Deck 8: The Bureaucracy

Question 1

President Washington was given the sole right to remove department heads by which authority?

A) Article II of the Constitution
B) a unanimous vote in the First Congress
C) a narrow vote in the First Congress with Vice President Adams casting the tie-breaking vote
D) the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Bureaucratic organization imposes heavy conformity costs on both bureaucrats and the people they deal with in return for ______.

A) control of committees in Congress
B) a case-by-case treatment of issues with standards that vary from person to person
C) reducing transaction costs and agency losses
D) a lessening of red tape

Answer 2

C

Question 3

How does the Constitution solve the dilemma of delegation?

A) It requires Congress to conduct regular oversight of bureaucratic agencies.
B) It empowers the federal judiciary to review all bureaucratic decisions to ensure they are consistent with constitutional intent.
C) It gives the President absolute control over the bureaucracy in terms of hiring and firing and setting budgets.
D) It establishes a system of separated powers that provides distinct checks on the bureaucracy.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The remarkable variety of arrangements adopted to administer government policies is largely a product of the endless search by Congress and the White House for which of the following?

A) ways to maximize the greatest good for the public
B) common ground through the bargaining process
C) ways to maximize the potential political benefits
D) a free market solution to societal problems

Question 5

The courts provide a vital check by doing all of the following EXCEPT for ______.

A) forcing the bureaucracy to follow standardized processes
B) protecting against the tyranny of the majority
C) using the power of its purse and oversight
D) upholding both administrative law and constitutional principles

Question 6

How did the executive branch struggle with the dilemma of delegation?

A) The President struggled to ensure that Congress would provide enough money for the programs he requested.
B) The President ensured that government employees were not taking bribes to ignore official policies.
C) The President ensured that agents acting ostensibly on its behalf would faithfully carry out official policies.
D) There was no guarantee that governors would automatically follow the president's preferences when implementing new policies.

Question 7

What is the name of the practice where the winning political party dispenses government jobs?

A) rotation in office
B) political graft
C) spoils system
D) merit system

Question 8

During the Federalist years, federal government workers were primarily occupied with which of the following?

A) the Civil War
B) education and health care policy
C) defending the New York Harbor and the capital from foreign invasion
D) delivering the mail and collecting duties and taxes

Question 9

All of the challenges the bureaucracies face are different facets of what dilemma?

A) delegation
B) transaction costs
C) prisoner's dilemma
D) tragedy of the commons

Question 10

How did the Framers address the question of government administration at the Constitutional Convention?

A) not very clearly although they gave the President appointment power but left it to Congress to establish executive departments and determine how they would be staffed
B) ignored the issue entirely since they believed that the federal government would carry out a few, well-defined tasks relating to diplomacy and national security
C) in tremendous detail as they specified the creation of specific agencies and defined the powers of those agencies in Article VIII
D) not very clearly, but they did believe that the President should have absolute control over officials serving in the executive branch

Question 11

President George Washington sought to meet the problem of delegation in part by doing which of the following?

A) by regularly replacing officials regardless of the performance of the civil servant
B) by appointing men of superior reputation, education, and means
C) by abdicating responsibility for the appointment process to Congress
D) by holding public referenda on high-profile appointments

Question 12

Why does bureaucratic organization develop?

A) solving the huge problems of coordination and delegation raised
B) It increases transaction costs so the bureaucracy struggles to get its work done.
C) It promotes efficient decision making and the best possible implementation of public policy.
D) It helps politicians exercise more control over public policies.

Question 13

The colonial experience with the king's governors and other royal officials had which of the following effects on the members of Congress?

A) They became wary of delegating too much authority to the executive.
B) They became anxious to delegate authority to the executive.
C) They became wary of delegating too much authority to the courts.
D) They became anxious to delegate authority to the bureaucracy.

Question 14

The advantages of delegating authority to a unified executive were clear to the Framers of the Constitution, but so was the potential drawback which was ______.

A) the Senate might not concur with the delegation
B) executives might pursue ends contrary to those desired by congressional majorities
C) the States might override the delegation
D) President George Washington was vocally opposed to this plan

Question 15

When it came to governing, Andrew Jackson believed that no experience was necessary and thus took which of the following actions?

A) He advocated a one-term limit on all elected positions.
B) He appointed only nonlawyers to the judiciary.
C) He advocated rotation in office.
D) He sold administrative appointments to the highest bidders at public auctions.

Question 16

Which of the following statements about the development of bureaucracies is accurate?

A) The Framers were suspicious of bureaucracies, so Article IV of the Constitution provides critical authority.
B) The Framers did not clearly envision them, but the departments and bureaus that constitute the executive branch are necessary to turn ideas into realities.
C) Government could function efficiently without bureaucracies if Congress took its lawmaking responsibilities seriously.
D) Bureaucracies exist only at the federal level, since state and local governments simply follow the policy priorities of the national government.

Question 17

Originally, the first three departments in the executive branch were which of the following?

A) interior, treasury, and HUD
B) war, interior, and justice
C) treasury, energy, and justice
D) treasury, foreign affairs, and war

Question 18

The model bureaucracy is best described as ______.

A) a purposive machine with interchangeable human parts designed to facilitate collective action while enabling principals to control agents
B) a hierarchical structure in which commands flow upward and information flows downward
C) an abdication of responsibility through delegation
D) an economic market

Question 19

What did the Benghazi attacks of 2012 illustrate about the bureaucracy?

A) Small, lean organizations are capable of achieving dramatic policy successes.
B) Bureaucracies function best when low-level agents closely follow the instructions of their principals.
C) The future of bureaucracies involves working closely with other nation-states to handle issues that are no longer confined to one country.
D) Successfully accomplishing tasks require coordinating employees and a hierarchical structure that can convey vital information to the top.

Question 20

The term for the labyrinthine procedures, layers of paperwork, and strict adherence to form for which bureaucracies are legendary is which of the following?

A) prisoner's dilemma
B) conformity costs
C) rotation in paperwork
D) red tape

Question 21

The main responsibility of the Federal Reserve System is ______.

A) making all travel arrangements for nonmilitary government personnel
B) making monetary policy
C) making decisions about spending and taxes to reduce the size of the national debt
D) conducting congressional oversight of the Treasury Department

Question 22

What was key object of federal regulation in the 19th century?

A) railroads
B) newspapers
C) environment
D) housing

Question 23

Which of the following is a problem with a professional civil service?

A) There is no way to ensure the hiring of competent individuals knowledgeable about government programs.
B) The political parties can exercise undue influence over bureaucrats because of budgetary needs.
C) The rules designed to protect career bureaucrats from political retaliation make it difficult to punish them for shirking or incompetence.
D) The high levels of turnover hinder the effective implementation of public policies because of a lack of institutional memory concerning best practices.

Question 24

Which of the following is a major reason for delegating authority to an independent executive agency?

A) to avoid placing bureaucratic layers between the President and the agency
B) because the private sector always provides these services more cheaply
C) because they are defense-related industries
D) because the President typically can appoint the commissioners without Senate approval

Question 25

Which of the following is true about agencies that rise to the department level and gain a seat in the President's Cabinet?

A) They always have much larger budgets than those that do not rise to the department level.
B) They receive subpoena power and the ability to force Congress to hold hearings and votes.
C) They receive no special powers or privileges.
D) They receive a seat on the Senate Select Committee.

Question 26

Independent regulatory agencies ______.

A) generally have clear and well-defined goals to ensure the best chance of success
B) rarely have conflicts with other agencies since Congress attempts to minimize competing goals
C) have the same structures, duties, and procedures so it is easy to move personnel across agencies
D) are political creations so that unresolved political conflicts may be built into an agency's structure

Question 27

Which of the following was created during the first wave of the government's regulatory reach?

A) the National Labor Relations Board
B) the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
C) the Securities Exchange Commission
D) the Interstate Commerce Commission

Question 28

What does the history of the President's Cabinet tell us about the political history of the United States?

A) The system of checks and balances in the Constitution provided a robust limitation on presidential authority.
B) Adding too many offices to the Cabinet overwhelms the President's ability to manage effectively.
C) Most cabinet agencies exist for short periods of time and are abolished after fulfilling their functions.
D) It paints a picture of the interests that have become powerful enough to command cabinet status.

Question 29

Controlling the bureaucracy is ______.

A) primarily the job of Congress through legislative vetoes and extensive police patrol oversight
B) a shared responsibility for the legislative and executive branches, but the agents often play their multiple principals against one another
C) primarily the job of the executive branch since the Constitution gives the President the responsibility for making sure the laws are faithfully executed
D) a judicial responsibility since there are no concerns about reelection, and the Supreme Court is best positioned to interpret the meaning of legislative statutes

Question 30

NASA is an example of which of the following?

A) a non-Cabinet-level department
B) a Cabinet-level department
C) an independent executive agency
D) a department under control of the military

Question 31

The Pendleton Act, the basis for the modern civil service, initially did which of the following?

A) put about 10% of federal jobs under the merit system
B) put all federal jobs under the merit system
C) removed about 85% of federal jobs from the merit system
D) removed about 50% of federal jobs from the merit system

Question 32

Which of the following was created during the third wave of the government's regulatory reach?

A) the Federal Trade Commission
B) the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
C) the Securities Exchange Commission
D) the Environmental Protection Agency

Question 33

Independent government corporations ______.

A) deliver the kinds of services usually provided by private corporations
B) provide most public services in the United States and do so free of any political interference
C) represent decisions by the government to take over the means of production during national emergencies
D) have largely been eliminated because the federal government has embraced privatization

Question 34

All of the following was created during the second wave of the government's regulatory reach EXCEPT for ______.

A) the Federal Trade Commission
B) the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
C) the Securities Exchange Commission
D) the National Labor Relations Board

Question 35

Which of the following is true about the Department of Education?

A) It was created by President George H.W. Bush as a diversionary political response to rising gas prices.
B) It was abolished by President Ronald Reagan and its duties moved to the Department of the Interior.
C) It was created by President Jimmy Carter in an effort to keep his promise to teachers whose support had been crucial to his bid for the White House.
D) It was stripped of the authority to regulate nuclear power plants and oil importation by President George W. Bush.

Question 36

As a proportion of the population, the federal workforce ______.

A) has increased sharply since 1990
B) grew sporadically and sharply from the 1870s until the New Deal period
C) shrank sharply during both the World Wars
D) shrank from the 1950s until the onset of the War on Terror

Question 37

The creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 ______.

A) was a preemptive move by President Bush's administration to counter the threat of global terrorism
B) was the most far-reaching government reorganization in fifty years as it now involves more than 182,000 employees and budgets totaling more than $84 billion
C) consolidated the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency into a single department to improve coordination
D) was rolled back by the passage of the Patriot Act that gave the President unlimited authority to act as commander in chief so long as the threat of global terrorism existed

Question 38

What is the primary lesson that can be drawn from the scandal in the Veterans Administration in 2014?

A) Concerted oversight efforts by Congress can reduce the dangers of agency loss.
B) A strong president can overcome the tendency of bureaucracies to engage in hidden action.
C) Implementing a system of tenure review for bureaucrats has improved responsiveness.
D) The greatest vulnerability of the principals to the agents is an asymmetry in information.

Question 39

Why did Congress establish regulatory commissions?

A) to hedge against the potential political costs of delegation by restricting the influence of presidents and party politics on regulatory decisions
B) to avoid placing bureaucratic layers between a president and agencies
C) an admission that Congress needed more information if it was going to regulate the economy more effectively
D) members of Congress focused on short-term concerns so they decided that commissions could make better long-term decisions

Question 40

Which of the following describes the group dubbed the "Whiskey Ring" during the Grant administration?

A) his inner circle of advisors, so named because of Grant's famous fondness for whiskey.
B) a group of revenue officials, all political appointees, who conspired with distillers to evade taxes on a massive scale.
C) a group who planned to invade the neighboring territories to the west and set up a new country, so named because they shipped weapons hidden in whiskey barrels.
D) a group of treasonous Union soldiers who were convicted and hung as a result of their use of alcohol smuggling to support the Confederacy.

Question 41

What allows iron triangles and captured agencies to survive?

A) the fact that Congress is fairly lax about engaging in oversight in many areas of public policy
B) keeping the costs they impose on everyone small enough to avoid attracting serious attention from political entrepreneurs in Congress or the White House who may be scouting for popular issues to champion
C) keeping the benefits they provide generous enough to avoid attracting the scouting of political entrepreneurs in Congress or the White House who may be scouting for programs to cut
D) the fact that most Americans do not care about the government as long as they receive their benefits in a timely manner

Question 42

Deregulating the bureaucracy and empowering frontline bureaucrats would make agencies more efficient and it would make bureaucrats ______.

A) rotate jobs more easily
B) more prone to corruption
C) more accountable to U.S. citizens
D) less accountable to elected officials

Question 43

What is the approximate size the nonmilitary federal civilian workforce?

A) 1.9 billion personnel
B) 1.9 million personnel
C) 7.6 million personnel
D) 19 million personnel

Question 44

How do bureaucracies prosper?

A) by delivering the effective implementation of federal programs at the lowest possible cost to American taxpayers
B) focusing on providing diffuse national goods that keep the nation safe
C) maintain strong alliances with wealthy individuals who are capable of establishing Super PACs promoting the benefits of an agency
D) convincing their congressional principals that they are good and faithful agents and developing an appreciative constituency

Question 45

One agency supports tobacco farmers while another tries to discourage smoking. These competing goals come about for which of the following reasons?

A) because the government is so large that the other branches of government are no longer in control of the bureaucracy
B) because of divided government
C) because the two major political parties disagree on so much regarding appropriate policy
D) because government pursues overlapping and conflicting goals in response to the diverse demands Americans place on it

Question 46

Issue networks are ______.

A) the formal channels of control within a bureaucracy
B) ever-changing sets of politicians, lobbyists, experts, and entrepreneurs who shape policy domains
C) news-oriented social media sites such as the Facebook page of MSNBC or Fox News
D) the scope of authority of a department

Question 47

Congress uses a variety of methods to keep its bureaucratic agents in line including ______.

A) firing the head of independent agencies and regulatory commissions whenever Congress disagrees with them politically
B) recalling petitions, public referenda, and other grassroots approaches
C) executive vetoes
D) hearings and investigations, mandatory reporting, and limitation riders

Question 48

Bureaucrats are often stereotyped as ______.

A) inflexible
B) deceptive
C) secretive
D) loyal

Question 49

Which of the following is true about the rules that agencies make?

A) They are advisory only and do not bind the agencies.
B) They have the force of law; however, the agencies can waive them at their discretion.
C) They are subject to confirmation by the Senate and authorization by the President.
D) They can be vetoed by the executive but not counteracted by executive order.

Question 50

Whether pursuing resources or autonomy, all bureaucracies have to engage in

A) building close relationships with Congress because the legislative branch controls the budget
B) watching the Supreme Court closely because the justices also do not have to face the voters so they are willing to strike down bureaucratic rules as unconstitutional
C) politics that involves mobilizing supporters, gathering allies, negotiating mutually beneficial deals with other politicians, keeping in touch with people whose cooperation is needed, and adapting to the realities of power
D) partisan politics to ensure the election of presidents who are generally more committed to expanding the size and scope of federal programs

Question 51

The Office of Management and Budget is best described as ______.

A) the President's primary control instrument over the bureaucracy
B) an independent agency charged with helping Congress balance the budget
C) the accounting subdivision of the Department of Homeland Security
D) a citizen-run good-government watchdog group

Question 52

The President's control over the bureaucracy is ______.

A) absolute since the Constitution requires the President to ensure the faithful execution of the laws
B) limited because institutional realities impose formidable barriers to presidential influence
C) weak on matters of domestic policy, but the President's command authority enables him to cut through red tape on matters of foreign policy
D) limited by the Supreme Court, which has consistently struck down presidential efforts to exert more top-down authority over the executive branch

Question 53

The role of the federal judiciary in overseeing the federal bureaucracy ______.

A) is biased in favor of the government since the courts defer to the expertise of the federal government
B) has only focused on the rules of the agencies and avoided any questions about whether agencies were authorized to issue regulations
C) has interpreted the Administrative Procedures Act in such a way that requires almost as much care in making rules as deciding cases
D) is largely nonexistent because the Supreme Court regards rule-making as a political question outside of its purview

Question 54

In theory, bureaucratic agencies are subject to the authority of all of the following entities EXCEPT for ______.

A) Congress
B) the courts
C) the President
D) the American people

Question 55

How can the amount of federal spending increase dramatically despite the fact that the federal workforce has scarcely grown at all?

A) Most government programs are financial, so recipients simply receive a check from the government.
B) Innovation and technology have made government employees much more efficient.
C) Through delegation of administrative duties to state and local government agencies, Congress can add programs, which voters like, without increasing the federal bureaucracy, which voters do not like.
D) It means that the amount of federal spending is wasted on duplicate programs and corruption is rampant within federal programs without effective oversight.

Question 56

Fire alarm oversight describes ______.

A) Congress working hard to directly monitor whether agencies are implementing laws faithfully and efficiently
B) Congress designing procedures that allow interest groups and ordinary citizens to raise an alarm when something has gone wrong
C) Congress delegating power to the executive branch to raise an alarm when an agency is not faithfully and efficiently implementing laws
D) the ability of citizens to bring concerns about federal regulations directly to the Supreme Court to reduce the transaction costs of monitoring federal agencies

Question 57

Which of the following is considered to be the most important independent government corporation?

A) the U.S. Postal Service
B) the Federal Register
C) the Consumer Product Safety Commission
D) the National Transportation Safety Board

Question 58

Which of the following is considered a classic example of an iron triangle?

A) labor regulations
B) defense procurement
C) civil rights cases
D) agriculture, water, and public works

Question 59

Bureaucrats' most important political relationship is usually with Congress, for which of the following reasons?

A) There is no agency slack in the principal-agent relationship.
B) Congressional committees appoint the heads of administrative agencies.
C) It controls the organization, authority, budgets, and staffing of agencies.
D) The executive branch delegated all authority for the bureaucracy to Congress in the 1920s.

Question 60

Which of the following is true about how the interested outsiders recruited by the Administrative Procedures Act monitor the activities of bureaucratic agents?

A) the agents monitor on Congress's behalf
B) the agents monitor to avoid bureaucratic oversight by Congress
C) the agents monitor to ensure the agents of foreign governments abide by state regulations
D) the agents monitor simply for the purposes of hiring and firing employees within the agencies

Question 61

One of the major reasons Congress delegates authority to an independent agency is to avoid direct responsibility for unpopular decisions.

Question 62

Politicians have found many ways to expand the government's activities without expanding its workforce.

Question 63

The Department of Homeland Security is the third largest agency in personnel behind the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, although other departments have larger budgets.

Question 64

Savvy bureaucrats design and manage their programs to build support in Congress by producing widely distributed local benefits even when their main purpose is generating diffuse national benefits.

Question 65

Presidents and cabinet members can never be aware of every detailed operation of the government they head, even when the bureaucratic failure comes with such a great cost.

Question 66

Hidden information refers to agents knowing things that principals do not.

Question 67

Bureaucratic organization is found not just in governments but in modern business corporations and spiritual enterprises.

Question 68

Unelected officials must decide what the law, circumstances, and common sense require of them in given situations, and after they exercise their best judgment, citizens and representatives proclaim that it is not what they wanted the bureaucracy to do.

Question 69

Explain how, although federal spending over the past half-century has increased by 670% in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars and federal programs and activities have also increased, the federal workforce has scarcely grown at all.

Question 70

Explain the characteristics of bureaucratic institutions as delineated by Max Weber.

Question 71

Compare the bureaucracy during the Federalist years with the bureaucracy under the spoils system.

Question 72

All of the cabinet-level agencies were created at the same time when the Constitution was ratified in 1788.

Question 73

What is the main responsibility of the Federal Reserve System? Why and how is it politically insulated?

Question 74

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of delegating authority to a unified executive from the perspective of Congress.

Question 75

Explain some of the procedural devices available to Congress for monitoring and controlling bureaucrats.

Question 76

Explain why each outgoing president extended the Pendleton Act until, by the time Franklin Roosevelt was elected, 80% of federal workers were included in the merit system.

Question 77

Contrary to popular belief, civil servants generally perform their jobs as well as or better than people doing similar work in the private sector and they mirror the American public far more accurately than Congress.

Question 78

The Constitution clearly defines what offices constitute the President's Cabinet and any addition requires a constitutional amendment.

Question 79

The scope of federal regulation continues to shift in response to real-world events.

Question 80

Since the federal government left such a small footprint in the nineteenth century, party members had little interest influencing federal appointments in their states and districts.