Bureaucracy
What are the 3 tasks of the bureaucracy (up to 300 total points 100 for each one)?
Implements law, carries out laws, and executive orders
Administration-routine administrative work (social security administration sends out social security checks, postal service delivers mail)
Regulation– issue rules and regulations that impact the public (EPA sets out standards for clean air and water)
Govt corporation established during Great Depression:
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
A government corporation that helps foreign nations:
Peace Corps
Which was created to police the stock market:
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Most federal bureaucrats take an________ to prove their qualifications.
examination
Where do the agencies (bureaucracy) gets its power from?
The agencies get their power/authority from Congress who write the laws (stems from the authority Congress granted it).
Name (4x) Cabinet Department and briefly explain what they do for up to 800 points:
State, Treasury, Interior, Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Defense, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Health and Human Services, Education, Veterans’ Affairs, Homeland Security
Name a complaint about the federal bureaucracy acting as a federal regulator (up to 600 points, 3x):
1) Cost-Many small businesses cannot afford to provide all the things necessary like the Americans With Disabilities Act.
2) Red tape-complex rules and procedures that must be followed to get stuff done.
3) Impact on Civil Liberties
Problems with the Bureaucracy implementing federal laws by Congress (up to 800 points, 4x):
1) Laws are often written in broad policy goals, 2) Laws are often unclear about the details of the policy, 3) Congress frequently fails to give the bureaucracy enough money to effectively implement policies, 4) Bureaucracies often lack the necessary authority to meet their responsibilities.
Methods by which a President controls the Bureaucracy (for up to 800 points (4x):
1) Appointing the right people to head the agency.
2) Issuing executive orders.
3) Recommending a reduction of the agency's next year's budget.
4) Using his office to influence agency direction.
What is Congress' job in relation to the bureaucracy (up to 900 points, 3x)?
1) They create each bureaucratic agency
2) They set its budget
3) They write the policies it administers
What does the Federal Reserve Board do:
Charged with governing banks, and regulating the supply of money and thus, interest rates.
A government organization, like business corporations, delivers a service that could be delivered by the private sector and typically charges for its services:
Government Corporation (The U.S. Postal System, Amtrak, Peace Corps, the Tennessee Valley Authority)
Ways Congress controls the bureaucracy for up to 1200 points (4x):
1) They influence the appointment of agency heads, 2) Alter the agency’s budget, 3) Hold hearings to address failures and criminal behavior,4) Rewrite the legislation or make it more detailed
These people selected by the President to fill positions in the Bureaucracy who are qualified for the job without taking an examination:
Political Appointees
Where jobs and promotions were awarded based on political reasons (loyalty) rather than on merit or competence:
patronage
It regulates the amount of pollution that is in the air:
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Executive branch regulations designed to control the bureaucracy:
Executive Orders
The Department of Homeland Security was organized in 2002 to address this:
Fragmentation
A system of hiring people based on merit:
The Civil Service
The idea that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotions should be based on talent and skill:
The merit principle
The use of governmental authority to control or change some practice in the private sector (Seen mostly in Democratic administrations):
Regulation
Was passed to create a federal civil service that hired people on the merit principle rather than by patronage:
This Act was passed to prohibit federal employees (including Mr. Brush) from active participation in politics while on duty:
-In 1883, the Pendleton Civil Service Act
-In 1939, the Hatch Act
The lifting of restrictions on business, industry and professional activities (Seen mostly in Republican administrations):
Deregulation
They are mutually dependent and advantageous relationships between bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and Congressional subcommittees or subcommittees:
Iron Triangles