Bureaucracy Basics
The main function of the bureaucracy
What is implementing laws?
The number of executive department heads that make up the president's Cabinet
What is 15?
Responsible for managing highways, rails, and air travel
What is the Department of Transportation?
This person can influence the bureaucracy through actions such as appointing officials and submitting a budget proposal
Who is the president?
It is the part of the iron triangle that is missing: bureaucratic agency, ___________, interest group
What is congressional committee/subcommittee?
A longstanding, mutually-beneficial relationship between an interest group, congressional committee, and bureaucratic agency devoted to similar issues
What is an iron triangle?
Protects human health and the environment by developing and enforcing regulations
What is the Environmental Protection Agency?
The heads of the executive departments are appointed by the president but must be confirmed by this
What is the Senate?
The term that describes how the Judicial Branch can check the bureaucracy
What is judicial review?
After a hard-fought election, President Smith appoints a major campaign donor as ambassador to Greece. This is an example of what concept?
What is patronage/spoils system?
Beginning with the Pendleton Civil Service Act, the bureaucracy shifted from the spoils system to this system
What is a merit-based system?
Administers educational policies to the states and promotes research on education
What is the Department of Education?
Responsible for promoting the welfare of armed services veterans and managing VA hospitals
What is the Department of Veterans Affairs?
A president can use this informal power to clarify how a law should be interpreted or how it should be executed by the bureaucracy if the president feels that the bureaucracy is not interpreting current laws in the way that meets the their goals
What is an executive order?
This Federalist paper argued that a single, "energetic" executive is essential to the protection of the country against foreign attacks, the steady administration of the laws, the protection of property, and the security of liberty
What is Federalist No. 70?
An agency’s ability to make regulations that affect how programs operate, and to force states and corporations to obey these rules as if they were laws
What is rule-making authority?
Administers and enforces federal campaign finance law
What is the Federal Elections Commission?
Responsible for protecting the United States from terrorist attacks, controlling borders, and minimizing damage from natural disasters
What is the Department of Homeland Security?
Members of the bureaucracy being called to testify in front of Congress is an example of this
This Federalist paper explains how constitutional provisions of separation of powers and checks and balances control potential abuses of power
What is Federalist No. 51?
The power delegated to the bureaucracy to decide how a law is implemented and, at times, what Congress actually meant when it passed a given law
What is discretionary authority?
Regulates the stock market and protects investors from fraud
What is the Securities and Exchange Commission?
These are outside of the Cabinet, free of political influence, and make rules regulating specific industries
What are independent regulatory agencies?
If Congress wanted to check an agency's power, they could do this to limit bureaucratic discretion
What is rewrite legislation?
A group of many stakeholders (ex: individuals, public officials, interest groups) that forms around a particular issue, usually a proposed public policy they wish to support or defeat
What is an issue network?