Bureacracy Flashcards
What is bureaucracy?
Organization that operates through impersonal uniform regulations and procedures.
What is a bureaucrat?
Negative term for describing a career government official who is non-elected.
What is the bureaucracy responsible for under the constitution?
Faithfully executing laws on behalf of prez, Congress, and judiciary.
What role does the president play? What role does congress play in the bureaucracy?
President determines how it looks but Congress approves the structure.
What other three functions does bureaucracy serve (other than implementation)
Administration: routine administration, red tape stuff
Regulation: issue rules and regulations that impact public (little things Congress can’t focus on, specialized)
What were framers decisions about bureaucracy that shape administration? (3)
- Prohibit members of house and senate from holding executive positions
- Prez can nominate senior officers and senate confirms
- Congress creates new dept. and agencies through legislation
What was Article 2 Section 6 of the Constitution?
Congress cannot create executive branch jobs for its members.
What are the characteristics of bureaucracy? (3)
- Government is administered through dept.
- Highly trained professionals conduct business.
- Hierarchal structure (red tape)
What is red tape?
Rules that ensure credibility of a bureaucrat.
What are the 4 types of federal organizations?
Departments
Independent and stand alone agencies
Independent regulatory commissions
Government corporations
What are departments?
Most familiar and largest organizations. Have most missions and biggest budget. They have inner cabinets (more important) and outer cabinets (less important)
What are independent stand alone agencies?
Have fewer federal employees and have more focused missions. Separate from traditional department.
What 3 approaches were used to create the 15 federal dept.?
- Merger of existing agencies to create a new big one.
- Breakup of dept. to be separate ones
- Elevation of a stand alone agency to dept.
What is an independent regulatory commission?
Insulate agency from Congress and president.
What are government corporations?
More like businesses. Supposed to make money and authority to set prices of services.
What is the Senior Executive Service?
Establish by Congress in 1978, flexible mobile corps of senior career executives who work closely with presidential appointees to manage Gov.
What are the types of federal employees?
Senior staff
Senior Executive service
Civil Service