Unit 8 Flashcards
Presidential directives that create or modify laws and public policies, without the direct approval of Congress.
Executive orders
A belief that the president’s inherent powers allow him to overrule congressional grants of independent authority to agencies.
Unitary executive
The process by which Congress gives the executive branch the additional authority needed to address new problems.
Delegation of powers
Directed at ending the president’s ability to pursue armed conflict without explicit congressional approval.
War Powers Resolution
The President’s executive aides and their staffs; the extended White House executive establishment.
Executive Office of the President
A group of presidential advisers; the heads of the executive departments and other key officials.
Cabinet
A situation in which government is incapable of acting on important issues.
Gridlock
The situation in which one party controls the White House and the other controls at least one house of Congress.
Divided Government
An endorsement by voters. Presidents sometimes argue they have been given a mandate to carry out policy proposals.
Electoral Mandate
A large, complex organization in which employees have specific job responsibilities and work within a hierarchy of authority.
Bureaucracy
Employees of a bureaucracy, usually meaning a government bureaucracy.
Bureaucrats
The biggest units of the executive branch, covering a broad area of government responsibility. The heads of the departments, or secretaries, from the president’s cabinet.
Departments
Executive agencies that are not part of a cabinet department.
Independent Agencies
Agencies of the executive branch of government that control or direct some aspect of the economy.
Regulatory Commissions
Government agencies that perform services that might be provided by the private sector but that either involve insufficient financial incentive or are better provided when they are somehow linked with the government.
Government Corporations
