Vocabulary List 14: Flashcards
According to Max Weber, a hierarchical authority structure that uses task specialization, operates on the merit principle, and behaves with impersonality
bureaucracy
A system in which jobs and promotions are awarded for political reasons rather than for merit or competence.
patronage
Passed in 1883, an act that created a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit
rather than patronage.
Pendleton Civil Service Act
A system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create a nonpartisan government service.
civil service
The idea that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotion ratings to produce administration by people with talent and skill.
merit principle
A federal law prohibiting government employees from active participation in partisan politics while on duty or for employees in sensitive positions at any time.
Hatch Act
The office in charge of hiring for most agencies of the federal government, using elaborate rules in the process.
Office of Personnel
Management
A schedule for federal employees, ranging from GS 1 to GS 18, by which salaries can be keyed to rating and experience.
GS (General Schedule) rating
An elite cadre of about 9,000 federal government managers at the top of
the civil service system.
Senior Executive Service
A government agency with responsibility for making and enforcing rules to protect the public interest in some sector of the economy and for judging disputes over these rules.
independent regulatory
commission
A government organization that, like business corporations, provides a
service that could be delivered by the private sector and typically charges for
its services.
government corporation
The government agencies not
accounted for by cabinet departments, independent regulatory commissions, and government corporations.
independent executive agency
Better known as SOPs, these procedures for everyday decision making enable bureaucrats to bring efficiency and uniformity to the running of complex organizations.
standard operating procedures
The authority of administrative actors
to select among various responses to a given problem.
administrative discretion
A phrase coined by Michael Lipsky, referring to those bureaucrats who are in constant contact with the public and have considerable administrative discretion.
street-level bureaucrats
The use of governmental authority to control or change some practice in the private sector.
regulation
The lifting of government restrictions on business, industry, and professional
activities.
deregulation
The typical system of regulation whereby the government tells business
how to reach certain goals, checks that these commands are followed, and punishes offenders.
command-and-control policy
An alternative to command-and-control, with marketlike strategies such as rewards used to manage public
policy.
incentive system
Regulations originating with the executive branch.
executive orders
Also known as subgovernments, a mutually dependent, mutually advantageous relationship between bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees or subcommittees.
iron triangles
The stage of policymaking between the establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people affected.
policy implementation
