make money and authority to set prices of services.

Question 16

What is the Senior Executive Service?

Answer 16

Establish by Congress in 1978, flexible mobile corps of senior career executives who work closely with presidential appointees to manage Gov.

Question 17

What are the types of federal employees?

Answer 17

Senior staff
Senior Executive service
Civil Service

Question 18

Who are the senior staff?

Answer 18

Hand picked by prez

Question 19

What is civil service?

Answer 19

Federal employees that get selected through competitive process.

Question 20

What is the spoils system?

Answer 20

Public employment based on rewarding party loyalists and friends (was created to fill senior positions)

Question 21

What is patronage?

Answer 21

Awarding favors to party in power

Question 22

What is the merit system?

Answer 22

Current system, selection depends on performance,

Question 23

What is the Office of Personnel Management?

Answer 23

Agency that administers civil service laws and regulations.

Question 24

What is the merit systems protection board?

Answer 24

Protects integrity of federal merit system and rights of federal employees.

Question 25

What is the hatch act?

Answer 25

Bars federal employees from active participation in certain kinds of politics and protecting them from being fired on partisan grounds ( limits campaign bias and influence)

Question 26

What is a civil servant?

Answer 26

Someone who is hired by Gov. to do specific task.

Question 27

What is administrative discretion?

Answer 27

Authority given to bureaucracy by Congress to use best judgement in implementing laws.

Question 28

What is a regulation?

Answer 28

Detailed statement of how law is implemented.

Question 29

What is the rule making process?

Answer 29

Detailed process for drafting a regulation.

Question 30

Agencies implement provisions through what 3 things?

Answer 30

1. Writing regulations 2. Collecting revenue 3. Providing funding for programs

Question 31

What four major taxes do the government use to collect revenue?

Answer 31

1. Individual income taxes 2. Payroll Taxes 3. Corporate income taxes 4. Excise taxes

Question 32

What is uncontrollable spending?

Answer 32

Portion of budget that is spent on previously enacted programs that Congress refused to get rid of.

Question 33

What is most government spending on?

Answer 33

Uncontrollable spending.

Question 34

What is an entitlement program?

Answer 34

Programs to fund disadvantaged that provides benefits to all elegible citizens

Question 35

What is the federal reserve board?

Answer 35

Independent regulatory agency that controls supply of money flowing through U.S. economy.

Question 36

What is the Pendleton Act of 1883?

Answer 36

Separated federal jobs into competitive (merit based) and excepted (patronage based) jobs

Question 37

What was the civil service reform act?

Answer 37

Created the OPM and federal labor regulations authority.

Question 38

Who’s responsible for hiring and firing federal employees?

Answer 38

OPM is responsible for hiring and MSPB is responsible for firing.

Question 39

What is oversight?

Answer 39

Legislative or executive review of a particular government program or organization.

Question 40

What is central clearance?

Answer 40

Review of all executive branch testimony reports and draft legislation by the OMB to ensure that each communication to Congress is in accordance with the president’s program.

Question 41

What 3 powers does the president have over the bureaucracy?

Answer 41

Appointment, reorganization, and budgeting.

Question 42

What are Congress’s and the president’s types of oversight on bureaucracy?

Answer 42

Police patrol: watch over bureaucracy through routine pattern to deter problems before they rise Fire alarm: wait for citizens, interest groups, or the press to find out.

Question 43

How can people improve the government?

Answer 43

Supporting and advocating for causes that they care about so bureaucracy will pay attention.