AP Module 3.3

Question 1

A form of organization that operates through impersonal, uniform regulations and procedures.

Answer 1

Bureaucracy

Question 2

A negative term for describing a career government employee.

Answer 2

Bureaucrat

Question 3

A government agency that operates outside a traditional government department, but under the president’s direct control.

Answer 3

Independent Stand-alone Agency

Question 4

A government agency or commission with regulatory power whose independence is protected by Congress.

Answer 4

Independent Regulatory Commission

Question 5

A government agency that is designed like a business corporation and is created to secure greater freedom of action and flexibility for a particular program.

Answer 5

Government Corporation

Question 6

Established by Congress in 1978 as a flexible, mobile corps of senior career executives who work closely with presidential appointees to manage government.

Answer 6

Senior Executive Service

Question 7

Federal employees who work for government through a competitive, not political, selection process.

Answer 7

Civil Service

Question 8

A system of public employment based on rewarding party loyalists and friends.

Answer 8

Spoils System

Question 9

The process of awarding favors to the party in power.

Answer 9

Patronage

Question 10

A system of public employment in which selection and promotion depend on demonstrated performance rather than political patronage.

Answer 10

Merit System

Question 11

An agency that administers civil service laws and regulations.

Answer 11

Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

Question 12

An independent agency that oversees and protects merit in the federal government personnel system.

Answer 12

Merit System Protection Board

Question 13

A federal statute barring federal employees from active participation in certain kinds of politics and protecting them from being fired on partisan grounds.

Answer 13

Hatch Act

Question 14

The process of putting a law into practice through bureaucratic regulations or spending.

Answer 14

Implementation

Question 15

Authority given by Congress to the federal bureaucracy to use reasonable judgment in implementing the laws.

Answer 15

Administrative Discretion

Question 16

A precise statement of how a law is implemented.

Answer 16

Regulation

Question 17

The detailed process for drafting regulation.

Answer 17

Rule-making Process

Question 18

An official document, published every weekday, that lists the new proposed regulations of executive departments and regulatory agencies.

Answer 18

Federal Register

Question 19

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.

Answer 19

Federal Reserve Board

Question 20

The portion of the federal budget that is spent on previously enacted programs, such as Social Security, that the president and Congress are unwilling to cut.

Answer 20

Uncontrollable Spending

Question 21

Program such as unemployment insurance, disaster relief, or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.

Answer 21

Entitlement Program

Question 22

Legislative or executive review of a particular government program or organization that can be in response to a crisis of some kind or part of routine review.

Answer 22

Oversight

Question 23

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

Answer 23

Central Clearance

Question 24

A specific course of action that the government takes to address a problem.

Answer 24

Public Policy

Question 25

The interaction of the people and their government, including citizens, interest groups, political parties, and the institutions of government at all levels. Politics is concerned with who gets what, where, and how from government.

Answer 25

Politics

Question 26

An individual or group that makes the actual choices to create a public policy.

Answer 26

Policy Maker

Question 27

A public policy such as Social Security that provides benefits to all groups in society.

Answer 27

Distributive Policy

Question 28

A policy that provides to one group of society while taking away benefits from another through policy solutions such as tax increases to pay for job training.

Answer 28

Redistributive Policy

Question 29

A policy that takes away benefits or money from one group to give to another.

Answer 29

Zero-sum Game

Question 30

A policy that reduces benefits for all groups, often by imposing regulations or taxes that govern everyone, rich or poor.

Answer 30

Reverse Distributive Policy

Question 31

A decision not to move ahead with the policy process. In short, it is a decision not to decide.

Answer 31

Nondecision

Question 32

The list of issues that the federal government pays attention to.

Answer 32

Policy Agenda

Question 33

A nongovernmental organization that seeks to influence public policy through research and education.

Answer 33

Think Tank

Question 34

The movement of public opinion toward public policy from initial enthusiasm for action to realization of costs and a decline in interest.

Answer 34

Issue-attention Cycle

Question 35

Small adjustments to existing public policies.

Answer 35

Incremental Policy

Question 36

Radical changes to public policy that occur only after the mobilization of large segments of society to demand action.

Answer 36

Punctuating Policy

Question 37

A policy-making instrument composed of a tightly related alliance of a congressional committee, interest groups, and a federal department or agency.

Answer 37

Iron Triangle

Question 38

A policy-making instrument composed of loosely related interest groups, congressional committees, presidential aides, and other parties.

Answer 38

Issue Network