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ap gov archive > Chapter 13: The Federal Bureaucracy > Flashcards

Chapter 13: The Federal Bureaucracy Flashcards

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0
Q

“a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government”

A

Federalist paper number 70 written by Hamilton

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1
Q

Even at a time when Americans accepted the need for a strong federal government they what?

A

Doubted the basic motivations of the people who work for it

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2
Q

Who did the framers leave the details of the administrative structure of government to?

A

The first Congress and President

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3
Q

What were the two key decisions the framers made about who would be responsible for executing laws?

A

First, they prohibited members of the House and Senate from holding executive branch positions.
Second, the framers decided not to give Congress the power to appoint the treasurer of United States

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4
Q

What does article one, section 6 of the Constitution state?

A

That House and Senate representatives cannot hold executive branch positions when they are in office

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5
Q

Article one, section 6 prevented members of Congress from what?

A

Creating jobs for themselves and the executive branch, a common form of corruption in England prior to the Revolutionary war; simultaneous service in both branches would weaken the separation of powers

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6
Q

The vast majority working six agencies in the government, what are they? (There is only really four)

A
  1. The departments of that Army, the Navy, and the Air Force (Department of Defense)
  2. The Department of Veteran’s affairs
  3. The Department of Homeland Security
  4. The US Postal Service
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7
Q

All federal agencies are created by acts of Congress, therefore Congress can get rid of them how?

A

Abolish them by passing a new law or by withholding funds

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8
Q

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

A

Bureaucracy

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9
Q

A bureaucracy made sure that every what job was…

A

Carefully designed to ensure faithful performance by well-trained, highly motivated bureaucrats, or employees

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10
Q

A career government employee

A

Bureaucrat

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11
Q

Bureaucracy and bureaucrats are often invoked to what?

A

Criticize red tape and waste

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12
Q

In theory, government bureaucracies are designed to what?

A

Hold every employee in the organization accountable to the president through a chain of command that describes who is responsible for every decision; bureaucracies are designed to increase efficiency and lower costs

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13
Q

In reality, governmental bureaucracies are what?

A

Particularly difficult to manage because of their size, interest groups connections, and political history

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14
Q

Why is governmental bureaucracy hard to manage?

A

One, duplication overlap across departments and agencies can create confusion about which agencies responsible for a problem
Two, even within a single agency, bureaucracy often creates dense layers of management that keep information from moving up and down the organization quickly

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15
Q

What is one way to think of a bureaucracy?

A

The game telephone; information can get lost or misunderstood just like in the game of telephone where the messages are distorted as they are whispered from one person to another

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16
Q

Usually the largest organization and government; also the highest rank in federal hierarchy

A

Department

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17
Q

A government entity that is independent of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches

A

Independent agency

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18
Q

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

A

Independent regulatory commission

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19
Q

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

A

Government corporation

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20
Q

List the departments with the most employees

A

Defense Department, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Justice

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21
Q

List the departments by budget

A

Department of health and Human Services, Department of Defense

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22
Q

The Department of Health and Human Services is an umbrella for what other services?

A

FDA, the National Institutes of Health, and the CDC

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23
Q

The Department of Homeland Security is an umbrella for what other departments?

A

The Coast Guard, Immigration and Naturalization service, Custom Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Secret Service, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

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24
Q

The 15 executive branch departments are:

A

Department of State, Department of the Treasury, Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, Department of Education, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security

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25
Q

The government’s independent regulatory commissions were created to…

A

“Get on the backs” of people and corporations, whether to protect consumers, regulate stock markets, oversee federal election laws, monitor television and radio, regulate business, control the supply of money, or watch over nuclear power plants

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26
Q

Independent regulatory commissions are part of the Federal bureaucracy but have a measure of independence because…

A

They are headed not by a single executive but by a small number of commissioners who are appointed by the president, with Senate confirmation, for fixed terms of office

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27
Q

Why are independent regulatory commissions less responsive to political pressure?

A

Commissioners cannot be removed from office without cause, which is defined by law to mean “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office”

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28
Q

Independent regulatory commissions do not have to have their decisions reviewed by the judicial branch. True or false?

A

False; their decisions are subject to judicial reviews because they are not completely independent

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29
Q

By law, three of its members, independent regulatory commissions groups, are Democrats and three are Republicans which often results in what?

A

Tie votes on key regulations

30
Q

The word “independent” means at least two things in the federal bureaucracy what are they?

A

At the agency is outside the President’s control and that they are “separate” or “standing alone”

31
Q

Independent regulatory commissions do not have to report to the president but__________agencies do

A

Independent

32
Q

Independent agencies are small federal bureaucracies that serve specific groups of Americans or what?

A

Work on specific problems

33
Q

Becoming an agency is often the first step towards what?

A

Coming a department

34
Q

Independence does what to an agency?

A

Increases each agency’s ability to focus on its mission but it also begins its willingness to cooperate

35
Q

Independent agencies can be more important politically to the president then who?

A

Some Cabinet departments

36
Q

The agencies under a department reports to who?

A

A department secretary, who, in turn, reports to the President

37
Q

Government corporations are intended to act like what?

A

Businesses rather than traditional government departments and agencies, they generally have more freedom from the rules that control traditional governmental agencies

38
Q

Every department and agency of the federal bureaucracy is headed by a presidential appointee, who is either subject to confirmation by the Senate or pointed on the sole authority of the president therefore they what?

A

Serve at the pleasure of the president and generally leave their posts at the end of the president’s term in office

39
Q

What are the jobs of the presidential appointees?

A

Working long hours, resolve complex disputes, and make important decisions about how the laws will be executed

40
Q

What are the four steps in the process for a presidential appointee to be confirmed by the Senate?

A

Selected as a candidate, survived the White House clearance process, the president submits the name of a nominee on parchment paper to the clerk of the Senate, Senate confirmation

41
Q

What is part of the White House clearance process for a presidential appointee?

A

Detailed disclosure on every aspect of their personal and professional life, including job history, drug use, personal counseling, financial investments, and even traffic fines of more than $150. They must list every job they have held over the past 15 years, including the name of the supervisor, as well as every place of residence they have lift, including the names of neighbors who might remember them, and every school they have attended, including the name of a high school classmate who can vouch for them.

42
Q

What is part of the Senate confirmation?

A

The Senate refers each nomination to the appropriate committee, which conducts its own review of each candidate.

43
Q

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

A

Senior executive service

44
Q

Bureaucratic organizations constantly seek to enhance their power, whether by creating new titles, adding more staff, or increasing their budgets

A

Theory of public bureaucracy

45
Q

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

A

Spoils system

46
Q

Individuals would patronize, or support, the presidents party with money before an election, and get a job and government after

A

Patronage

47
Q

The civil service was created in to end corruption in_____ to end corruption in the spoils system

A

1883

48
Q

Created an independent Civil Service Commission to assure that most federal jobs were awarded under a merit system

A

Pendleton act of 1883

49
Q

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

A

Merit system

50
Q

What act abolished the Civil Service Commission and split its functions between two new agencies?

A

Civil-service reform act in 1978

51
Q

The reform act of 1978 was made to eliminate what?

A

The possible conflict of interest an agency that recruits, hires, and promotes employees and also passes judgment on employee grievances about fairness and discrimination

52
Q

Agency that administers civil service laws, rules, and regulations

A

Office of personnel management

53
Q

Federal civilian servants are more likely to look like the rest of the nation in terms of what?

A

Race, sex, religion, education, and disability

54
Q

The vast majority of federal employees are recruited through what?

A

Civil service

55
Q

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

A

Hatch Act (acts to prevent pernicious political activities); 1939

56
Q

1993 Congress did what to the Hatch act?

A

Overhauled it; made many forms of participation in partisan politics permissible

57
Q

The revised Hatch act still bars federal officials from running as candidates in partisan elections but it does permit?

A

Most federal civil servants to hold party positions and involve themselves in party fundraising and campaigning

58
Q

The Hatch act restricts federal bureaucrats in what ways?

A

They cannot raise campaign funds in their agencies, and those who work in such highly sensitive federal agencies such as the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, and certain divisions of the IRS are specifically barred from nearly all parts and activity.

59
Q

Unlike unions in the private sector, federal employee unions cannot what?

A

Strike and are not able to bargain over pay and benefits, but they can attempt to negotiate better personnel policies and practices for federal workers, they can represent federal bureaucrats agreements and disciplinary proceedings, and they can lobby Congress on measures affecting personnel changes

60
Q

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

A

Implementation

61
Q

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

A

Administrative discretion

62
Q

The formal instructions that government issues for implementing laws

A

Regulations

63
Q

The formal process for making regulations

A

Rule-making process

64
Q

The administrative procedure act enacted in 1946 insured what?

A

All rules are made visible to the public, all proposed rules be published to the federal register

65
Q

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

A

Uncontrollable spending

66
Q

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

A

Entitlement program

67
Q

Providing automatic increases to compensate for inflation

A

Indexing

68
Q

How does the president have some control over the bureaucracy?

A

Appointment, reorganization, and budgeting; appointing are promoting sympathetic person now, mobilizing public opinion and congressional pressure, changing the administrative apparatus, influencing budget decisions, using extensive personal persuasion, and if all else fails, shifting a bureaucracies assignment to another department or agency

69
Q

How does Congress exercise control over the bureaucracy?

A

Establishing agencies, formulating budgets, appropriating funds, confirming personnel, authorizing new programs or new shifts in direction, conducting investigations and hearings, or even terminating agencies

70
Q

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

A

Oversight

71
Q

Review of all executive branch testimony, reports, and draft legislation by the Office of Management and Budget to ensure that each communication to Congress is in accordance with the presidents program

A

Central clearance system

72
Q

Head of the justice department

A

Attorney general

ap gov archive (22 decks)

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