Deck 14: Bureaucracy in a Democracy

Question 1

Since the 1950s, compared with the entire workforce, the number of federal employees has ________.

A) increased sharply
B) increased slightly
C) gradually declined
D) decreased sharply
E) stayed the same

Answer 1

C

Question 2

By the 1980s, the average length of time it took to develop and implement an administrative rule was ________.

A) 2 weeks
B) 1 month
C) 35-40 months
D) 4 years
E) 6 months

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Under the administration of ________, EPA officials claimed that they did not have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases.

A) Richard Nixon
B) Gerald Ford
C) Ronald Reagan
D) George H. W. Bush
E) George W. Bush

Answer 3

E

Question 4

At its peak in ________, the federal bureaucracy had ________ employees, not including military personnel.

A) 1936; 6 million
B) 1968; 3 million
C) 1982; 1 million
D) 1996; 8 million
E) 2005; 10 million

Question 5

Which of the following executive agencies was created by Congress in the aftermath of the financial crisis that began in 2008?

A) the Federal Reserve Board
B) the Department of Housing and Urban Development
C) the Interstate Commerce Commission
D) the Council of Economic Advisors
E) the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Question 6

Public bureaucracies are powerful because

A) they are not subject to control by the president or Congress.
B) their actions cannot be overturned or challenged by courts.
C) they have the power of both "the purse" and "the sword."
D) legislatures, chief executives, and the people delegate vast power to them to make sure a particular job is done.
E) every one of their employees is appointed for life.

Question 7

What is a government corporation?

A) Each department in the executive branch is legally registered as a corporation.
B) It is an agency that performs and charges for services usually provided by the private sector.
C) It is a private company, publicly traded, whose sole investor is the federal government.
D) It is a government agency that is charged by Congress to make a profit.
E) It is a government agency that is run primarily by business executives from the private sector.

Question 8

What is an independent agency?

A) an executive branch organization that is part of a cabinet
B) an executive branch organization that is very much like a government corporation
C) an executive branch organization that is established by Congress
D) an executive branch organization that has broad powers to provide a public service that is either too expensive or too important to be left to private companies
E) both c and d

Question 9

The Civil Service Act of 1883 attempted to pattern government hiring after practices found in ________.

A) business
B) the Catholic Church
C) Congress
D) local government
E) the military

Question 10

Before the Civil Service Act of 1883, how were government appointments handled?

A) Appointments were made on the basis of merit.
B) Appointments were made on the basis of seniority.
C) Appointments were made to political supporters as part of a spoils system.
D) The Civil Service Act of 1883 created the first federal bureaucracy.
E) The president or his staff appointed all civil servants.

Question 11

________ declared that "the era of big government is over" in 1996.

A) George H. W. Bush
B) Bill Clinton
C) George W. Bush
D) Ronald Reagan
E) Ted Kennedy

Question 12

________ is when bureaucrats attempt to translate laws into specific rules and actions.

A) Adjudication
B) Regulation
C) Deregulation
D) Implementation
E) Rule making

Question 13

Bureaucracy literally means ________.

A) rule by offices and desks
B) control of the anonymous
C) governance by experts
D) next window please
E) government by the people

Question 14

Civil servants were given legal protection against being fired without a show of cause in order to

A) meet the Constitution's strict requirements for the treatment of public employees.
B) force the bureaucracy to respond more to political pressures from parties, interest groups, and elected officials.
C) cleanse bureaucracy of political interference while upgrading performance.
D) end the abuses of the merit system.
E) enhance the public's trust in bureaucracy.

Question 15

What is the origin of most federal bureaus?

A) Congress passes laws creating and funding most federal bureaus.
B) The Cabinet secretaries create most federal bureaus out of administrative necessity and convenience.
C) Most federal bureaus are created by executive agreement.
D) Most federal bureaus are created by the Constitution's Article II powers.
E) Most federal bureaus are created by executive order of the president.

Question 16

Which of the following is an independent agency?

A) the U.S. Postal Service
B) the Department of Agriculture
C) the Federal Bureau of Investigation
D) the Environmental Protection Agency
E) the Forest Service

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT a type of federal agency?

A) public welfare
B) internal national security
C) state and local oversight
D) economic security
E) external national security

Question 18

Which of the following statements about annual federal outlays is most accurate?

A) Federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has remained at essentially the same level every year since 1960.
B) Federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has decreased significantly every year since 1960.
C) Federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has increased significantly every year since 1960.
D) Federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has experienced significant ups and downs over time.
E) Federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has only increased once since 1960.

Question 19

Which of the following is NOT a major role of bureaucracy?

A) implementing laws
B) enforcing laws
C) issuing rules
D) promoting the public welfare
E) passing laws

Question 20

The ________ is the head of a cabinet department.

A) secretary
B) agency supervisor
C) service administrator
D) chief executive officer
E) director

Question 21

In order to change the level of national economic activity and defend the value of the dollar in international trade, the federal government

A) frequently requests voluntary contributions to the Treasury Department from businesses and private individuals.
B) imposes tariffs on all goods imported to the United States.
C) enforces spending cuts on state government agencies.
D) manipulates interest rates.
E) lowers the amount of money that states can legally collect from sales and income taxes.

Question 22

Which of the following agencies is responsible for promoting the public welfare?

A) the Department of Veterans Affairs
B) the Department of Labor
C) the Department of Health and Human Services
D) the Department of the Interior
E) all of the above

Question 23

Criminal litigation in the federal courts is handled by ________.

A) the FBI director
B) the U.S. attorney general
C) U.S. attorneys
D) the Secretary of Homeland Security
E) the U.S. solicitor general

Question 24

Which of the following is the best description of an iron triangle?

A) the stable relationship between a bureaucratic agency, a clientele group, and a legislative committee
B) the inability to reform federal rules without help from the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the president
C) the domination of a few large companies in the regulation of iron mining and smelting
D) the breakdown in the separation of powers between Congress, the federal judiciary, and the president
E) the stable relationship between a bureaucratic agency, a legislative committee, and the president

Question 25

The Department of Agriculture was created

A) during the Great Depression.
B) to promote the interests of farmers.
C) during the late nineteenth century.
D) both b and c
E) to help President Ronald Reagan implement his political agenda.

Question 26

The first regulatory agency was the ________, created by Congress in ________.

A) U.S. Post Office; 1791
B) Interstate Commerce Commission; 1887
C) Federal Communications Commission; 1934
D) Environmental Protection Agency; 1970
E) Federal Trade Commission; 1914

Question 27

________ is the primary mission of the State Department.

A) Military protection
B) Diplomacy
C) International aid
D) Transnational commerce
E) National security

Question 28

Which of the following statements about the merit system is FALSE?

A) Every member and official of a government agency has been appointed as part of the merit system.
B) The merit system establishes competitive exams for jobs.
C) The merit system gives bureaucrats job protection.
D) The merit system in federal employment originated in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1883.
E) The merit system stipulates that appointees to public office must be qualified for the job to which they are appointed.

Question 29

Which one of the following is NOT a federal department entrusted with providing national security?

A) Defense
B) State
C) Police
D) Justice
E) Homeland Security

Question 30

Which of the following statements is true about the Department of Health and Human Services?

A) It administers the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
B) It does not oversee the Medicaid program.
C) It does not oversee the National Institutes of Health.
D) It oversees the Medicare program.
E) both a and d

Question 31

The ________ administers the federal school lunch program.

A) Department of Health and Human Services
B) Department of Agriculture
C) Department of State
D) National Park Service
E) Department of Education

Question 32

A bureau charged with putting restrictions and obligations on individuals or corporations in the private sector is called a ________ agency.

A) redistributive
B) police
C) regulatory
D) fiscal
E) clientele

Question 33

Which of the following is a government corporation?

A) the National Park Service
B) the U.S. Postal Service
C) the Department of Defense
D) the Federal Bureau of Investigation
E) the Department of Agriculture

Question 34

Which of the following statements about administrative rule making is FALSE?

A) All federal rules must be published in the Federal Register.
B) Both houses of Congress must formally approve all federal rules.
C) All federal rules must undergo a period of public comment.
D) All federal rules must prepare "environmental impact statements."
E) The length of time to develop an administrative rule from proposal to actual publication in the Federal Register increased between the 1970s and 1980s.

Question 35

The ________ oversees the Coast Guard, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Secret Service, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

A) U.S. Marine Corps
B) secretary of defense
C) U.S. Army
D) Department of Homeland Security
E) U.S. attorney general

Question 36

________ policy concerns banks, credit, and currency.

A) Fiscal
B) Monetary
C) Welfare
D) Regulatory
E) Distributive

Question 37

The use of taxing and spending powers to shape the economy is part of ________ policy.

A) fiscal
B) monetary
C) regulatory
D) distributive
E) redistributive

Question 38

How are ambassadors chosen?

A) They are part of the federal bureaucracy's merit system.
B) They are selected by the president, often as patronage for large campaign donations.
C) They are selected by the secretary of state.
D) They are elected to four-year terms of office by the nation to which they will be ambassador.
E) They are appointed by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Question 39

The first regulatory agencies Congress established were ________.

A) in the Department of Commerce
B) independent regulatory commissions
C) government corporations
D) in the Labor Department
E) within the Environmental Protection Agency

Question 40

The Freedom of Information Act is designed to

A) lead to quicker filing of habeas corpus petitions.
B) make more national security documents available to the public.
C) prevent inefficiency and waste in government management.
D) expand the freedom of speech granted to government employees.
E) allow the government to acquire any information about a person to aid in a government investigation.

Question 41

Which of the following statements about the Federal Reserve System (the Fed) is correct?

A) The Fed was established by George Washington and Alexander Hamilton in 1793.
B) Congress created the Fed in 1913.
C) The Fed was established in 1933, during the famous "Hundred Days" of the New Deal.
D) Richard Nixon established the Fed in 1969 as an attempt to gain more White House control over monetary policy.
E) The Fed was established by Herbert Hoover as a weak attempt at warding off the Great Depression.

Question 42

What would be the most likely outcome if federal governmental officials were to cease all economic regulation?

A) The marketplace would work more efficiently and quickly.
B) The marketplace would favor the more numerous workers rather than corporate interests.
C) The marketplace would fall into chaos.
D) The marketplace would globalize more quickly.
E) The marketplace would stabilize.

Question 43

Which of the following is NOT a task of the Treasury Department?

A) printing currency
B) managing the U.S. national debt
C) setting interest rates
D) administering fiscal policy
E) ensuring deposits individuals make at federally qualifying banks

Question 44

What has been one of the greatest difficulties in establishing the new Department of Homeland Security?

A) adjusting to the many different bureaucratic cultures now part of a single operation
B) finding a competent and willing department secretary
C) getting congressional approval for the new department
D) defending against the three challenges to the constitutionality of the department
E) getting the American people to take seriously the color-coded terrorism warning levels

Question 45

Which of the following is an example of a revenue agency?

A) the Federal Reserve System
B) the Agricultural Extension Service
C) the U.S. Customs Service
D) the Securities and Exchange Commission
E) the U.S. Department of Revenue

Question 46

The greatest number of federal government professionals working abroad are under the authority of the Department of ________.

A) State
B) Defense
C) Homeland Security
D) Commerce
E) the Exterior

Question 47

Which of the following is NOT a clientele agency?

A) the Internal Revenue Service
B) the Department of Veterans Affairs
C) the Department of Education
D) the Social Security Administration
E) the Department of Agriculture

Question 48

The creation of the U.S. Northern Command was important because it

A) was the first time the Department of Defense had taken such an action without presidential approval.
B) ultimately led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
C) unified, for the first time in American history, the Air Force, the Navy Department, and the War Department.
D) breached the long-standing line between domestic law enforcement and foreign military operations for the first time.
E) was the first time the Department of Defense had taken such an action without congressional approval.

Question 49

Congress was attempting to strike a balance between the need for secrecy in national security and the right of individuals to know what their government is doing when it passed the ________ Act.

A) Sedition
B) Morill
C) Freedom of Information
D) Secrecy in Government
E) USA PATRIOT

Question 50

The Obama administration's campaign to make government more transparent

A) was jeopardized by Edward Snowden's leak of sensitive national security documents in 2013.
B) resulted in the termination of the National Security Agency's global surveillance operations.
C) resulted in the passage of the Freedom of Information Act.
D) resulted in the repeal of the USA Patriot Act.
E) resulted in the closing of the base at Guantanamo Bay.

Question 51

Which of the following was a way in which President Obama attempted to uphold his campaign promise to reduce government secrecy?

A) making sure that every bill that was passed by Congress during his first term was put up on the White House website to be viewed by the public for at least five days before holding a vote
B) invoking the state secrets privilege to prevent lawsuits related to warrantless wiretapping and torture from going to trial
C) issuing an executive order designed to promote more rapid declassification of secret documents
D) repealing the USA PATRIOT Act
E) releasing a report by the Health and Human Services Department that indicated the health care reform law would actually increase the cost of health care and impose higher costs on consumers, even though this would make it harder for Congress to pass the bill

Question 52

Who has authority to set interest rates and lending activities for the nation's banks?

A) the Federal Reserve System
B) the Secretary of the Treasury
C) the Internal Revenue Service
D) the Securities and Exchange Commission
E) the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Question 53

The politics of the IRS is interesting because

A) it is the one government agency that does not have to obey court orders.
B) the IRS is the most popular agency in all of government, and this popularity leads almost all Americans to comply with the agency's rules.
C) Congress, the president, and the Treasury Department have little to no influence over the taxation decisions made by the IRS.
D) influence over tax decisions regarding exemptions is spread broadly throughout the 50 states and is not concentrated in any one area or among any one group.
E) contrary to popular perceptions, key tax decisions regarding exemptions are made by Congress, the president, and the Treasury Department rather than by the IRS itself.

Question 54

The National Park Service is ________.

A) part of the Department of the Interior
B) part of the Department of Agriculture
C) part of the Department of Energy
D) an independent agency
E) a government corporation

Question 55

________ occurs when the federal government passes authority to administer a program to state or local governments.

A) Deregulation
B) Devolution
C) Termination
D) Privatization
E) Implementation

Question 56

What was the chief bureaucratic flaw identified by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States?

A) The CIA director lacked adequate access to the president.
B) There was a lack of communication between the domestic and foreign security agencies.
C) The Federal Aviation Administration was not properly monitoring all inbound airplanes on September 11, 2001.
D) Diplomacy with the Taliban and other sponsors of terrorism had broken down in the mid-1990s.
E) The government did not act swiftly enough after the attack in order to prevent further casualties.

Question 57

The controversy over the Patriot Act reveals the complications of balancing ________ with the ________.

A) national security; civil liberties of individuals
B) the flexibility of the president; oversight of state governors
C) the needs of domestic security; commitments of international treaties
D) the goals of diplomacy; needs of bureaucratic expertise
E) the authority of the president; power of Congress

Question 58

Ronald Reagan's inability to dismantle the Department of Education reflects the power of ________.

A) the merit system
B) iron triangles
C) the Federal Register
D) devolution
E) the mass media

Question 59

Which one of the following is NOT part of the Justice Department?

A) the Civil Rights division
B) the Antitrust division
C) the Internal Revenue Service
D) the Criminal division
E) the Tax division

Question 60

Which one of the following agencies was created in 2005?

A) CIA
B) FBI
C) National Security Agency
D) Office of the Director of National Intelligence
E) Joint Chiefs of Staff

Question 61

The concept of oversight refers to the effort made by

A) Congress to make executive agencies accountable for their actions.
B) the president to make Congress accountable for its actions.
C) the courts to make the legislative and executive branches responsible for their actions.
D) the states to make the federal government responsible for its actions.
E) the people to make federal government responsible for its actions.

Question 62

Which of the following statements best characterizes the government's spending on federal contracts in recent years?

A) The amount of spending on federal contracts has remained the same since 2000.
B) The amount of spending on federal contracts has decreased steadily since 2000.
C) The amount of spending on federal contracts has increased significantly overall since 2000, but for the first time in 13 years, spending on outside contractors declined in 2011.
D) The amount spent on federal contracts declined between 2000 and 2005 but has dramatically increased since 2005.
E) The amount spent on federal contracts increased between 2000 and 2005 but has dramatically decreased since 2005.

Question 63

Which of the following is an agency created by Congress to assist it in overseeing the federal bureaucracy?

A) the Congressional Budget Office
B) the Office of White House Affairs
C) the Congressional Office on Legislative Affairs
D) the Office of Management and Budget
E) the Congressional Oversight Office

Question 64

Making permanent cuts in existing agencies is often difficult because

A) most agencies have a supportive constituency that will fight to reinstate any cuts that are made.
B) the Constitution prevents cuts to federal agencies lasting longer than five years.
C) every permanent cut to a federal agency must be reviewed by the Supreme Court before it can be put into effect.
D) federal law requires that the government cut every agency equally.
E) the vast majority of agencies have been given permanent "budgetary immunity" from the president that protects them from cuts.

Question 65

During the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, ________ federal agencies or programs were terminated.

A) 0
B) 10
C) 26
D) 137
E) 52

Question 66

Executive privilege refers to the

A) fact that the Senate never votes against presidential appointments to the executive branch.
B) increasing power of the executive branch in determining fiscal policy.
C) claim that confidential communications between a president and close advisers should not be revealed without the consent of the president.
D) right of presidents to eliminate government agencies without the approval of Congress.
E) authority of members of the executive branch to formulate specific rules when implementing vague legislation.

Question 67

The "virtual fourth branch of government" refers to ________.

A) political parties
B) state governments
C) the bureaucracy
D) interest groups
E) government contracting

Question 68

Which of the following statements best describes how recent administrations have approached the issue of bureaucratic reform?

A) Republican administrations have aimed to make the existing bureaucracy work more effectively while Democratic administrations have sought to reduce bureaucracy by contracting out government work to private companies.
B) Democratic administrations have aimed to make the existing bureaucracy work more effectively while Republican administrations have sought to reduce bureaucracy by contracting out government work to private companies.
C) Both Democratic and Republican administrations have rejected the idea of reducing bureaucracy and have aimed to make existing bureaucracy work more effectively.
D) Both Democratic and Republican administrations have given up on trying to make the existing bureaucracy function more effectively and instead sought to reduce bureaucracy by contracting out government work to private companies.
E) Both Democrats and Republicans have avoided any attempts to reform government bureaucracy.

Question 69

What were government officials trying to accomplish when they called for the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act to create an additional database that would record contractors who have legal or contract violations?

A) providing adequate government oversight for an increasingly expanding force of independent contractors
B) creating a national database to make it easier for the government to collect tax revenues from government contractors
C) creating a national database to make sure that government contractors do not have any conflicts of interest with high-ranking public officials
D) creating a better system so that the government can find contractors to perform government jobs more quickly
E) increasing the number of contractors available to work for the government

Question 70

Which of the following is the most constitutionally essential way to make the bureaucracy responsible?

A) more efficient executive management
B) further devolution
C) congressional oversight
D) more administrative courts
E) more government regulation

Question 71

The most significant example of devolution in recent decades has been in the area of ________.

A) homeland security
B) crime enforcement
C) education
D) welfare policy
E) health care

Question 72

The executive budget was created in ________.

A) 1789
B) 1812
C) 1865
D) 1921
E) 1966

Question 73

One drawback of devolution is that

A) the standards associated with particular programs become increasingly rigid and hard to enforce.
B) the standards associated with particular programs become increasingly variable between states.
C) Congress is removed completely from the United States' foreign policy process.
D) programs become much more difficult to budget.
E) states have a much harder time implementing programs than the federal government does.

Question 74

Which of the following is true about the National Performance Review?

A) The size of the federal workforce was reduced by about 50 percent.
B) The size of the federal workforce was reduced by about 25 percent.
C) The size of the federal workforce was reduced by about 10 percent.
D) The size of the federal workforce did not really change at all.
E) The size of the federal workforce increased by 15 percent.

Question 75

Privatization is a way to

A) shrink the federal budget by selling government services or property in the private sector.
B) reduce government costs by relocating government programs to private groups or corporations.
C) reduce big government by doing without some of the programs it once provided.
D) increase the government's role by purchasing private companies.
E) reduce government costs by lowering the amount of benefits paid out to private citizens.

Question 76

Which president was most concerned with managing and reorganizing the executive bureaucracy?

A) Richard Nixon
B) Jimmy Carter
C) Ronald Reagan
D) Bill Clinton
E) Woodrow Wilson

Question 77

Which president's approach to the managerial presidency featured a deep belief in the importance of scientific expertise in government service?

A) Barack Obama
B) George W. Bush
C) George H. W. Bush
D) Ronald Reagan
E) Bill Clinton

Question 78

Which of the following is NOT a key strategy used to promote bureaucratic reform?

A) reinventing government
B) termination
C) devolution
D) regulation
E) privatization

Question 79

Devolution describes a process through which

A) Congress gives up some of its power to the executive branch.
B) the federal government is downsized by delegating the implementation of programs to state and local governments.
C) state and local governments are downsized by delegating the implementation of programs to the federal government.
D) the United States delegates some of its power to the United Nations.
E) the federal government is downsized by completely cutting wasteful programs.

Question 80

What was the mission of the National Performance Review?

A) to reorganize the federal bureaucracy to make it more efficient, more accountable, and less wasteful
B) to review each administrative agency every four years to determine whether it is necessary
C) to analyze the job performance of federal employees
D) to make recommendations to Congress on government reforms
E) to review whether the government is spending more money than it brings in by way of revenue