Final Flashcards
How do Highest Ranking bureaucrats get their jobs?
Patronage - Government job via appointment
How do rank and file bureaucrats get their jobs?
They obtain their jobs via the office of personnel management (OPM).
Spoils System
Government job based on political connections
Iron Triangles
A three way alliance among legislators, bureaucrats, and interest groups.
Issue Networks
Less structured than iron triangles and less interdependent but often involve more players
Iron triangle members
Legislators, bureaucrats, and interest groups
Issue Network members
Legislative staff members, interest group leaders, bureaucrats, the media, and scholars. known as “experts”
Think Tank
Corporate funded group of experts
Whistleblowers
federal employees who report on gross government inefficiency, illegal activities, or other wrongdoing.
Chief Performance officer
Reports directly to the president and works with other economic officials in an attempt to increase efficiency and eliminate waste in government
Privatization
Which means turning over certain types of government work to the private sector.
Neutral Competency
The application of technical skills to their jobs without regard to political issues.
Rulemaking
Rules based on substantial evidence and are not arbitratoy or capricious.
Sunshine laws
require government meetings to be open to the public, have been enacted at all levels of government
Internet
Government agencies have attempted to improve their effectiveness and efficiency by making use of the internet.
Bureaucracy
A large complex administrative organization that is structured hierarchically in a pyramid like fashion.
Specialization
A bureaucratic form of organization allows each person to concentrate on his or her area of knowledge and expertise.
Executive departments
State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportations, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security.
Common Law
A body of general rules - from the principles underlying judges decision in actual controversies.
Stare Decisis
The practice of deciding new cases with reference to former decisions
Constitutional Law
Consists of the rights and duties set forth in the federal and state constitutions
Statutory Law
Refers to the body of law enacted by legislatures
Administrative Law
Consists of the rules, orders, and decisions of administrative agencies.
Case Law
Consists of the rules of law announced in court decisions
Civil Law
Spells out the duties that individuals in society owe to other persons or to their governments, excluding the duty not to commit crimes
Criminal Law
Has to do with wrongs committed against the public as a whole.
Jurisdiction
The power to “speak the law” is the authority of a court to hear and decide a particular case
Standing to sue
sufficient “stake” in the matter, meaning they must have suffered a harm or been threatened with a harm by the action at issue. And the issue must be justicable.
Justiciable Controversy
is one that is real and substantial, as opposed to hypothetical or academic.
Original jurisdiction
considered questions of fact
Federal Trial Courts
These are the courts in which cases involving federal law begin.
Number of Judicial districts
94
Three courts of the Federal Court System
U.S. District Courts
U.S. Courts of Appeals
U.S. Supreme Court
Appellate courts
A panel of three judges who do not hear evidence or testimony, rather they review the transcript of the trial courts proceedings and attorneys arguments as to why the trial courts decision should or should not stand.
U.S. Supreme Court
Only court created in Article 3 of the Constitution. Congress empowered to create additional “inferior” courts as it deems necessary. Consists of 9 justices.
Writ of certiorari
an order that the supreme court issues to a lower court requesting the latter to send it the record of the case in question. The court will not issue a writ unless at least 4 of the justices approve.
Justices Opinions in supreme court
The courts decision in a particular case is based on the written record of the case and the written arguments that the attorneys submit. Majority writes opinion on case and others may write concurring or dissenting opinions.
Borking
A special interest group attempting to block Supreme Court nominee
Judicial review
federal judiciary can exercise a check on the actions of either of the other branches
Significance of Marbury v. Madison
Resulted in the Supreme court establishing its function for judicial review as well as ordering the writ of mandamus meaning “we order” or “we demand”
Four stages of Policymaking process
1 Issue Identification and Agenda Setting
2 Policy Formulation and Adoption
3 Policy Implementation
4 Policy Evaluation
Controversy around Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Allegedly ignored the will of the people
Started with considerable support but by 2010 had lost much of its support. Senate passed the bill without changes to avoid a second committee and there have been allegations that the reform legislation was unconstitutional.
Departments involved in foreign policy
Department of State
Department of Defense
National Security Council
Central Intelligence Agency
Important Eras in US Foreign Policy
The World Wars
The Cold War
Four components of bureaucracy
Executive Departments
Independent Executive Agencies
Independent Regulatory Agencies
Government Corporations
