Deck 1: Accountability

Question 1

Which agency is charged with ensuring that government programs are achieving purposes as defined in statute as part of the concept of program accountability?

A) NASA
B) Government Accountability Office
C) Congress
D) Executive Office of the President

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The main components of bureaucratic responsibility are ______.

A) federalism and ethical behavior
B) government by proxy and separation of powers
C) legislative review and government by proxy
D) accountability and ethical behavior

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which type of accountability ensures that agency officials spend money on the programs they are charged with managing-and only those programs?

A) process
B) program
C) cash basis
D) fiscal

Answer 3

D

Question 4

What did Woodrow Wilson argue that would safeguard citizens from a tyrannical bureaucracy?

A) the Constitution
B) the Articles of Confederation
C) Allegiance to Congress
D) rule of law

Question 5

What are the two most critical components of accountability?

A) citizens and government actors
B) citizens and administrators
C) people and actions
D) citizens and consequences

Question 6

What is the delegation to and supervision of activities by third parties-government, profit-oriented corporations, and nonprofits called?

A) federalism
B) public sector connections
C) bureaucratic accountability
D) administration by proxy

Question 7

Process accountability is concerned with ______.

A) how agencies perform
B) which agencies perform
C) when agencies perform
D) why agencies perform

Question 8

Of the three elements of accountability, which is the most traditional and widespread?

A) process accountability
B) fiscal accountability
C) program accountability
D) executive accountability

Question 9

The politics-administration dichotomy maintains democratic accountability by ______.

A) allowing politicians to be free to act as they see fit
B) separating political decision making from administrative policy
C) shifting responsibility from lawmakers to citizens
D) revealing a clear chain of command

Question 10

One of the impediments to bureaucratic accountability is that policymakers ______.

A) often do not want maximum control over administrators
B) do not understand performance measurement
C) often do not want minimum control over administrators
D) focus only on positive control

Question 11

The concept of ____________Accountability ensures that agency officials spend money on the programs they are charged with managing-and only on those programs.

A) Process
B) Program
C) Cash Basis
D) Fiscal

Question 12

What two options can administrators take when they face conflicting or confusing directions from controllers?

A) programmatic or process
B) conflict or resolution
C) voice or exit
D) call in sick or see ya later

Question 13

According to the author, an ethical government should begin with ______.

A) ethical citizens
B) a well-written Constitution
C) ethical public servants
D) a sense of right and wrong

Question 14

Gaus concluded that in instances where external forces to the administrator cannot adequately shape the exercise of discretion, then democracy must necessarily rely on administrators' ______.

A) socialization
B) training
C) professional norms
D) the Constitution

Question 15

Find the best phrase below to describe the term bureaucracy.

A) a purely public form of action
B) a generic strategy for marshaling large organizations to do complex jobs
C) a concept involving large systems and multifarious interactions
D) many different people involved in the production of public goods

Question 16

One theme in the study of public administration relates to the need to balance "lofty expectations" with ______.

A) needs of the citizens
B) distrust of government
C) historical roots of modern government
D) accountability

Question 17

What did British scholar Peter Self call "the classic dilemma of public administration"?

A) the conflict between administrators' decisions and the public good
B) the tension between accountability and effective action
C) making sure that administrators represent the American people
D) maintaining good relations between the branches of government

Question 18

The phrase "a government of laws not men" means ______.

A) the legal system in the United States works independently from the federal government
B) administrators are held accountable to sources of political legitimacy
C) the American people are not subject to the same laws as administrators
D) litigation is more prevalent in the public sector than in the private sector

Question 19

Which of the following two elements best define the parameters of public administration?

A) administering laws; balancing political values
B) accountability; budget equity
C) representational politics; norms
D) Congress; the president

Question 20

The major shortcoming of the rule of law approach to bureaucratic accountability is ______.

A) elected officials are unable to translate the will of the people into legislation
B) the people are unable to convince elected officials of the public good
C) it is impossible to translate laws into administrative action with precision and predictability
D) administrators are often incompetent and poorly educated

Question 21

According to the text, the central elements of bureaucratic accountability are ______ and ______.

A) Congress; the courts
B) the president; fragmentation
C) Congress; the president
D) the Constitution; the law

Question 22

Delegation of power to administrators from elected officials and hierarchical control through authority controlled the use of power within administrative agencies.

Question 23

According to the text, what might be the biggest challenge to the government?

A) insurmountable debt
B) morality
C) distrust for political institutions
D) the debt ceiling

Question 24

According to the text, what is required to connect policymakers to citizens that expect results from their government?

A) access to funds
B) active Electorate
C) running for office
D) public administration

Question 25

Since different government agencies have varied cultures, it is difficult to maintain a standard set of professional norms that govern administrative behavior.

Question 26

What describes the underlying notion of accountability?

A) ability to be written
B) provability
C) able to be counted
D) reliability

Question 27

Policymakers do not value a loose chain of command rather than more direct control over their subordinates.

Question 28

The branches of the American government operate in a way that produces ______ controller(s) of bureaucratic accountability.

A) one
B) three
C) many
D) no

Question 29

Political scientist John Gaus agreed with Woodrow Wilson that separating politics from administration could be done by enacting laws that gave elected officials control to guide policy that administrators would simply carry out.

Question 30

Separating politics from administration is best described by what term?

A) politics-administration dichotomy
B) common sense
C) Wilson's Declaration
D) Goodnow's Promise

Question 31

According to the text, what was the underlying reason or motivation for changing the source of Flint, Michigan's public water (from Detroit to the Flint River)?

A) access to higher quality
B) realized cost savings
C) employment opportunities
D) trade deals with Canada

Question 32

What became a less effective of a tool or safeguard to ensure accountability as government took on more relationships with third-party interests?

A) rule of law
B) the Magna Carta
C) ability to prosecute
D) fewer politicians

Question 33

In a system of administrative accountability, ______ hold elected officials accountable and ______ hold(s) administrators accountable.

A) administrators; the president
B) the people; Congress
C) administrators; Congress
D) the people; the elected officials

Question 34

Citizens and elected officials demand a lower standard of ethics than that expected in the private sector for political appointed public administrators.

Question 35

Process accountability is concerned with how agencies perform their tasks.

Question 36

According to the text, ______ is the foundation of bureaucracy in a democracy because it allows ______ to control administrator's actions.

A) ethics; bureaucrats
B) administrative politics; system purpose
C) accountability; elected officials
D) elected officials; internal controls

Question 37

The Progressives of the twentieth century preferred that administrators should have little discretion to carry out the will of elected policymakers.

Question 38

Bureaucracy is a feature of the public sector, but never the private sector.

Question 39

Clear chains of accountability for the actions of administrators ensure high performance.

Question 40

Who did Progressives believe were best positioned to do government work without trampling individual rights?

A) members of the U.S. Senate
B) members of the U.S. House of Representatives
C) the filibusters
D) administrators

Question 41

Briefly describe the meaning of Hirschman's (1970) notion of "exit, voice, and loyalty."

Question 42

What are the two main issues involved in keeping agencies fiscally accountable? Please give examples.

Question 43

According to the author, Gaus's 1936 work has little to do with the complex public administration problems of the twenty-first century.

Question 44

The Progressives believed that a stronger government, equipped to manage to new programs, would prevent the country from driving forward.

Question 45

Why does the text refer to the BP and Flint disasters as the "essence of modern government"?

Question 46

According to the text, is public sector accountability thought to be more or less rigid than private sector accountability? Do you agree with this or disagree (and why)?

Question 47

Briefly describe two examples of program accountability efforts in the United States at the federal level of government.

Question 48

What was John Gaus's response to Woodrow Wilson's ideas about ensuring bureaucratic accountability? What solution did Gaus offer?

Question 49

The text provides several examples of challenges (to administrators) that are presented via enhanced chains of accountability.What are these challenges? Can you offer any advice for how to striking a balance between these competing forces?

Question 50

Briefly describe the meaning of the politics-administration dichotomy.

Question 51

The author argues that public administration is no longer simply a direct execution of governmental programs.Why is this? Does this pose any ethical challenges?

Question 52

According to the text, has government extended its reach since its founding or not? Give three examples from the text to support your case.

Question 53

Finer and Gaus were mostly similar in their writings on accountability.

Question 54

What is bureaucratic responsibility and why or why not is it considered to be central to American public administration?

Question 55

Describe the component of bureaucratic responsibility known as accountability.

Question 56

What was the profound irony embedded in the decision of the American founders to leave questions of public administration for other generations of leaders to work out? How do their motivations and fears of government haunt us today?