4C Vocab Flashcards
Bureaucracy
A form of organization that operates through impersonal, uniform rules and procedures
Bureaucrat
A career government employee
Department
Usually the largest organization in government with the largest mission; also the highest rank in Federal hierarchy
Independent (standalone) agency
A government entity that is independent of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches
Independent regulatory commission
A government agency or commission with regulatory power whose independence is protected by Congress
Government corporation
A government agency that is operated like a business corporation, created to secure greater freedom of action and flexibility for a particular program
Senior Executive Service
Established by Congress in 1978 as a flexible, mobile corps of senior career executives who worked closely with presidential appointees to manage government
Civil service
Federal employees who work for government through a competitive, not political selection process
Spoils system
A system of public employment based on rewarding party loyalists and friends
Patronage
The process of awarding favors to the party in power
Merit system
A system of public employment in which selection and promotion depend on demonstrated performance rather than political patronage
Office of Personal Management
Agency that administers civil service laws, rules, and regulations
Hatch Act
Federal statute barring Federal employees from active participation in certain kinds of politics and protecting them from being fired on partisan grounds
Implementation
The process of putting a law into practice through bureaucratic rules or spending
Administrative discretion
Authority given by Congress to the Federal bureaucracy to use
reasonable judgement in implementing the laws
Regulation
A precise statement of how a law is implemented. (The formal instructions that the government issues for implementing laws.)
Rule-making process
The formal process for making regulations
Federal Register
The official record of what the federal bureaucracy does
Uncontrollable spending
The portion of the Federal budget that is spent on programs, such as Social Security, that the president and Congress are unwilling to cut
Entitlement programs
Programs such as unemployment insurance, disability relief, or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens
Federal Reserve Board
A variation of an independent regulatory agency with a chairman and board that controls the supply of money that flows through the U.S. economy
Oversight
Legislative or executive review of a particular government program or organization. Can be in response to a crisis of some kind or part of routine review
Public policy
A specific course of action that government takes to address a problem
Politics
The interaction of the people and their government, including citizens, interest groups, political parties, and the instructions of government at all levels. Politics is concerned with who gets what, when, where, and how far from government
Policy makers
Individual and groups that make the actual choices to create a public policy
Distributive policy
A public policy such as Social Security that provides benefits to all groups in society
Redistributive policy
A policy that provides to one group of society while taking benefits from another through policy solutions such as tax increases to pay for job training
Policy agenda
The list of issues that the federal government pays attention to
Think tank
A nongovernmental organization that seeks to influence public policy through research and education
Iron triangle
A policy-making instrument composed of a tightly related alliance of a congressional committee, interest groups, and a federal department or agency
Issue network
A policy-making instrument composed of loosely related interest groups, congressional committee, presidential aides, and other parties
