Bureacracy Flashcards

1
Q

What is bureaucracy?

A

Organization that operates through impersonal uniform regulations and procedures.

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2
Q

What is a bureaucrat?

A

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

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3
Q

What is the bureaucracy responsible for under the constitution?

A

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

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4
Q

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

A

President determines how it looks but Congress approves the structure.

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5
Q

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

A

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

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6
Q

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

A
  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
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7
Q

What was Article 2 Section 6 of the Constitution?

A

Congress cannot create executive branch jobs for its members.

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8
Q

What are the characteristics of bureaucracy? (3)

A
  1. Government is administered through dept.
  2. Highly trained professionals conduct business.
  3. Hierarchal structure (red tape)
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9
Q

What is red tape?

A

Rules that ensure credibility of a bureaucrat.

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10
Q

What are the 4 types of federal organizations?

A

Departments
Independent and stand alone agencies
Independent regulatory commissions
Government corporations

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11
Q

What are departments?

A

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

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12
Q

What are independent stand alone agencies?

A

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

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13
Q

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

A
  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.
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14
Q

What is an independent regulatory commission?

A

Insulate agency from Congress and president.

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15
Q

What are government corporations?

A

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

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16
Q

What is the Senior Executive Service?

A

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

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17
Q

What are the types of federal employees?

A

Senior staff
Senior Executive service
Civil Service

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18
Q

Who are the senior staff?

A

Hand picked by prez

19
Q

What is civil service?

A

Federal employees that get selected through competitive process.

20
Q

What is the spoils system?

A

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

21
Q

What is patronage?

A

Awarding favors to party in power

22
Q

What is the merit system?

A

Current system, selection depends on performance,

23
Q

What is the Office of Personnel Management?

A

Agency that administers civil service laws and regulations.

24
Q

What is the merit systems protection board?

A

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

25
Q

What is the hatch act?

A

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)

26
Q

What is a civil servant?

A

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

27
Q

What is administrative discretion?

A

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

28
Q

What is a regulation?

A

Detailed statement of how law is implemented.

29
Q

What is the rule making process?

A

Detailed process for drafting a regulation.

30
Q

Agencies implement provisions through what 3 things?

A
  1. Writing regulations
  2. Collecting revenue
  3. Providing funding for programs
31
Q

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

A
  1. Individual income taxes
  2. Payroll Taxes
  3. Corporate income taxes
  4. Excise taxes
32
Q

What is uncontrollable spending?

A

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

33
Q

What is most government spending on?

A

Uncontrollable spending.

34
Q

What is an entitlement program?

A

Programs to fund disadvantaged that provides benefits to all elegible citizens

35
Q

What is the federal reserve board?

A

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

36
Q

What is the Pendleton Act of 1883?

A

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

37
Q

What was the civil service reform act?

A

Created the OPM and federal labor regulations authority.

38
Q

Who’s responsible for hiring and firing federal employees?

A

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

39
Q

What is oversight?

A

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

40
Q

What is central clearance?

A

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.

41
Q

What 3 powers does the president have over the bureaucracy?

A

Appointment, reorganization, and budgeting.

42
Q

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

A

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.

43
Q

How can people improve the government?

A

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