Deck 11: The Bureaucracy

Question 1

The problem of control is not difficult to fix as long as the bureaucracy is well stocked with policy experts instead of politicians and political appointees.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The more bureaucratic expertise that exists on specific policies,the more productive bureaucrats become in implementing those policies.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Why is the bureaucracy also known as the administrative state?

A) Most Americans know something about this part of government.
B) It is primarily staffed by permanent employees known as civil servants.
C) Bureaucrats are also known as administrators.
D) Their primary responsibility is putting government policies into practice on a daily basis.
E) Their primary responsibility is creating government policies.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Although some presidential and congressional decisions are specific,many leave room for interpretation by bureaucrats.This explains why bureaucracies:

A) are often inefficient
B) can have significant influence on policy
C) are difficult for politicians to control
D) are not representative of the public's demands on government
E) are disliked by most Americans

Question 5

Which of the following is the most accurate statement regarding the bureaucracy?

A) Americans rarely deal with the bureaucracy.
B) The bureaucracy handles programs such as Social Security but has no say over things like food safety.
C) Regulation of cell phones is outside of the reach of the bureaucracy.
D) Americans regularly encounter the work of the bureaucracy as part of their everyday lives.
E) The bureaucracy signifies all of the deficiencies of the federal government and rarely does anything efficiently.

Question 6

Which of the following is the best definition of the bureaucracy?

A) The group of employees who are responsible for implementing government policy.
B) The part of the federal government responsible for making government policy.
C) The group of civil servants who are permanent government employees.
D) The political appointees who help the president administer the day-to-day operation of government.
E) The part of the federal government responsible for interpreting government policy.

Question 7

The main difference between fire alarm oversight and police patrol oversight is whether a legislator actively monitors a bureaucracy or simply responds to problems.

Question 8

Any government employee who is selected by an elected official is known as:

A) a political appointee
B) a civil servant
C) a bureaucrat
D) a politician
E) a manager

Question 9

Civil service regulations are the rules that govern the hiring and firing of federal employees.

Question 10

In most cases,bureaucrats have discretion in how they implement policies due to the lack of specific guidelines from Congress.

Question 11

Civil servants are employees of the federal government who:

A) are appointed to their positions by their member of Congress
B) serve at the pleasure of the president
C) are hired on the basis of their qualifications
D) cannot be fired because of their years of service
E) are selected by state legislatures

Question 12

In recent years,Republicans have managed to reduce the size of the federal government through reductions in the federal budget and the elimination of numerous federal programs.

Question 13

Political parties liked the spoils system because it gave people a strong reason to work on their behalf to gain power.

Question 14

One of the reasons regulations are controversial is because they require the bureaucracy to choose between policy goals that are often incompatible.

Question 15

According to the text,what is the paradox of the federal bureaucracy?

A) It continues to grow faster than any part of the government, even though most Americans express discontent with bureaucratic procedures.
B) The same organization that does many important things can also be inefficient and wasteful.
C) Legislators often run against the Washington bureaucracy but are frequently responsible for its exponential growth.
D) The bureaucracy frequently makes very bad decisions even though the president and Congress monitor it closely.
E) The bureaucracy makes good decisions even when the president and Congress do not.

Question 16

When it comes to expertise in a policy area,most bureaucrats are not much different than the average member of Congress or political appointee.

Question 17

Americans support smaller government in the abstract but do not support cuts to the large programs that would be necessary to shrink the federal budget and bureaucracy.

Question 18

Under the Hatch Act,federal employees cannot engage in organized political activities,which include voting and contributing money to candidates.

Question 19

The division of responsibility and power among the executive departments and independent agencies gives them each powers that follow a clear logic and do not overlap.

Question 20

Despite the Great Society programs directed at ending poverty,many antipoverty policies failed due to a lack of expertise on the complexities of how best to deal with the problem.

Question 21

When was the spoils system first used on a large scale to reward campaign supporters?

A) during the New Deal
B) after the Reagan Revolution
C) during the Progressive movement
D) not long after the nation's Founding
E) during the Great Society

Question 22

The store of knowledge,personnel,and institutions for implementing policy is called:

A) the bureaucracy
B) state capacity
C) a principal-agent game
D) regulatory competence
E) rule making

Question 23

The federal civil service was created by:

A) the Reagan Revolution
B) the Progressive Era
C) the Great Society
D) the New Deal
E) the Pendleton Act

Question 24

Which of the following departments was NOT part of the bureaucracy in early American history?

A) Department of the Treasury
B) Department of War
C) Department of Commerce
D) Postmaster General
E) Department of State

Question 25

Before any new regulation can take effect,it must first:

A) be reviewed by someone in the Executive Office of the President
B) be approved by Congress
C) be published in the Federal Register to notify the public
D) be approved by the president
E) be published on federal government Web pages

Question 26

Elected officials are challenged in maintaining control over the bureaucracy due to:

A) the officials' lack of expertise relative to the bureaucrats
B) the conflict that arises between the president and Congress in trying to control the bureaucracy
C) the emphasis on competence among civil servants
D) the weak tools for controlling the bureaucracy that are available to Congress and the president
E) the bureaucrats' lack of expertise relative to the officials

Question 27

Which of the following was a significant change experienced by the bureaucracy during the Progressive Era?

A) increased government intervention in social policy
B) increased reliance on the spoils system for federal jobs
C) a move away from using political criteria for choosing most federal employees
D) decreased government intervention in the economy
E) decreased availability of federal government jobs

Question 28

Government rules that influence the behavior of individuals and groups are known as:

A) red tape
B) procurements
C) standard operating procedures
D) regulations
E) incentives

Question 29

While the spoils system ________,its principal drawback was that ________.

A) strengthened political parties; it made government responsible to the mass public
B) strengthened political parties; appointees often lacked experience
C) helped make government responsible to the mass public; appointees often lacked experience
D) helped make government responsible to the mass public; it strengthened political parties
E) strengthened political parties; states had too much control over the federal government

Question 30

Any unnecessarily complex set of procedures in the bureaucracy is called:

A) a regulation
B) rule making
C) a standard operating procedure
D) red tape
E) an unavoidable problem

Question 31

Which of the following describes a situation in which bureaucrats implement policies that are more consistent with their preferences than those of elected officials?

A) stacking the deck
B) rule making
C) bureaucratic drift
D) a principal-agent game
E) the spoils system

Question 32

Any situation in which one person delegates responsibility to another is an example of:

A) red tape
B) rule making
C) policy implementation
D) a principal-agent game
E) a problem of control

Question 33

A street-level bureaucrat is someone who:

A) is employed on the basis of expertise
B) is in charge of supervising actions taken by people outside of government
C) directly provides services to Americans
D) is the president's eyes and ears in the bureaucracy
E) works solely on transportation issues

Question 34

Why was the federal government small in early American history?

A) It was a function of the ineptitude of the government under the Articles of Confederation.
B) Americans disliked having government officials who were not elected.
C) It was an attempt to limit political corruption that occurred under common practices of the spoils system.
D) The Constitution explicitly limited powers of the federal bureaucracy.
E) Most Americans did not want to work for the federal government.

Question 35

From the early 1800s until the Civil War,________ in the size of government occurred largely because of ________.

A) growth; fundamental changes in what government did
B) growth; the increased size of the United States
C) stability; fundamental changes in what government did
D) stability; the increased size of the United States
E) stability; stability in the population of the United States

Question 36

During the rule-making process,bureaucrats often take into account the views of legislators for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

A) Congress can remove their policy-making power by changing the underlying law
B) Congress can change the budget of an agency if it so chooses
C) Congress can step in and change things during the notice and comment procedure
D) Congress has the power to appoint bureaucratic leaders and dictate overall missions of agencies
E) Bureaucrats need congressional support to get larger budgets and to accomplish more important tasks

Question 37

What best describes why tremendous growth of the bureaucracy occurred during certain times throughout American history?

A) the nation was at war
B) the nation was experiencing an economic crisis
C) the desire of Congress to expand their power
D) the desire of the president to take power away from the states
E) demands from citizens and the desire of elected officials to provide enhanced government services based on societal needs

Question 38

Which of the following was NOT a task performed by the bureaucracy in early American history?

A) delivery of mail
B) regulation of food and water
C) taxes on imports
D) providing for national defense
E) taxes on exports

Question 39

Which of the following is NOT part of the public process for citizens to respond to proposed regulations?

A) reading the proposed regulation in the Federal Register
B) the notice and comment procedure
C) lobbying members of Congress
D) asking a federal judge to stop the proposed regulation before it goes into effect
E) offering a different version of the rule for consideration by the agency

Question 40

Which of the following is NOT a task of federal bureaucrats?

A) rule making
B) procurement
C) lawmaking
D) service provision
E) research and development

Question 41

Which of the following factors does NOT play an important role in determining how much political control elected officials can exercise over different parts of the bureaucracy?

A) who can appoint and remove officials
B) the size of the bureaucracy's budget
C) location of the agency in the federal governing structure
D) who can confirm officials
E) who can remove officials

Question 42

How did the New Deal change the role of the federal government in the lives of individuals?

A) by moving from a wide range of benefits and services delivered directly to individuals to more broad-based regulations
B) by moving from broad-based regulations to delivering a wide range of benefits and services directly to individuals
C) by giving more control over policies to individual members of Congress
D) by giving more power to state and local officials
E) by allowing citizens to opt out of new federal programs

Question 43

Which of the following programs is the public LEAST in favor of cutting?

A) space program
B) welfare
C) defense
D) Social Security
E) transportation

Question 44

Which of the following policies were NOT enacted during the George W.Bush presidency?

A) No Child Left Behind education reforms
B) the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
C) regulations to inspect baggage on commercial aircraft
D) health care reform
E) the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit

Question 45

The New Deal reforms included a large transfer of power to ________ and ________.

A) Congress; the president
B) bureaucrats; the president
C) the president; state governors
D) bureaucrats; state governors
E) Congress; state governors

Question 46

The Office of Management and Budget is primarily responsible for:

A) overseeing procurement of services for the federal government
B) monitoring the flow of money throughout the economy
C) helping the president monitor federal budget expenditures and proposals
D) investigating the bureaucracy on behalf of Congress
E) coordinating the procurement of services for both the federal and state governments

Question 47

Why does the president have limited control over the Federal Reserve when compared to executive departments like the Department of Treasury?

A) Appointees serve for fourteen years-longer than the president serves.
B) It is a body that is controlled exclusively by Congress.
C) There is no process for removing appointees to that body.
D) Appointees serve lifetime terms.
E) He must consult with the Supreme Court before making appointments.

Question 48

A main consequence of the civil service regulations is:

A) a decrease in the importance of expertise in selecting employees
B) the creation of clear and easy rules for dismissing employees
C) significant job security for civil servants
D) the political affiliations of appointees are highlighted more so than in the past
E) college degrees are required of all applicants

Question 49

Why is it that some tasks are handled by independent agencies even when they might conceivably fall under the scope of an executive department?

A) Congress may create an independent agency because presidents have less control over them than executive agencies.
B) Congress prefers independent agencies to executive departments because they have more control over the people who run them.
C) Independent agencies usually have more policy experts than executive departments.
D) Congress does not recognize the potential policy overlap between the independent agency and the executive department until after they have established it.
E) Independent agencies receive more federal funds to carry out their programs.

Question 50

Which of the following was a significant expansion of government action into a new policy area during the Great Society?

A) the first attempts at regulating food and drugs
B) the establishment of Social Security
C) government involvement in guaranteeing civil rights
D) expanded regulation of financial reporting requirements for corporations
E) the creation of the civil service system

Question 51

Since 1968 the size of the federal budget has ________; in that same period,spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has ________.

A) increased; stayed about the same
B) increased; increased
C) stayed about the same; stayed about the same
D) stayed about the same; increased
E) increased; decreased

Question 52

Which of the following policies was NOT included in Lyndon Johnson's Great Society?

A) federal funding for the construction of elementary and secondary schools
B) the creation of Social Security
C) mass transit programs in many cities
D) federal loan and grant programs for college students
E) health care for seniors

Question 53

Which of the following created an opportunity for conservatives to roll back the size and scope of the federal government?

A) the election of Richard Nixon in 1968
B) the ascension of Gerald Ford to the presidency in 1974
C) the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980
D) the election of George H. W. Bush in 1988
E) the election of a Republican Congress in 1994

Question 54

What was the principal bureaucratic change that occurred during the New Deal?

A) The range of policy areas in which the government intervened expanded.
B) An independent bureaucracy was created.
C) A foundation for expanding state capacity was created.
D) Limits on the growth of government were established.
E) States became more powerful in developing social policy.

Question 55

Which of the following groups of employees is the largest part of the federal workforce?

A) farming, fishing, and forestry
B) transportation
C) management, business, and financial
D) maintenance
E) service

Question 56

The largest cabinet departments are typically involved in matters related to which policy area?

A) security and defense
B) education and welfare
C) economics and the budget
D) labor and commerce
E) diplomacy

Question 57

The group of government programs put in place by Franklin Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression was known as the:

A) Great Society
B) New Deal
C) Fair Deal
D) Progressive movement
E) Pendleton Act

Question 58

The Reagan Revolution's impact on the bureaucracy was characterized by:

A) significant reductions in the size of the federal government
B) the elimination of many government programs
C) the relative absence of programs and regulations that impacted society
D) the elimination of few programs and a federal budget that steadily increased
E) significant reductions in the federal budget

Question 59

Which of the following is a characteristic of an independent agency?

A) It is not subordinate to one of the executive departments.
B) It is below the executive departments in the federal hierarchy.
C) It has a clear, specialized function.
D) It is part of an executive department.
E) It is not officially a part of the federal government.

Question 60

Which of the following is NOT one of the criteria used to select civil service employees?

A) specific educational requirements
B) experience of candidates for higher-level jobs
C) seniority
D) membership in the civil service employees' union
E) performance on a set of civil service tests

Question 61

Which of the following is a benefit of civil service employment requirements?

A) It creates clear conditions under which we can reduce the size of the federal government by removing entrenched employees.
B) It makes it easy to remove poor performers from their jobs.
C) It means that the best and brightest in their fields are more likely to work for the government instead of the private sector.
D) It makes it difficult for elected officials to hire and fire employees for political purposes.
E) Civil service employees make more money than if they worked in the private sector.

Question 62

Why do government agencies sometimes do things that appear to be counterproductive? What,if anything,could be done to make the bureaucracy more efficient?

Question 63

Which of the following is NOT a tactic that the legislature can use to correct bureaucratic drift?

A) removal of tasks and programs
B) replacement of a political appointee
C) reorganization of an agency
D) passage of legislation to correct the problem
E) impeachment

Question 64

Most political appointees in the bureaucracy are there:

A) as a reward for political service
B) because someone has to fill the job, so it might as well be the president's friends
C) because of their expertise in the area
D) to help the president exercise control over the executive branch
E) because of seniority

Question 65

When members of Congress gather information about the bureaucracy by holding hearings and questioning bureaucrats,they are engaged in:

A) oversight
B) stacking the deck
C) bureaucratic drift
D) policing
E) investigating

Question 66

Although the Hatch Act exempts ________ from restrictions on political activity,they still cannot ________.

A) political appointees; run for office unless they resign from their position
B) political appointees; use government resources for political purposes
C) civil servants; use government resources for political purposes
D) elected officials; donate money to other officials
E) elected officials; use government resources for political purposes

Question 67

Which of the following describes a situation in which legislators monitor a bureaucratic organization only after someone complains or a problem of implementation has been brought to their attention?

A) advance warning
B) fire alarm oversight
C) police patrol oversight
D) notice and comment
E) bureaucratic drift

Question 68

Although elected officials have a variety of strategies for preventing bureaucratic drift,a key limitation is that:

A) they work for executive departments but not independent agencies
B) they usually do not have enough information to decide on the appropriate tactic
C) bureaucrats may just ignore them and do what they want anyway
D) most require the president and Congress to agree on their use
E) the Supreme Court often blocks such actions

Question 69

A reduction in force (RIF)decreases the size of the federal workforce by:

A) allowing individuals to be removed from their jobs for reasons other than cause
B) eliminating entire departments and agencies
C) prohibiting the replacement of employees who leave or retire voluntarily
D) creating an early retirement program for older individuals who will not be replaced
E) eliminating half of a particular agency's workforce

Question 70

Which of the following activities is prohibited for civil service employees?

A) working for a candidate
B) discussing politics with friends and family
C) donating money to a political organization
D) donating money to a candidate
E) voting

Question 71

The Senior Executive Service (SES)comprises:

A) high-level civil servants who are exempt from civil service restrictions
B) the group of high-level political appointees who advise the president
C) civil servants with enough seniority to be promoted to a political spot
D) the members of the president's cabinet and their close advisers
E) White House staff

Question 72

Both Congress and the president vie for control of a bureaucracy that often resists control by either one.What tools does Congress have to attempt to influence the course of bureaucratic decision making? What tools does the president have? What strategies and tactics are available to bureaucrats that want to resist? In your opinion,who is the most important actor among these three in determining how policy is going to be implemented and why?

Question 73

Even though political appointees are allowed to engage in more political activities than civil servants can,the Hatch Act still poses which of the following difficulties for them?

A) It does not apply to their opponents in Congress.
B) Congress and the courts have never clarified exactly which activities are prohibited.
C) The rules are complex and difficult to understand.
D) Their jobs often mix government service with political action.
E) Most want to run for political office themselves.

Question 74

Which of the following describes a situation in which legislators pay close attention to a bureaucracy with consistent fact-finding trips,interviews,audits,and calls?

A) advance warning
B) fire alarm oversight
C) police patrol oversight
D) notice and comment
E) bureaucratic drift

Question 75

Which is NOT a tactic available to an agency that wants to avoid political control?

A) It can exploit disagreements between the president and Congress over what the agency should do.
B) It can use its reputation for expertise to fend off attempts at political control.
C) It can seek political support from groups in society who benefit from the agency.
D) It can try to reorganize as an independent agency.
E) It can maintain support from at least one branch of government.

Question 76

When does an agency have the most discretion in implementing policy?

A) when Congress and the president disagree on what an agency should be doing
B) when it has a large budget
C) when it has more experts
D) when it is an executive department
E) when Democrats control the executive branch

Question 77

What is the potential problem with legislation that does not give bureaucrats a sufficient amount of discretion in implementing policy?

A) It makes it difficult for bureaucrats to respond to developments not foreseen in the legislation.
B) It usually means that the bureaucrats look for other ways to implement their own policy views in practice.
C) It oversteps the separation of powers by constraining the president's role as chief executive.
D) It gives the president more control over Congress.
E) It forces the Supreme Court to resolve conflicts over decisions.

Question 78

How can the federal bureaucracy be full of experts yet,at times,be inept? Use one of the many examples discussed in the text to help illustrate your argument.

Question 79

A principal consequence of limits on salaries and promotions in the civil service is that:

A) it is difficult to reward the best employees
B) civil service employees exhibit a lack of effort
C) good employees avoid public service and instead work for the private sector
D) government jobs pay less than private-sector jobs over the long run
E) civil service employees are forced to work overtime to make more money

Question 80

When elected officials try to control the actions of the bureaucracy,they face a trade-off between:

A) expending resources there rather than in the lawmaking process
B) knowing what is going on in one part of the bureaucracy but not elsewhere
C) gaining influence over the bureaucracy but losing the impact of bureaucratic expertise
D) losing influence over the bureaucracy but gaining the impact of bureaucratic expertise
E) eliminating resources there rather than in the lawmaking process