Vocabulary Study guide 12

Question 1

What is the Merit principle?

Answer 1

Merit- based hiring and promotion; no granting of jobs to friends or family unless they are best qualified.

Question 2

What is the Spoils system?

Answer 2

In 1829 Andrew Jackson employed a spoils system to reward party loyalists with key federal posts.

Question 3

What did the Pendleton Act do?

Answer 3

The act provided selection of government employees by competitive exams,[1] rather than ties to politicians or political affiliation

Question 4

What is Civil Service Commission?

Answer 4

Federal service was placed under the civil service commission, which supervised a testing program to evaluate candidates

Question 5

What is GS Rating?

Answer 5

GS 1 to GS 18, which determines salaries.

Question 6

What is Devolution?

Answer 6

This does not remove the service or program but sends it to the states to implement, resulting in uneven services from state to state.

Question 7

What is Privatization?

Answer 7

The program is not removed but is provided by a private contractor usually through a competitive bidding system.

Question 8

What is oversight?

Answer 8

Congress have this power, and must hold hearings to investigate complaints or suggested reforms to be sure that bureaucracies are adequately fulfilling the intent of the laws they were created to carry out.

Question 9

What did the Intelligence reform and Terrorism Prevention Act do?

Answer 9

called the most sweeping overhaul of the nation’s intelligence gathering apparatus in a half-century.

Question 10

What are government corporations?

Answer 10

They are a blend of private corporation ans government agency.

Question 11

What is the iron triangle?

Answer 11

Alliances among bureaucrats, interest groups, and congressional subcommittee members and staff sometimes form to promote their common caucus.

Question 12

What did the Hatch Act require?

Answer 12

It required employees, once they were hired, to have little to do with political parties as possible.

Question 13

what is “red tape”?

Answer 13

the maze of government rules, regulations, and paperwork- makes government so overwhelming to citizens that many people try to avoid any contact.

Question 14

What is duplication?

Answer 14

a situation in which two agencies appear to be doing the same thing.

Question 15

What is Authorization?

Answer 15

No agency may spend money unless it has first been authorized by the maximum amount of money that an agency may spend on a given program.

Question 16

What is an appropriation?

Answer 16

it is a money formally set aside for specific use, and it usually is less than the amount authorized.

Question 17

What is patronage?

Answer 17

the control of or power to make appointments to government jobs or the power to grant other political favors.

Question 18

What is issue network?

Answer 18

consist of people in interest groups, on congressional staffs, in universities, and in the mass media who regularly debate an issue.

Question 19

what is bureaucracy?

Answer 19

the body of officials and administrators, especially of a government or government department.

Question 20

what is accountability?

Answer 20

the state of being accountable, liable, or answerable.

Question 21

Who is Max Weber?

Answer 21

was one of the first people in modern times to think seriously about the importance of bureaucracy?

Question 22

what is Munn v. Ohio?

Answer 22

upheld the rights of the state of Illinois to regulate the charges and services of a Chicago warehouse

Question 23

What are independent regulatory agencies?

Answer 23

government agency responsible for some sector of the economy, making and enforcing rules supposedly to protect the public interest. Judges disputes over these rules

Question 24

What are independent executive agencies?

Answer 24

the government not accounted for by cabinet departments, independent regulatory agencies and government corporations. Its administrators are typically appointed by the president and serve at the president’s pleasure

Question 25

What is discretionary authority?

Answer 25

the power to make a decision where the choice of whether to make a decision is that of the decision maker