AP Government Chapters 14-15 Key Terms Review Flashcards
budget
A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures).
deficit
An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues.
expenditures
Federal spending of revenues. Major areas such as spending are social services and the military.
revenues
The financial resources of the federal government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of these.
income tax
Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The Sixteenth Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy this.
Sixteenth Amendment
The constitutional amendment adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax.
federal debt
All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today it is more than $8 trillion.
tax expenditures
Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions on the federal tax law.
Social Security Act
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.
Medicare
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.
incrementalism
The belief that the best predictor of this year’s budget is the last year’s budget, plus a little bit more.
uncontrollable expenditures
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.
entitlements
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.
House Ways and Means Committee
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.
Senate Finance Committee
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.
Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974
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.
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Advises Congress on the probable consequences of its decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the president’s OMB.
budget resolution
A resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs.
reconciliation
A congressional process though which program authorizations are revised to achieve required savings. It also usually also includes tax or other revenue adjustments.
authorization bill
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.
appropriations bill
An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. It usually covers one year.
continuing resolutions
When Congress cannot reach agreement and pass appropriations bills, these resolutions allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year.
bureaucracy
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.
patronage
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.
Pendleton Civil Service Act
Passed in 1883, an Act that created a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage.
civil service
A system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create a nonpartisan government service.
merit principle
The idea that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotion ratings to produce administration by people with talent and skill.
Hatch Act
A federal law prohibiting government employees from active participation in partisan politics.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
The office in charge of hiring for most agencies of the federal government, using elaborate rules in the process.
GS (General Schedule) rating
A schedule for federal employees, ranging from 1 to 18, by which salaries can be keyed to rating and experience.
Senior Executive Service (SES)
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.
independent regulatory agency
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.
government corporations
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.
independent executive agency
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.
policy implementation
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.
standard operating procedures (SOPs)
These are used by bureaucrats to bring uniformity to complex organizations. Uniformity improves fairness and makes personnel interchangeable.
administrative discretion
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.
street-level bureaucrats
A phrase coined by Michael Lipsky, referring to those bureaucrats who are in constant contact with the public and have considerable administrative discretion.
regulation
The use of governmental authority to control or change some practice in the private sector. They pervade the daily lives of people and institutions.
command-and-control policy
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.
incentive system
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.
deregulation
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.
executive orders
Regulations originating from the executive branch. They are one method presidents can use to control the bureaucracy.
iron triangles
A mutually dependent relationship between bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees or subcommittees. They dominate some areas of domestic policymaking.
