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
Who are the senior staff?
Hand picked by prez
What is civil service?
Federal employees that get selected through competitive process.
What is the spoils system?
Public employment based on rewarding party loyalists and friends (was created to fill senior positions)
What is patronage?
Awarding favors to party in power
What is the merit system?
Current system, selection depends on performance,
What is the Office of Personnel Management?
Agency that administers civil service laws and regulations.
What is the merit systems protection board?
Protects integrity of federal merit system and rights of federal employees.
What is the hatch act?
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)
What is a civil servant?
Someone who is hired by Gov. to do specific task.
What is administrative discretion?
Authority given to bureaucracy by Congress to use best judgement in implementing laws.
What is a regulation?
Detailed statement of how law is implemented.
What is the rule making process?
Detailed process for drafting a regulation.
Agencies implement provisions through what 3 things?
- Writing regulations
- Collecting revenue
- Providing funding for programs
What four major taxes do the government use to collect revenue?
- Individual income taxes
- Payroll Taxes
- Corporate income taxes
- Excise taxes
What is uncontrollable spending?
Portion of budget that is spent on previously enacted programs that Congress refused to get rid of.
What is most government spending on?
Uncontrollable spending.
What is an entitlement program?
Programs to fund disadvantaged that provides benefits to all elegible citizens
What is the federal reserve board?
Independent regulatory agency that controls supply of money flowing through U.S. economy.
What is the Pendleton Act of 1883?
Separated federal jobs into competitive (merit based) and excepted (patronage based) jobs
What was the civil service reform act?
Created the OPM and federal labor regulations authority.
Who’s responsible for hiring and firing federal employees?
OPM is responsible for hiring and MSPB is responsible for firing.
What is oversight?
Legislative or executive review of a particular government program or organization.
What is central clearance?
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.
What 3 powers does the president have over the bureaucracy?
Appointment, reorganization, and budgeting.
What are Congress’s and the president’s types of oversight on bureaucracy?
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.
How can people improve the government?
Supporting and advocating for causes that they care about so bureaucracy will pay attention.
