Deck 14: Bureaucracy and the Administrative State

Question 1

An unelected organization that carries out government policies is called

A) a bureaucracy.
B) the legislative branch.
C) the Supreme Court.
D) corporations.
E) an iron network.

Answer 1

a bureaucracy.

Question 2

Bureaucrats are workers who

A) complete paperwork for the federal government.
B) staff government organizations.
C) conduct investigations of corporate fraud.
D) manage private sector companies.
E) alert the government to fraud and waste.

Answer 2

staff government organizations.

Question 3

To what extent does the Constitution discuss bureaucracy?

A) An entire article is devoted to the structure of the cabinet and administration.
B) The Constitution outlines the departments of the president's cabinet, but does not go into further detail.
C) The Constitution outlines the five original departments and their responsibilities, granting the president the power to create more as needed.
D) The Framers described the departments of the executive branch, but left Congress the task of outlining their responsibilities.
E) The Framers made no mention of bureaucracy or administration.

Answer 3

The Framers made no mention of bureaucracy or administration.

Question 4

Throughout the nineteenth century, most federal civilian workers got their jobs through

A) merit hiring.
B) organized crime.
C) presidential appointment.
D) the patronage of politicians.
E) their family names.

Question 5

Bureaucracy has grown so complex and gained so much autonomy that our form of government is often called a(n)

A) administrative state.
B) government corporation.
C) independent regulatory commission.
D) iron triangle.
E) issue network.

Question 6

Why are bureaucrats seldom afraid to provide politicians with honest information and analysis, even when it is unpleasant?

A) Bureaucrats are carefully screened to find the most honest and upstanding citizens whose only concern is for the public good.
B) Bureaucrats are elected by the people rather than appointed by Congress.
C) Bureaucrats are protected by unions that prohibit their dismissal for any cause.
D) Bureaucrats are responsible to the president only.
E) Bureaucrats do not serve at the pleasure of politicians.

Question 7

How do bureaucrats foster deliberative democracy?

A) They regularly hold public debates.
B) They deliberate on concerns and supply information to lawmakers.
C) They sponsor polls and focus groups to bring important matters to light.
D) They advise the judiciary on complex matters.
E) They make up the main circle of the president's advisors.

Question 8

Government employees who have the physical task of carrying out public policy are called

A) administrators.
B) bureaucratic commissioners.
C) federal policy experts.
D) frontline workers.
E) policy managers.

Question 9

FBI agents are an example of

A) bureaucratic commissioners.
B) elected officials.
C) frontline workers.
D) national security advisors.
E) regulatory prosecutors.

Question 10

Frontline workers must be able to make sound judgment calls because

A) guidelines cannot possibly anticipate every situation they will have to face.
B) there are few levels of management above them to provide support.
C) they are given vague laws with little to no instruction on how to implement them.
D) they are supplied with few guidelines from which to operate.
E) they are the primary defenders of national security.

Question 11

Why does the government spend about six billion dollars a year to gather, analyze, and publish statistics?

A) Accurate data is necessary when lawmakers are deliberating on policy issues.
B) Special interest groups advocate the publication of data in their field in order to support their individual causes.
C) Such spending is the result of lobbyist presence on Capitol Hill.
D) The amount of money spent on data analysis results from the inefficiency and overlapping structure of the bureaucracy.
E) While politicians seldom argue over gathering data, they generally come to a standstill when actual policies are at hand and cannot agree on how to spend the money.

Question 12

It is important to get accurate measurements of issues like poverty or unemployment because

A) mistakes on these issues prove especially embarrassing to Congress ase they are among the most straightforward issues lawmakers face.
B) money for these programs comes primarily through voluntary donations rather than tax dollars.
C) poverty and unemployment are the two issues Congress addresses that most directly affect their reelection.
D) inaccurate information could lead to excessive waste as billions in federal spending are devoted to these issues.
E) these issues attract the greatest amount of public scrutiny.

Question 13

Statistical programs such as the census often raise

A) extra revenue for government agencies.
B) financial concerns.
C) legal problems for large corporations.
D) new questions about social welfare programs.
E) privacy concerns.

Question 14

Historians recently proved that the Census Bureau was responsible for what breach of privacy?

A) Adding numerous inappropriate questions to several million questionnaires in the 1990 census
B) Delivering names and addresses of federal agents to Russian spies during the Cold War
C) Providing names and addresses to assist with the internment of Japanese-Americans
D) Providing the National Telephone Sales Association with names and phone numbers
E) Supplying state sponsors of terrorism with government secrets

Question 15

Official bureaucratic forms and procedures that are often burdensome are also called

A) black lists.
B) iron triangles.
C) issue networks.
D) merit systems.
E) red tape.

Question 16

It is difficult for Congress to avoid delegation because

A) it is impractical to attend to all the specific regulations that a bill may require.
B) politicians do not want to take responsibility for creating red tape.
C) the Constitution allots the power of establishing administrative rules to the bureaucracy.
D) its sessions are too short.
E) campaigning requires too much time for congressmen to attend to the details of their bills.

Question 17

In order to avoid responsibility for irksome details, Congress often

A) passes detailed legislation.
B) passes vague legislation.
C) pushes technical bills to the end of the agenda.
D) refuses to hear testimony from expert witnesses.
E) refuses to support legislation without an agency to enforce it.

Question 18

The Administrative Procedure Act sets out the process by which federal executive agencies

A) delegate responsibility.
B) receive input from the public about regulations.
C) enforce regulations.
D) publish the Federal Register.
E) propose and issue regulations.

Question 19

Which of the following is not a step outlined by the Administrative Procedure Act?

A) The agency must let interested individuals and groups present views and information.
B) The agency must obtain the president's approval of the proposed rule.
C) The agency must publish the final rule, explanation of the purpose, and responses to public comments in the Federal Register.
D) The agency posts a notice of the proposed rule in the Federal Register.
E) The final rule goes into effect no sooner than thirty days after publication.

Question 20

How does the Federal Register attempt to contribute to deliberation?

A) Citizens can read it to follow what the bureaucracy is doing and help officials reason about public policy.
B) Lawmakers can read it for summaries of bills and potential issues that may arise from the legislation.
C) It provides voters with information regarding the propositions on the ballot in elections.
D) It serves as the focus of deliberation in the House of Representatives and Senate.
E) The president and Congress are both able to exchange comments within its pages.

Question 21

The Federal Register often presents obstacles to deliberation because the rules are

A) often incomplete and published only after they have been adopted.
B) too few and too vague.
C) too specialized and too numerous.
D) too technical and are infrequently published.
E) too vague and too numerous.

Question 22

The Clinton administration introduced a(n) ________________ to reduce specialized language in federal rules.

A) Federal Register Bureau
B) accountability commission
C) nonspecialist agency
D) plain language initiative
E) administrative law judge

Question 23

Who are the major nongovernmental players in rulemaking?

A) Foreign leaders
B) Individual voters
C) Interest groups
D) Lawyers
E) Political parties

Question 24

Interest groups impact the policies of government agencies when they

A) encourage voters to write to the heads of the agencies.
B) provide the agencies with arguments and data.
C) rely on members of Congress to apply political pressure to bureaucrats.
D) subtly threaten department heads with the loss of their job.
E) woo agency leaders with gifts.

Question 25

The government tried to improve openness and deliberation by

A) assigning a press liaison to each department and agency.
B) broadcasting departmental meetings on C-SPAN.
C) conducting public opinion polls.
D) issuing press releases that include select data.
E) putting proposed rules on the Internet.

Question 26

The Supreme Court has overturned laws on grounds of unconstitutional delegation

A) only once.
B) twice in the twentieth century.
C) about once a decade since 1840.
D) more often in recent years.
E) nearly one hundred times.

Question 27

Administrative law judges are part of

A) Congress.
B) interest groups.
C) the executive branch.
D) the judiciary.
E) the military.

Question 28

Which of the following is not a task assigned to an administrative law judge?

A) Applying legal expertise
B) Creating new agency regulations
C) Developing records
D) Presiding over hearings
E) Rendering decisions

Question 29

One duty of the Office of Management and Budget is to

A) prepare a budget for approval by Congress.
B) ensure government accountability.
C) provide information to interest groups who draft regulations.
D) oversee management of the federal government.
E) determine a solution to the increasing national debt.

Question 30

The heads of cabinet departments and independent agencies answer to

A) Congress.
B) federal employees.
C) interest groups.
D) the president.
E) the voters.

Question 31

The Securities and Exchange Commission is an example of a(n)

A) cabinet level department.
B) government corporation.
C) independent agency.
D) independent regulatory commission.
E) spoils system.

Question 32

Members of independent regulatory commissions are not subject to presidential dismissal because they

A) are better able to deliberate in the public interest when they are not governed by political pressures.
B) are chosen by Congress.
C) are elected officials and can only be removed from their positions by a recall election.
D) are not government entities, but private enterprises.
E) were created outside the bounds of the Constitution, so they cannot be subject to governmental intervention.

Question 33

An example of a government-sponsored enterprise is the

A) Environmental Protection Agency.
B) Federal Communications Commission.
C) Federal National Mortgage Association.
D) Securities and Exchange Commission.
E) United States Postal Service.

Question 34

In order to coordinate all agencies that deal with drugs, Congress created the

A) Office of National Drug Control Policy.
B) FBI.
C) CIA's Drug Task Team.
D) Drug Enforcement Administration.
E) Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Agency.

Question 35

Why have offices designed to coordinate agencies (such as the Office of National Drug Control Policy) often met with limited success?

A) Congress does not provide for them in the federal budget.
B) Their tasks have been left vague by the legislation that created them.
C) They are new creations and their heads find it difficult to exert any influence with members of Congress.
D) They have no direct authority over agency budgets.
E) They lack the expertise to understand the complexities of specialized issues.

Question 36

Outsourcing is the practice of

A) creating business networks outside Washington, DC.
B) identifying and employing natural resources outside the United States.
C) giving grants or contracts to the private sector.
D) providing civil service jobs based on merit.
E) providing civil service jobs based on political patronage.

Question 37

As the federal workforce shrank in the late twentieth century, the payrolls of state and local governments

A) caused many localities to declare bankruptcy.
B) fluctuated dramatically.
C) grew.
D) remained steady.
E) shrank.

Question 38

Under the merit system, federal employees

A) are presidential appointees.
B) serve at the pleasure of the president.
C) do not lose their jobs simply because a new administration comes to power.
D) receive their posts through political patronage.
E) are elected through popular vote.

Question 39

Under the spoils system, government posts went to

A) men who had completed a higher education.
B) military personnel.
C) the administration's political supporters.
D) the family members of congressmen.
E) those whose experience was relevant to the position.

Question 40

Examinations for particular jobs were required under the

A) Administrative Procedure Act.
B) independent regulatory commission on human resources.
C) Pendleton Act.
D) Hatch Act.
E) Congressional Reform Act.

Question 41

In 1978 the Office of Personnel Management replaced the

A) Civil Service Commission.
B) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
C) Office of Management and Budget.
D) General Services Administration.
E) Office of Meritorious Employment.

Question 42

Major New Deal labor laws excluded

A) members of the House of Representatives.
B) public employees.
C) American Indians not living on reservations.
D) immigrants.
E) auto workers.

Question 43

In dealing with employers, federal unions lack what tools that their private sector counterparts enjoy?

A) Annual contract negotiations
B) Disability pay
C) Employee protection regulations
D) The right to strike
E) Workers' compensation

Question 44

What unique leverage do government workers have in the workplace?

A) Annual contract negotiations
B) Employee protection regulations
C) Federal disability pay
D) The right to strike
E) Their bosses are elected officials

Question 45

The 1939 Hatch Act barred federal employees from

A) accepting monetary gifts.
B) any job transfer between departments or agencies.
C) applying for loans from private corporations.
D) most partisan political activity.
E) registering to vote.

Question 46

A bureaucracy's organizational culture is its

A) chain of command.
B) shared beliefs about how its members should deal with problems and carry on their daily tasks.
C) understanding of how citizens can use the organization to their advantage.
D) impact on American culture.
E) way of dealing conflicts with other agencies over jurisdiction.

Question 47

Loose groupings of people and organizations that seek to influence policy are called

A) government corporations.
B) government enterprises.
C) iron triangles.
D) issue networks.
E) organizational cultures.

Question 48

The placement of detailees on Capitol Hill are often an indirect channel of

A) bureaucratic influence.
B) inter-agency espionage.
C) interest group lobbying.
D) outsourcing.
E) voter participation.

Question 49

Presidential appointees in key policymaking jobs are listed in a publication entitled

A) Congressional Record.
B) Executive Review.
C) United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions.
D) Civil Service Policy Positions.
E) General Services Appointment Record.

Question 50

The office that sets federal policy on statistics and reviews draft rules before a publication is the Office of

A) Policy Inspection.
B) Policy Control.
C) Bureaucratic Affairs.
D) Management and Budget.
E) Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Question 51

The official within each federal agency who runs independent investigations into bureaucratic operations and makes recommendations to stop waste is called a(n)

A) accountability official.
B) administrative liaison.
C) frontline worker.
D) inspector general.
E) whistleblower.

Question 52

A public employee who reports waste or misconduct is called a(n)

A) government liaison.
B) frontline worker.
C) whistleblower.
D) ombudsman.
E) disgruntled worker.

Question 53

What leverage do the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have over the bureaucracy?

A) Bureaucratic heads must report all their activities to these committees.
B) Bureaucratic heads are annually required to tell the committees how they spend public funds.
C) These committees appoint the heads of federal agencies.
D) These committees approve rules proposed by agencies.
E) These committees recommend agencies to be elevated to cabinet level.

Question 54

The independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars is called the

A) Congressional Oversight Office.
B) Department of Management and Budget.
C) Government Accountability Office.
D) Government Budget Office.
E) Office of Federal Accountability.

Question 55

The Congressional Review Act requires agencies to

A) announce any discrepancies between their activities and executive policy.
B) publish a summary of their internal meetings for public review.
C) report their yearly income and expenditures.
D) send rules to Capitol Hill for review sixty days before they take effect.
E) submit their budgets for review each year.

Question 56

What was one effect of the Congressional Review Act?

A) Agencies engage in less deliberation because they are confident that Congress will approve any regulation they present.
B) The guarantee that Congress will pass the law, allows regulators to make detailed rules that profit individual corporations.
C) The number and complexity of regulations has steadily increased.
D) The possibility that Congress will reject the law discourages regulators from creating new rules.
E) The possibility that Congress will reject the law, forces regulators to keep congressional preferences in mind.

Question 57

One drawback of outsourcing is seen when

A) Congress has too much control over spending and policies.
B) private corporations have too much power over the national budget.
C) the judiciary begins to play an improper role in legislation.
D) the president holds too much power over Congress.
E) there is less oversight of spending and policies.

Question 58

Why are control and oversight especially important in the case of the armed services?

A) The armed services are not equipped with their own bureaucracy to make sound decision.
B) The bureaucracy of the armed services does not have the expertise necessary to make budgeting decisions.
C) The nation's survival depends on their faithful performance.
D) They receive the largest share of the federal budget.
E) Military operations typically take place on U.S. soil.

Question 59

The failed attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980, led to the

A) Democratic loss of its congressional majority.
B) elimination of the Secretary of Defense as a cabinet post.
C) reorganization of the Defense Department.
D) replacement of the UN ambassador.
E) restructuring of the army's special forces.

Question 60

Governments can counter the tendency of citizens to become mere subjects by

A) confining deliberation to the judiciary.
B) encouraging public participation in deliberation.
C) legislating civic virtue.
D) making more laws for people to follow.
E) requiring people to vote.

Question 61

How does bureaucracy affect everyday life?

Question 62

What difficulties surround agency jurisdiction? What attempts have been made to correct these problems and how successful have they been?

Question 63

How has the size of government changed over time? What factors contributed to these changes?

Question 64

How does organizational culture impact what a bureaucracy is able to accomplish?

Question 65

How can bureaucrats who disagree with directives of the president add to policy deliberation?

Question 66

How do the courts keep the bureaucracy in check?

Question 67

In what ways can the media and public opinion impact the administrative state?

Question 68

How are the armed forces both similar to and different from the civilian democracy?

Question 69

Discuss some of the ways that bureaucracy might contribute to deliberative democracy?