Deck 14: The Bureaucracy

Question 1

You work for an agency within the federal bureaucracy. What major responsibility of your agency is essentially an extension of how the president executes laws?

A) Enforcing the ordinances
B) Enforcing the rules and regulations
C) Enforcing Supreme Court decisions
D) Enforcing executive orders
E) Enforcing political agendas

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What is the relationship between the cabinet departments and the branches of the federal government?

A) They are created by the president and report directly to the president.
B) They are created by Congress but report directly to the president.
C) They are created by the president but report directly to Congress.
D) They are created by Congress and report directly to Congress.
E) They are created by Congress, approved by the Supreme Court, and report directly to the president.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

If it were necessary to create a new cabinet-level department today, which of the following has the authority to do that?

A) Congress
B) The president
C) The secretary of state
D) The Executive Office of the President
E) The Supreme Court

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Most members of the cabinet, who head departments and act as chief advisers to the president on the issues under their jurisdiction, have which of the following titles or positions?

A) Clerk
B) Secretary
C) White House staff
D) Commission appointee
E) Committee member

Question 5

An employee of a government unit, who is quite knowledgeable within their narrow area, and works on specific responsibilities and within a hierarchy of authority is known as which of the following?

A) Leader
B) Laborer
C) Clinician
D) Man in black
E) Bureaucrat

Question 6

The official published record of all executive branch rules, regulations, and orders is referred to as which of the following?

A) The Administrative Register
B) The Congressional Record
C) The Executive Record
D) The Federal Register
E) The Official Record

Question 7

What is the key set of a president's advisers who are responsible for the areas under their jurisdiction known as?

A) The administration
B) The board of directors
C) The cabinet
D) The commission
E) The committee

Question 8

What is one important reason for the growth of the federal bureaucracy over time?

A) The declining power of political parties
B) The expansion of U.S. lands and economy
C) The dawning of industrialization in Europe
D) The emergence of the civil rights movement
E) The growth of space exploration

Question 9

What are the rules that guide the operation of government programs called?

A) Regulations
B) Mandates
C) Ordinances
D) Advisories
E) Referenda

Question 10

Which of the following statements best describes bureaucracy?

A) A bureaucracy is a large organization, structured hierarchically, that carries out specific functions.
B) The bureaucracies work in a cyclical fashion with Congress to create and implement laws.
C) Public bureaucracies serve the federal government.
D) All public bureaucracies report to the president and operate under direction from his office.
E) State bureaucracies provide financial assistance to the national bureaucracy.

Question 11

You work for a department within the federal government. Your funding is specifically allocated to promote a particular service for the public-to promote and support humanities programs throughout the country. For what type of federal organization do you work?

A) Independent agency
B) Issue network
C) National endowment
D) Public service corporation
E) Public service commission

Question 12

A large, complex organization in which employees have specific job responsibilities and work within a hierarchy of authority is called which of the following?

A) A cabinet
B) A business
C) A government
D) A bureaucracy
E) A commission

Question 13

You work for the organization that is responsible for investigating transportation-related accidents. Despite its authority in these investigations and its members' knowledge of safe transportation practices, this group does not have the power to issue federal regulations. For whom do you work?

A) Federal Market Commission
B) Office of Management and Budget
C) General Services Administration
D) Congressional Budget Office
E) National Transportation Safety Board

Question 14

Which German sociologist described bureaucracies as highly rational organizations with detailed technical rules based on logical reasoning that enabled large numbers of people to get difficult jobs done efficiently?

A) Franz Oppenheimer
B) Jürgen Habermas
C) Karl Marx
D) Max Weber
E) Theodor W. Adorno

Question 15

When we indicate that an employee's implementation decisions in a bureaucracy are reviewed at ascending levels within the organization, this is describing which of the following core components of bureaucracies?

A) Expertise of bureaucrats
B) Mission statement
C) Hierarchy of authority
D) Policy-making process
E) Appropriations

Question 16

There are 15 major service organizations of the federal government which include Treasury, Agriculture, Education, and more. What kind of departments are these?

A) Cabinet
B) Agency
C) Legislative
D) Mandated
E) Constitutional

Question 17

What can be said regarding the structure of a bureaucracy?

A) It is structured horizontally.
B) A bureaucracy is void of any structure.
C) Its design is general, rather than specific.
D) It fails to designate any reporting structure.
E) It is structured hierarchically.

Question 18

Which of the following best describes how the major cabinet departments of the federal government were created?

A) Through congressional legislation
B) When the Constitution was initially ratified
C) By constitutional amendments
D) By executive order
E) Through congressional legislation and by constitutional amendments

Question 19

What do the secretaries who head the departments in the executive branch also make up?

A) The majority whip
B) The president's cabinet
C) The standing committee
D) The Supreme Court
E) The stand-alone independent agencies

Question 20

Fundamental to the core of the federal bureaucracy is the presumption that the people who hold bureaucratic positions have which of the following?

A) Authority
B) Connections
C) Expertise
D) Loyalty
E) Resources

Question 21

In what system of employment are employees chosen and promoted based on qualifications and performance?

A) Civil system
B) Merit system
C) Political appointment system
D) Career civil servants system
E) Bureaucratic system

Question 22

Why was the Hatch Act adopted by Congress in 1939?

A) To encourage federal employees to run for state but not federal government
B) To prevent federal employees from switching political parties
C) To prohibit federal employees from active involvement in political campaigns
D) To increase federal employee participation in running voter registration drives
E) To establish a patronage system during the Great Depression

Question 23

Which of the following statements about the civil service is accurate?

A) The first limits on the merit system came from the Pendleton Act.
B) The Office of Personnel Management plays a large role in securing civil service employees.
C) Reform of the civil service first began under President Jimmy Carter in 1978.
D) Since 1993, civil service employees are not allowed to participate in voter registration drives.
E) Today, civil service employees may not make donations to political campaigns.

Question 24

The civil service system was created to do which of the following?

A) Ensure equal partisanship in filling government jobs
B) Allow greater congressional control of the bureaucracy
C) Increase presidential control over the bureaucracy
D) Reduce the amount of politics in awarding government jobs
E) Discourage incompetent job applicants from seeking government employment

Question 25

The roles and responsibilities for each federal agency within the federal bureaucracy are defined in which of the following?

A) A mandate
B) A charter
C) A law
D) A mission
E) A regulation

Question 26

Following a lawsuit, a large corporation recently agreed to implement the merit system. What did it agree to do?

A) Base the selection, retention, and promotion of employees on examinations or performance
B) Implement a system of checks intended to prevent discrimination
C) Embrace a culture of complete transparency
D) Follow the system for hiring bureaucrats that was used by Andrew Jackson
E) Consider work experience in lieu of educational qualifications when filling positions

Question 27

Which component of bureaucratic agencies structures the way in which decisions are made?

A) Extra-national powers
B) Mission
C) Hierarchical decision-making process
D) Expertise
E) Culture

Question 28

Consider the statement, "Every organization has a persistent, patterned way of thinking about the central tasks of human relationships within an organization." What element of bureaucracy does this describe?

A) Expertise
B) Culture
C) Policy
D) Mission
E) Purpose

Question 29

Imagine that you are a pharmacist with extensive experience dealing with the prescription and over-prescription of opioids and have worked with many individuals dealing with addiction. You are hired by a federal agency that is charged with addressing the opioid crisis. In what way is your hiring most consistent with the core components of the bureaucracy?

A) You have expertise.
B) You understand the culture.
C) You have worked in a hierarchical structure before.
D) You understand the mission.
E) You know how to make decisions.

Question 30

In what way can hierarchical decision making be a disadvantage?

A) The step-by-step review hinders the implementation of laws.
B) The process does not allow sufficient time for review.
C) Everyone can agree on a decision without it being consistent with the mission.
D) There are no assurances that policies will be administered equally across citizens.
E) Not everyone in the hierarchy has the expertise needed to contribute to the decision-making process.

Question 31

Which of the following organizations was created by the Pendleton Act to administer entrance exams for the federal civil service and set standards for promotion based on merit?

A) The Foreign Service
B) The Federal Trade Commission
C) The Civil Service Commission
D) The U.S. Merit System
E) The Executive Service

Question 32

What legislation, enacted in 1978, encouraged cooperation between political appointees and civil servants, making sure that each was held accountable for decision making, and created the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to oversee both categories of federal employees?

A) Administrative Procedures Act
B) Civil Service Reform Act
C) Government in the Sunshine Act
D) Hatch Act
E) Pendleton Act

Question 33

The Civil Service is designed to protect employees from which of the following?

A) Taxes
B) Job loss
C) Partisanship
D) Government oversight
E) Unemployment

Question 34

What did the Pendleton Act do?

A) Extend federal civil service protections to the states
B) Reorganize the federal government and exempt a substantial number of government employees from civil service protections
C) Increase the number of government employees selected by the spoils system
D) Establish the principle of employment on the basis of open competitive examinations
E) Establish a merit system during the Civil War

Question 35

In 1870, the Office of the Attorney General, first set up in 1793, was transformed into which of the following to handle the legal business of the nation?

A) The Attorney General
B) Department of the Interior
C) Department of Justice
D) Department of Legal Affairs
E) State Department

Question 36

What legislation created the civil service system and placed limits on the spoils system?

A) Postal Service Act of 1792
B) Pendleton Act of 1883
C) Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
D) Political Activities Act of 1939
E) Civil Service Reform Act of 1978

Question 37

In response to the assassination of President Garfield, Congress passed which of the following acts that established a merit- and performance-based system for federal employment?

A) Merit System Act
B) Pendleton Act
C) Bryce Act
D) Dawes Act
E) Patriot Act

Question 38

What is the basis for hiring decisions made under the civil service system?

A) Patriotism
B) Political beliefs
C) Merit
D) Need
E) Patronage

Question 39

What was the purpose of the Pendleton Act of 1883?

A) To provide public funding for presidential campaigns
B) To create the Central Intelligence Agency
C) To create government corporations
D) To establish the Justice Department
E) To reduce patronage by creating a civil service

Question 40

As evidenced by bureaucratic failures in handling risk and the resulting Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, what is an inherent drawback in bureaucratic culture?

A) Lack of communication and expert direction
B) Lack of expertise within agencies
C) Deep-seated cronyism and patronage
D) A universal narrow point of view
E) A desire for good reputations among agencies

Question 41

Rather than hire federal workers to make infrastructure repairs to interstate highways, the government contracted with local construction companies in the affected areas to complete the work. This an example of which of the following?

A) Deregulating
B) Insourcing
C) Capitalization
D) Privatization
E) Liquidation

Question 42

Which of the following is responsible for oversight of the national bureaucracy?

A) Presidential staff
B) Congress
C) Supreme Court
D) Electoral College
E) Central Intelligence Agency

Question 43

Which of the following is true of the Freedom of Information Act?

A) It requires government agencies to notify the media if they are exceeding their budget for the fiscal year.
B) It requires federal agencies to disclose information on file about an individual to that individual upon his or her request.
C) It provides for a statute of limitations on the Government in the Sunshine Act.
D) It requires executive agencies to release information to congressional oversight committees.
E) It was repealed after 9/11.

Question 44

What is the central feature of the civil service system?

A) Merit-based, nonpolitical employment and promotion
B) The fitting of job openings to agencies' needs
C) The development of elaborate job classifications
D) The separation of political and nonpolitical positions
E) A nonpunitive, competitive promotion system

Question 45

Your friend works in the federal bureaucracy but is not a political appointee. You can therefore assume this individual is which of the following?

A) A legislative liaison
B) A cabinet member
C) A career civil servant
D) A foreign ambassador
E) An elected representative

Question 46

When a president is elected who has a different party affiliation than the current president, the new president staffs the federal government with political supporters and friends. Which of the following does this describe?

A) The civil service
B) The merit system
C) Weber's model of bureaucracy
D) The spoils system
E) Gerrymandering

Question 47

One advantage of the career nature of the civil service allows for built-in protections against what?

A) Media pressure
B) Political pressure
C) Public pressure
D) Incompetency
E) International collusion

Question 48

Putting specific policies into operation is known as which of the following?

A) Policy development
B) The policy process
C) Incrementalism
D) Implementation
E) Bureaucratization

Question 49

A federal employee who engages in which of the following activities would be in violation of the Hatch Act of 1939?

A) Participating in the political management of campaigns
B) Receiving Social Security benefits
C) Securing a mortgage from a national bank
D) Speaking poorly about past or present administrations
E) Voting in partisan elections

Question 50

Consider a situation in which Congress is not pleased with the direction taken by a federal agency. How can Congress punish or otherwise exert control over that agency?

A) By cutting its budget
B) By deflecting interest to another issue
C) By confirming a nominee to a top agency post
D) By implementing one of the agency's programs
E) By asking for a pocket veto

Question 51

Members of Congress disagree with the operations of a particular department within the federal bureaucracy and want to force changes. What means do they have to exercise some control over that department?

A) Authority to select high-level bureaucrats
B) Authority to extend or limit appropriations
C) Authority to fire bureaucrats for not executing policy passed by Congress
D) Power to find agency actions unconstitutional
E) Power to appoint agency heads

Question 52

A federal employee who was appointed by the president with the explicit task of carrying out the president's political and partisan agenda would be known as which of the following?

A) A political appointee
B) A merit system appointee
C) A Pendleton Act employee
D) A civil service employee
E) A career civil servant

Question 53

A president awarded a significant number of government jobs to political supporters. That president used what?

A) Nepotism
B) Political capital
C) The spoils system
D) The merit system
E) The Pendleton system

Question 54

What did the Whistleblower Protection Act do?

A) Allow whistleblowers to take time off from their jobs if they were concerned with actions of their supervisors
B) Allow the government to prosecute whistleblowers whose accusations have been unfounded
C) Penalize federal bureaucrats who participate in political activities
D) Prohibits reprisals against whistleblowers by their superiors
E) Establish a relatively swift method for firing civil servants

Question 55

Which of the following is an example of privatization?

A) The federal government contracts with a private firm to operate a youth detention center.
B) A private business receives funding from the government to buy fair-trade products.
C) The government requires a hospital to purchase liability insurance through a government agency.
D) A public library receives a grant from the government to update its civics book collection.
E) A private business is able to reduce its overall spending by outsourcing some production to a government agency.

Question 56

A federal employee who was hired through a merit-based system to implement federal programs is expected to be neutral in political affiliations. What would this individual be considered?

A) An AmeriCorps member
B) A political appointee
C) A career civil servant
D) An executive worker
E) A cabinet member

Question 57

When the government sets limits on ingredients found in prescription medications or on factory emissions, this would be an example of which of the following?

A) A referendum
B) Deregulation
C) Gerrymandering
D) Regulation
E) An initiative

Question 58

A government department has decided to make use of privatization, which means it plans to do which of the following?

A) Replace government services with services provided by private firms
B) Provide federal loan guarantees to private companies
C) Hire private citizens into the civil service
D) Replace federal government services with state or local government services
E) Hire private investigators to search for corruption

Question 59

Which of the following did the Government in the Sunshine Act require?

A) That all federal agencies run by committees conduct their business regularly in public session
B) That all federal agencies terminate after five years unless Congress grants the agency an extension
C) That all federal agencies hold at least half of their public meetings outside Washington, D.C.
D) That at least 40% of upper-level positions within an agency be filled by females or ethnic minorities
E) That all federal agency meetings on personnel problems or court proceedings be held in public session

Question 60

Which of the following first implemented the spoils system of bureaucratic appointments?

A) President John Adams
B) President Franklin Roosevelt
C) President Bill Clinton
D) President Richard Nixon
E) President Andrew Jackson

Question 61

A clerical worker for the federal government notices gross negligence in the spending habits of a government agency and the worker feels the need to call this discrepancy to the attention of the media. That clerical worker is an example of which of the following?

A) A whistleblower
B) An ombudsman
C) A legislative page
D) A sunset legislator
E) A fraudulent bureaucrat

Question 62

Describe what it means to be a whistleblower.

Question 63

Discuss the cabinet-level departments and the roles of the cabinet secretaries.

Question 64

In 1966, what legislation established a procedure by which ordinary citizens can request documents and reports from the federal government directly by paying a nominal fee, so long as the documents are not classified?

A) Freedom of Information Act
B) Government in the Sunshine Act
C) Hatch Act
D) Pendleton Act
E) Public Disclosure Act

Question 65

Review why expertise is fundamental to the core of the federal bureaucracy.

Question 66

There are many complaints regarding how long it takes for the federal government to actually do anything. On what grounds would you justify the slowness of the bureaucratic decision-making process?

A) It lacks the authority to move quickly.
B) It values transparency more than efficiency.
C) It considers many points of view.
D) It has hundreds of policies in queue.
E) It gets slowed by partisan differences among the political parties.

Question 67

Briefly discuss the four core components of the bureaucracy.

Question 68

Explain why presidents find the bureaucracy is not always as responsive as they might like.

Question 69

A whistleblower is a person who does which of the following?

A) Finds ways to blame others to cover for his or her inadequacies
B) Brings to public attention gross governmental inefficiency or illegal action
C) Is hired in excess of the true labor requirements of an agency
D) Serves in the position of an ombudsman
E) Leaks the contents of a presidential speech to the press before it is given

Question 70

A certain agency has a history of mismanagement, corruption, and illegal activity. Employees who expose these practices to others outside the agency would be referred to as which of the following?

A) Moles
B) Scabs
C) Spies
D) Traitors
E) Whistleblowers

Question 71

Discuss the challenges involved in implementing environmental regulations.

Question 72

To encourage more candid disclosure of wrongdoing in federal agencies, what legislation did Congress pass in 1989?

A) Securities and Exchange Commission Act
B) Whistleblower Protection Act
C) Administrative Relief Act
D) Pendleton Act
E) Public Disclosure Act

Question 73

Explain the concept of bureaucracy and why bureaucracies are necessary.

Question 74

How did the merit-based civil service improve the job performance of federal employees?

Question 75

Explain how the Constitution provides a basis for bureaucratic power.

Question 76

In 1976, Congress enacted what legislation to increase transparency by requiring that government agencies hold open forums to allow the public to comment on their decisions, regulations, and performance?

A) Freedom of Information Act
B) Government in the Sunshine Act
C) Hatch Act
D) Pendleton Act
E) Public Disclosure Act

Question 77

Discuss the reasons for the major growth of the bureaucracy. In your opinion, is it too big? Why or why not?

Question 78

If you want to see information the federal government has about you, or about certain other subjects, how can you make the government release that information to you?

A) File a request under the Freedom of Information Act
B) File a request under the Bureaucratic Transparency Act
C) File a request under the Bureaucratic Freedom Act
D) File a request under the Informational Transparency Act
E) File a request under the Government in the Sunshine Act

Question 79

Discuss some ways in which the size of the bureaucracy has changed over the history of the United States.

Question 80

Explain the costs and benefits of the privatization of federal services.