Deck 11: Bureaucracy

Question 1

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

Answer 1

E

Question 2

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

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The largest subunits of the federal executive branch are called:

A) agencies
B) units
C) departments
D) states
E) collectives

Answer 3

C

Question 4

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

Question 5

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) 1994; 2 million

Question 6

What is an independent agency?

A) an agency that was not created by a law passed by Congress
B) an agency whose budget comes from outside funding
C) an agency that is not part of any Cabinet department
D) an agency that is not part of the government
E) an agency entirely created by the president, independent of congressional action

Question 7

Who stated,in his 1996 State of the Union address,that "the era of big government is over"?

A) George H. W. Bush
B) Bill Clinton
C) George W. Bush
D) Ronald Reagan
E) Al Gore

Question 8

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 both the power of "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 9

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 10

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 11

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 12

Which of the following statements about the merit system is NOT true?

A) Every member and official of a government agency has been appointed as a 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 was 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 13

The head of a department is called the:

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

Question 14

The attempt of bureaucracies to translate laws into specific rules and actions is called:

A) adjudication
B) regulation
C) deregulation
D) implementation
E) rule making

Question 15

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 16

Which of the following was forced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission to recall several car models after identifying problems with their gas pedal accelerators?

A) Ford
B) Honda
C) Toyota
D) GM
E) Lexus

Question 17

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 18

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 19

Bureaucracy,literally translated,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 20

Which of the following is an independent agency?

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

Question 21

The politics of the IRS are complex,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 fifty 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 22

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 23

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 24

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 25

______ policy concerns banks,credit,and currency.

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

Question 26

Which 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) Criminal division
E) Tax division

Question 27

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 28

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 29

Which 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 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 31

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 32

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 33

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 34

According to the text,which of the following is NOT a department responsible for promoting the public welfare?

A) Department of Health and Human Services
B) Department of State
C) Department of the Interior
D) Department of Veterans Affairs
E) National Park Service

Question 35

Which of the following agencies' primary task is NOT the strengthening of the economy?

A) Transportation
B) Commerce
C) Internal Revenue Service
D) Interior
E) Energy

Question 36

The USA PATRIOT Act:

A) stated Congress's approval of the invasion of Afghanistan
B) allows the attorney general to detain any foreigner suspected of posing a threat to internal security
C) grants authority over immigration cases to the Defense Department
D) gave the Justice Department jurisdiction over all prisoners taken in Afghanistan
E) restricted the government's ability to use wiretaps and issue search warrants

Question 37

Which statement about regulatory agencies is correct?

A) Since the 1990s, approximately ten new regulatory agencies have been created by Congress.
B) No new regulatory programs have been established since the 1970s.
C) The last new regulatory agency was created in 2010.
D) In 1996, the last federal regulatory agency was terminated by Congress.
E) Since the 1960s all new regulatory agencies are placed outside existing departments and are not responsible to the president.

Question 38

The first regulatory agencies established by Congress 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 39

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 40

Which of the following is a good 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 41

Which of the following agencies was abolished following the creation of the Department of Homeland Security?

A) the Federal Emergency Management Agency
B) the Coast Guard
C) the Immigration and Naturalization Service
D) the National Security Agency
E) the Central Intelligence Agency

Question 42

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 43

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 44

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 45

The controversy over the Patriot Act reveals the complications of balancing:

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

Question 46

What was the mission of the National Performance Review?

A) to reorganize the federal bureaucracy to make it more efficient, 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 or not the government is spending more money than it brings in

Question 47

Which statement is the definition of privatization?

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

Question 48

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 49

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 50

The ______ is the center of military policy and management.

A) Joint Chiefs of Staff
B) National Security Agency
C) Central Intelligence Agency
D) Department of Homeland Security
E) Department of Defense

Question 51

Which of the following is NOT a way in which Congress can exercise oversight?

A) individual constituency case work
B) committee hearings and investigations
C) budgeting process
D) government agencies such as the GAO and the CBO
E) having members of Congress work part-time for a particular agency that is struggling to meet the demands Congress has placed on it

Question 52

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 53

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 54

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 55

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 56

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

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

Question 57

______ is the primary mission of the State Department.

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

Question 58

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

A) combining many different bureaucratic cultures into 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 59

What was the chief bureaucratic flaw identified by the 9/11 Commission?

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 in-air planes 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 60

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 61

The Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002 as a response to 9/11.

Question 62

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

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

Question 63

The Reagan administration terminated several government agencies during the 1980s.

Question 64

The ratio of federal employees to the total United States workforce has gone up in the last half-century.

Question 65

Bureaucracies have often been criticized for being inefficient.What are some of the management techniques that have been used to make bureaucracies more efficient and responsive to needs? Why have many of these reforms had limited success?

Question 66

The main mission of the State Department is diplomacy.

Question 67

Describe the organizational structure of the federal bureaucracy.What are the differences between departments,agencies,and bureaus? Explain the lines of authority within the executive branch.How is the federal bureaucracy staffed,and how has this changed since the nineteenth century?

Question 68

Under President George W.Bush,government outsourcing declined dramatically.

Question 69

Describe some ways in which the federal bureaucracy can be rendered more democratically accountable.What is the problem of bureaucratic accountability? What is oversight? What are some possible ways in which the president can control the bureaucracy?

Question 70

Cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries are chosen through the merit system.

Question 71

Individual members of Congress can discover questions of public responsibility when engaged in:

A) a filibuster
B) constituent case work
C) activities related to the work of a conference committee
D) a party caucus
E) a markup session

Question 72

The different agencies of the executive branch can be grouped according to the different kinds of services they provide.Describe the three main categories of agencies.What kinds of services do they provide? Give some examples of each.

Question 73

Printing U.S.currency is the responsibility of the Department of the Interior.

Question 74

Iron triangles disappeared as a result of the Civil Service Act of 1883.

Question 75

Since the 1970s,the federal government has established no new regulatory programs.

Question 76

Amtrak is a good example of a government corporation.

Question 77

Bureaucracies must be rendered accountable by the president and Congress.

Question 78

The most visible indication of oversight is the:

A) use of a unanimous Supreme Court opinion by the lower federal courts to generate public support for a particular policy
B) use of the nullification power by the states to declare an act of the federal government unconstitutional
C) use of public hearings before congressional committees and subcommittees
D) budget deficit
E) using the Congressional Budget Office to report on how much particular legislation is going to cost the American taxpayer

Question 79

Independent agencies are important components of Cabinet departments.

Question 80

Which of the following statements about congressional oversight of the bureaucracy is most accurate?

A) The number of oversight hearings has decreased over time as the bureaucracy has expanded.
B) While the number of oversight hearings has increased over time as the bureaucracy has expanded, the extent of oversight does depend somewhat on which party controls the White House.
C) The number of oversight hearings has remained constant over time despite the fact that bureaucracy has expanded.
D) While the number of oversight hearings has increased over time as the bureaucracy has expanded, the extent of oversight does not depend on which party controls the White House.
E) Oversight has been eliminated as a result of a 2005 Supreme Court decision.