Deck 4: Official Actors and Their Roles in Public Policy

Question 1

Casework is most closely associated with which group of actors?

A)interest groups
B)legislatures
C)the courts
D)think tanks

Answer 1

legislatures

Question 2

Hearings, lawmaking, and congressional oversight hearings are used to

A)serve as a check on the bureaucracy.
B)enhance presidential power.
C)express appreciation for the fine work that bureaucrats do.
D)raise money for campaigns and elections.

Answer 2

serve as a check on the bureaucracy.

Question 3

Official Actors in the policy process gain their role by virtue of:

A)monetary wealth.
B)a statutory or constitutional role.
C)vested interests.
D)heredity.

Answer 3

a statutory or constitutional role.

Question 4

Which of the following are considered official actors in the policy process?

A)The President of the United States
B)Members of the Senate and House of Representatives
C)The Supreme Court
D)All of the above

Question 5

Congress focuses on oversight and distributive projects rather than lawmaking because

A)oversight has monetary rewards.
B)lawmaking is boring.
C)oversight can expose unpopular programs at a relatively low political cost.
D)Lawmaking is not an activity that Congress participates in.

Question 6

According to Richard Fenno the members of Congress behave the way they do because of

A)a desire to be reelected.
B)a desire to make policy in tune with the desires of their home districts.
C)a desire to gain national notoriety.
D)a desire to extend their power into the executive and judicial branches.

Question 7

Government agencies are a part of which branch of government?

A)Executive
B)Legislative
C)Judicial
D)State governments

Question 8

The decentralized nature of Congress allows for

A)a powerful general accounting office.
B)the creation of issue networks and policy subsystems.
C)the increased power of senior members of congress.
D)the increased power of the electorate.

Question 9

Policy communities are composed of specialists in a given policy area such as

A)health
B)housing
C)environmental protection
D)criminal justice
E)All of the above contain policy communities.

Question 10

The laws that are drafted by the legislature are called _____________

A)statutes
B)case law
C)regulations
D)statues
E)out laws

Question 11

An issue network is

A)A proposed set of common policies and policy alternatives
B)The relationship between the various actors and interests in a particular policy issue
C)A way of describing the agenda setting actions of news media outlets
D)None of the above

Question 12

The laws that made when judges and courts make decisions are called _____________

A)statutes.
B)case law.
C)regulations.
D)statues.
E)out laws.

Question 13

According to Richard Neustadt, the power of the president is

A)dictatorial.
B)completely impotent.
C)like a general or admiral in the military.
D)the power to persuade.

Question 14

The systematic study of bureaucracy was first associated with

A)Aaron Wildavsky.
B)Larry Sabato.
C)Max Weber.
D)Paul Sabatier.

Question 15

The writing of vague policy and law by the Congress implies what for government agencies?

A)Highly restricted agency action.
B)The lack of administrative discretion.
C)A highly accountable government agency.
D)An opportunity for government agencies to shape policy through implementation.

Question 16

Where does the greatest amount agenda setting power in Congress reside?

A)In the Committee Chairs.
B)In the Whips.
C)In the most Senior Members of Congress.
D)In the members from the largest states.

Question 17

Which is not an advantage that the President has over Congress in making public policy?

A)Ability to attract media attention.
B)Veto Power.
C)Head of unitary branch of government.
D)Judicial review .

Question 18

Over which branch of the government does Congress exercise "oversight" power?

A)Congress.
B)The president and his key executive staff.
C)The bureaucracy.
D)The courts.

Question 19

Which of the following persons is a member of the executive branch?

A)Speaker of the U.S.House.
B)Federal Appeals Court Judge.
C)President of the U.S.Senate.
D)Newspaper Reporter.

Question 20

Which of the following is not an example of a public good?

A)national defense.
B)clean air.
C)groceries.
D)fire protection.
E)None of these are public goods.

Question 21

A free rider problem occurs when

A)A good is provided to everyone, but some do not pay for it
B)Someone takes a ride with an Uber driver, but does not pay for it
C)People who pay for a good do not benefit from it
D)Nobody benefits from a provided public good

Question 22

Bureaucracy means

A)a term of derision used for any complicated, cumbersome process characterized by paperwork, unresponsiveness, and slow results.
B)a system of organization in which tasks are divided among bureaus, each of which follows particular procedures to evenhandedly administer rules.
C)the organization that administers government through rules and procedures .
D)all of the above.

Question 23

The phenomenon that involves members of a legislature agreeing to vote for each other's spending bills is known as _____________

A)voting.
B)logrolling.
C)benchmarking.
D)roll call.
E)timbering.

Question 24

The case in which the Supreme Court claimed the power of judicial review is

A)Brown v.Board of Education
B)Plessy v.Ferguson
C)Marbury v.Madison
D)Korematsu v.United States

Question 25

Define the term "public good" and give an example of a public good.

Question 26

Briefly explain the difference between official and unofficial actors in the policy process.

Question 27

How different do you think policy making would be in the United States if the courts lacked the power of judicial review, as claimed in Marbury v. Madison?

Question 28

Explain the problem of accountability and bureaucracy.

Question 29

Choose a congressional committee and briefly explain its purpose.

Question 30

List three constraints on presidential power to make public policy.

Question 31

List two problems with the Iron Triangle model of policy subsystems. What has replaced Iron Triangles as a model of policy subsystems?

Question 32

Why do legislators sometimes introduce bills that they know won't pass into law or even make it to a committee hearing?

Question 33

Why do political scientists call the executive a unitary branch of government?

Question 34

Compare and contrast behaviorism and institutionalism in the study of politics and policy.

Question 35

Explain the difference between official and unofficial actors.

Question 36

Why is casework so important to members of Congress?

Question 37

How can doing casework influence public policy?

Question 38

What motivates members of Congress to make public policy?

Question 39

What is the "rally around the flag" effect?

Question 40

Explain why a decentralized Congress makes policy change more difficult to achieve.

Question 41

Explain why Neustadt argued that the "power of the presidency is the power to persuade."

Question 42

Is the government or the bureaucracy too big or too small? Explain how you measure the size of government, and provide one argument that would contradict your original argument.

Question 43

Explain the benefits and problems associated with bureaucratic discretion.

Question 44

Explain why the free-rider problem creates the necessity for the provision of pubic goods.

Question 45

What is judicial review and why is it important?

Question 46

Casework refers to the things that legislators and their staffs do to help constituents solve problems with executive branch agencies.

Question 47

Decision making power in Congress is in many ways decentralized.

Question 48

Private individuals and organizations participate in making policy decisions, but the formal authority to decide rests with public officials.

Question 49

The Courts are often involved in making public policy.

Question 50

An advantage for the President is that he gains more media attention than any single elected official in the United States

Question 51

The Government Accountability Office of the Congress studies the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of government agencies and programs.

Question 52

The legislative branch often times does not pass bills because they are simply introduced for symbolic reasons.

Question 53

The relative size of the federal civilian workforce has declined, but spending has increased quite a lot

Question 54

The presidency may be called a "unitary" branch of government because it is headed by only one person.

Question 55

The president's large staff makes it more difficult for him to manage progress toward the administration's goals.

Question 56

The president's main strength in the policy process is as agenda setter.

Question 57

Unofficial actors can be deeply involved in the policy process.

Question 58

"Gridlock" in the legislative branch can sometimes reflect the deliberative nature of policy making as structured by the Constitution.

Question 59

All goods provided by government are public goods, as the term is defined in economics.

Question 60

Benchmarking refers to the process of voting for other representatives bills on the condition they will vote for yours.

Question 61

Bureaucracies are neutral institutions whose members have no independent policy preferences.

Question 62

Bureaucrats are utterly free to do whatever they want without any accountability to the people.

Question 63

Casework refers to the tasks legislators undertake to help big business and big campaign contributors circumvent government regulations, avoid taxes, and the like.

Question 64

Casework refers to the tasks undertaken by an executive branch agencies on behalf of citizens.

Question 65

Congressional oversight of a program occurs before a law is enacted that establishes it.

Question 66

Courts do not make policy; they merely interpret the laws passed by the legislature and signed by the executive. .

Question 67

Official actors are those not actively involved with the policy process.

Question 68

Oversight hearings are held to write new legislation.

Question 69

The courts refrain from making laws-they merely interpret laws.

Question 70

The permanent bureaucracy is a part of the legislative branch.

Question 71

The two political parties in the United States differ very little in their policy preferences.