Deck 13: The Bureaucracy

Question 1

When the Affordable Care Act was implemented,the primary problem was​ that 

A)​the available heath insurance options were too expensive.
B)​citizens rejected the "socialist" nature of the program.
C)​bureaucrats objected to the program because it was implemented by executive order rather than through legislation debated and adopted by Congress.
D)​the web site citizens had to use to obtain insurance did not work.
E)​the Supreme Court found the Act unconstitutional.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

In the governments of modern societies,bureaucracies

A)still play a central role.
B)are undergoing a slow decline in their importance and usefulness.
C)continue to see their budgets generally expand, even in the face of public criticism.
D)disproportionately consist of women.
E)continue to see their budgets generally expand, even in the face of public criticism, and disproportionately consist of women.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The government began to take steps to provide income security in the wake of

A)the Industrial Revolution.
B)the Civil War.
C)the Great Depression.
D)World War II.
E)recession.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Government regulation of business grew in response to the realization that

A)a laissez-faire approach does not always result in competitive markets.
B)business cannot be trusted to seek profits.
C)members of the public deserve a say in everything that affects them.
D)American competitiveness requires a government role in business.
E)government study of business practices will increase government efficiency.

Question 5

A large,complex organization in which employees have specific job responsibilities and work within a hierarchy of authority is a(n)

A)office.
B)business.
C)government.
D)bureaucracy.
E)organization.

Question 6

The biggest units of the executive branch are termed _________ and are headed by __________.

A)bureaus; vice presidents
B)departments; trustees
C)agencies; aldermen
D)bureaus; trustees
E)departments; secretaries

Question 7

One of the reasons why bureaucracies are much larger in other countries is that

A)they have fewer rights and liberties.
B)they have pure federal systems.
C)they offer more social services, such as government-paid health care.
D)they are more militaristic.
E)they are not bound by written constitutions.

Question 8

__________ created new bureaucracies to administer new programs for health care and oversight of the financial services industry.

A)Jimmy Carter
B)Barack Obama
C)George W. Bush
D)Ronald Reagan
E)None of these choices is true.

Question 9

The larger governmental departments tend to focus on the nation's

A)security.
B)welfare.
C)education.
D)commerce.
E)agriculture.

Question 10

Which of the following departments has the highest number of civilian employees?

A)Education
B)Veterans Affairs
C)Agriculture
D)Justice
E)State

Question 11

The success of the British with respect to defending their ships from U-boats was based on

A)independent decision making and diffusion of authority.
B)decentralization.
C)centralization and communication.
D)decentralization and rigorous procedure.
E)flexibility and creativity.

Question 12

As measured by comparing U.S.government expenditures as a proportion of all economic activity,the United States

A)has one of the largest governments among Western democracies.
B)has one of the smallest governments among Western democracies.
C)ranks about average in size among Western democracies.
D)ranked as one of the smallest governments until 2008, then grew to one of the largest within two years.
E)has one of the largest public sectors, but one of the smallest private sectors.

Question 13

In response to the constant cry for reduction in the size of the bureaucracy,the government typically

A)reduces the number of bureaucrats.
B)renames programs.
C)reorganizes programs so as to conceal their strength and numbers.
D)turns over jobs to nonprofit organizations or private contractors.
E)Options a and d are true.

Question 14

Regulatory commissions are usually run with an odd number of commissioners

A)to facilitate rotation in office.
B)to prevent tie votes.
C)by longstanding tradition dating back to the Middle Ages.
D)to prevent any area of the country from being overrepresented.
E)after the passage of the 1961 Bureaucratic Improvement Act.

Question 15

Social Security was instituted by the government in the

A)1860s.
B)1930s.
C)1960s.
D)1980s.
E)1990s.

Question 16

Organizations can be chiefly defined by their

A)clearly defined leader.
B)fixed division of labor.
C)organizational culture.
D)rules of governance.
E)All of these choices are true.

Question 17

The CIA is a good example of a federal

A)independent agency.
B)regulatory commission.
C)government corporation.
D)cabinet department.
E)None of these choices is true.

Question 18

______________ is not a reason cited by the text for the growth of government?​

A)​Government intervention to protect the integrity of markets
B)​Increased acceptance of government involvement in social welfare
C)​Election and appointment of "left-leaning Social Democratic" government officials
D)​Increasing complexity of society
E)​Change in the public's attitudes about business

Question 19

The Department of ________ is the largest government department in terms of number of employees.

A)Homeland Security
B)Agriculture
C)Health and Human Services
D)Commerce
E)Defense

Question 20

Government corporations are best described as

A)businesses that have gone bankrupt and have been taken over by the government.
B)agencies that privately see to the personal needs of high-level bureaucrats.
C)business enterprises that the government has seized because of failure to pay taxes.
D)government agencies that provide services that could be provided by the private sector.
E)government partnerships with private industry.

Question 21

The civil service was created after President Garfield was assassinated by a(n)

A)rogue CIA operative.
B)anarchist.
C)mentally unbalanced job seeker.
D)Confederate loyalist.
E)protester.

Question 22

Government corporations are most likely to be created when a service is for the public good and

A)the government can make a profit from engaging in it.
B)healthy competition exists between government and the private sector.
C)there is the danger of corporate monopoly if the government fails to act.
D)large numbers of government employees are already trained in the service.
E)private industry cannot profitably provide the service.

Question 23

The national bureaucracy is staffed by roughly 2.8 million civilian employees,who account for about __________ percent of the U.S.work force.

A)2
B)10
C)20
D)35
E)55

Question 24

The civil service system was created to

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 central feature of the civil service system is

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 26

​According to the text,a primary reason for low morale among federal employees is

A)​realization of the needless nature of most of the work they do.
B)​budget cuts resulting in staff reductions with no corresponding work output expectations.
C)​disagreement with the fundamental philosophy of the presidential administration.
D)​inability to challenge poor decisions frequently made by federal agency supervisors and managers.
E)​inadequate screening of newly hired employees.

Question 27

The purpose of the Pendleton Act of 1883 was to

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

Question 28

Presidents can exert considerable influence over agency policymaking by

A)appointing administrators sympathetic to their policy goals.
B)requiring agencies to submit draft regulations to a White House office.
C)announcing surprise audits of agency budgets.
D)putting pressure on agency heads to fire civil servants who defy the president's wishes.
E)appointing administrators sympathetic to their policy goals and requiring agencies to submit draft regulations to a White House office.

Question 29

Rules that guide the operation of government programs are termed

A)regulations.
B)mandates
C)ordinances.
D)advisories.
E)dicta.

Question 30

A president can appoint about three thousand people to jobs in their administration,which represents __________ of all executive branch employees.

A)the vast majority
B)5 percent
C)less than 1 percent
D)about 20 percent
E)10 percent

Question 31

After an ExpressJet flight kept 47 passengers on board an aircraft overnight in Rochester,New York,the Department of Transportation announced a new set of rules limiting tarmac waits to

A)no more than seven hours.
B)one hour.
C)no more than three hours.
D)thirty minutes.
E)None of these choices is true.

Question 32

In recent years,morale of government employees has

A)declined, in part because of congressional budget actions.
B)increased because of a sense of mission associated with the war on terror.
C)no longer been measured because of budget cuts in the Inspector General's office.
D)remained consistently high, in spite of additional pressure placed on employees.
E)None of these choices is true.

Question 33

An example of the broad power available to federal agencies in 2013​ was the FDA banning ________ from foods.

A)​cancer-causing seasonings
B)​synthetic fats that cause some people to have digestive issues
C)​Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
D)​products that have been subject to irradiation
E)​trans fats

Question 34

The bureaucracy may not be fully responsive to a president's wishes because

A)pluralist pressures may pull the agency in a direction other than that favored by the president.
B)the agency head may dislike the president.
C)the president may make unreasonable demands on the agency.
D)the role of government is to protect the people from the power used by elected officials.
E)Congress funds most agencies.

Question 35

The legal powers of bureaucratic agencies derive from

A)a congressional grant of authority.
B)tradition.
C)a constitutional mandate.
D)delegation from the president.
E)implied powers.

Question 36

Congress has a tendency to grant _________ discretion to those agencies involved in domestic and global security.

A)the broadest range of
B)very little
C)no
D)statutory, but not administrative
E)administrative, but not statutory

Question 37

Presidential appointees in the executive branch fill the top policymaking positions in government,and some 1000 of them require

A)U.S. House of Representatives confirmation.
B)U.S. Supreme Court confirmation.
C)confirmation by two-thirds of both the House and the Senate.
D)U.S. Senate confirmation.
E)approval from a majority of the other department secretaries.

Question 38

New cabinet departments or agencies can be created

A)by executive order of the president.
B)by a regulation from a preexisting cabinet department.
C)by congressional law.
D)by executive order of the president and by congressional law.
E)by executive order of the president and by a regulation from a preexisting cabinet department.

Question 39

Committees can "punish" an agency by

A)cutting its budget.
B)altering a key program.
C)holding up the confirmation of nominees.
D)cutting its budget, altering a key program, and holding up the confirmation of nominees.
E)None of these choices is true.

Question 40

The U.S.Postal Service and Amtrak are examples of

A)off-line spending.
B)congressional intrusion into bureaucratic agencies.
C)consumer service departments.
D)government corporations.
E)independent agencies.

Question 41

Putting specific policies into operation is known as _____________.

A)​policy development
B)​the policy process
C)​incrementalism
D)​implementation
E)​bureaucratization

Question 42

The thorough and lengthy process the FDA uses to evaluate drugs was validated by the controversy involving

A)Plan B.
B)steroids.
C)thalidomide.
D)provastin.
E)hypoglyceritol.

Question 43

According to the text,the Obama administration's bailout of the financial services industry​ was

A)​unprecedented.
B)​an example of incremental change typical of bureaucratic activity.
C)​illegal.
D)​done without the level of control that would have been expected of the federal bureaucracy.
E)​an example of government intervention that was to be expected, given recent antecedents in current policy.

Question 44

Implementation of policies is often difficult because of all but which of the following reasons?

A)The policy to be carried out is not always clearly stated.
B)Policy directives to bureaucrats sometimes leave them with too much discretion.
C)Implementation involves many different agencies and layers of government.
D)Public policy problems can be extremely complex.
E)After policies are implemented, they must still undergo the development stage.

Question 45

During the Bush administrations struggle against terrorism,​

A)​many suspected terrorists were subjected to torture, though some were not actually involved in terrorism.
B)​CIA activity to combat terrorism was strictly limited by Congress.
C)​the CIA elected not to use secret prisons, although they were believed to be an effective weapon against terrorists.
D)​legal standards under which the CIA operated did not permit waterboarding and other forms of torture.
E)​the CIA was plagued by lack of a sense of mission.

Question 46

In implementing the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA),school administrators frequently offer families fewer services than the law calls for because

A)school administrators don't want to do the maximum for disabled children.
B)school administrators want to increase their salaries.
C)school administrators don't have enough money to provide services to all qualifying students.
D)Congressional requirements are so vague that administrators are worried about overstepping their authority.
E)under the law, families are responsible for requesting services, and often don't know what to do.

Question 47

Upon taking office,Barack Obama's regulatory agencies

A)began to issue regulations at a faster rate than George W. Bush's agencies.
B)actually issued fewer regulations than George W. Bush's agencies.
C)issued about the same number of regulations as George W. Bush's agencies.
D)issued far more regulations on health issues, while Bush offered more regulations concerning safety issues.
E)None of the above is true.

Question 48

Which act held agencies accountable for their performance?

A)The Government Performance and Results Act
B)The Agency Accountability Reform Act
C)The Agency Review Act
D)The Government Analysis Reform Act
E)The Bureaucratic Control Act

Question 49

​Among the important reasons government programs are not implemented successfully is that

A)​bureaucrats are only looking out for themselves and don't work to successfully implement programs.
B)​laws are usually written with the needs of political contributors, rather than the public, in mind.
C)​so many people don't pay their taxes that the government doesn't have adequate funding for public programs.
D)​very few people really want to be helped by the government; they'd rather just work out their problems on their own.
E)​the government sometimes attempts to implement programs that are not well-suited to bureaucracies.

Question 50

Which of the following is not accurate with respect to the ideal,rational decision-making process described by Charles Lindblom?

A)It does not reflect how decisions are made in the real world.
B)It calls for careful analysis of all possible solutions.
C)Administrators are expected to rank values and objectives.
D)It represents the typical behavior of government decision-makers.
E)Administrators are empowered to choose the alternative that appears to be the most effective means of achieving the desired goal.

Question 51

One significant difficulty with the initial No Child Left Behind law was that

A)the initial grants offered to states were too low to motivate compliance.
B)the federal government lacked bureaucratic manpower to analyze the data it demanded the states collect for it.
C)the questionable constitutionality of the act slowed state agencies' desire to follow it.
D)states were allowed to set their own standards for what constituted acceptable student performance.
E)too many tasks necessary for implementing the law were outsourced to private for-profit education companies.

Question 52

The rational-comprehensive model of policymaking is unrealistic because

A)it is difficult for policymakers to define precise values and goals.
B)the selected policy will not always be the most effective means to the goal.
C)comprehensive investigations into all solutions to any specific problem would be too time-consuming.
D)it is difficult for policymakers to define precise values and goals, the selected policy will not always be the most effective means to the goal, and comprehensive investigations into all solutions to any specific problem would be too time-consuming.
E)None of these choices is true.

Question 53

​___________________ is not one of the reasons government has continued to expand the extent of its regulatory authority.

A)​Ensuring safety of new products and technologies
B)Enforcing consistent ​regulatory standards among the states
C)​Harmonizing regulations with foreign countries and their regulatory agencies
D)​Increasing the freedom of businesses to police their own behavior and production
E)​Ensuring that American marketplace participants behave responsibly

Question 54

As a result of numerous high-profile incidents,at the end of 2009 the Department of Transportation issued regulations that

A)resulted in cost spikes for airline passengers and was repealed within a year.
B)led to increased flight delays and missed connections throughout 2010.
C)had the unintended consequence of increasing the average tarmac wait.
D)led to a wave of airline mergers in the following six months.
E)had the effect of reducing extended tarmac delays to nearly zero.

Question 55

According to Charles Lindblom,policymaking tends to be characterized by ________,with policies and programs changing bit by bit,step-by-step.

A)gridlock
B)the bureaucratic culture of the agency
C)incrementalism
D)funding increases
E)the agency's appointed head

Question 56

Often,the theoretically correct,or rational,policy is not enacted because

A)administrators lack the discretion to adopt rational policies.
B)bureaucrats, as humans, behave irrationally.
C)administrative rules hinder consideration of all options.
D)the policy will result in too much job loss.
E)the "right" policy is politically unacceptable.

Question 57

Because they believe it will promote efficiency and a growing economy,_________ have been champions of deregulation.

A)liberals.
B)communitarians.
C)conservatives.
D)bureaucrats.​
E)progressives.

Question 58

​If Google actually produces a driverless car,the text anticipates that government will be quick to regulate it because

A)they don't want Google's profits to be excessive.
B)​it's important for the government to ensure that all businesses are treated fairly in the marketplace.
C)​safety this new technology would have to be monitored.
D)​foreign companies might complain that Google had inequitable advantages from the American market.
E)​Google would be in competition with government-produced technology.

Question 59

The airline industry claimed that the new Department of Transportation rules limiting passenger tarmac waits on a plane would

A)create longer delays.
B)result in greater passenger satisfaction.
C)force airlines to hire more personnel.
D)reduce flight safety.
E)cause strikes and other labor disruptions.

Question 60

Bureaucrats "go by the book" because

A)"the book" consists of the laws they are obligated to enforce.
B)they are afraid of being rebuked by Congress if they depart from "the book."
C)they are unimaginative and "the book" provides ready-made answers.
D)they operate only within their narrow specialization.
E)they can hide behind it if their actions are unpopular.

Question 61

Discuss the reasons that government may have difficulties implementing public policy.​

Question 62

Identify the different types of governmental organizations and describe the features and functions of each.

Question 63

Despite the fact that Americans want smaller government,why is it politically risky to reduce the number of bureaucrats?

Question 64

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

Question 65

Discuss the impact of deregulation in the telephone and food and drug industries.

Question 66

Explain why attitudes changed in the twentieth century concerning government intervention in the economy,resulting in the growth of government bureaucracy.

Question 67

Describe the process through which executive agencies exercise their administrative policymaking authority.​

Question 68

What does the text mean when it refers to "bureaucratic culture"? Provide some examples of how norms affect bureaucratic behavior.

Question 69

Explain why Congress is often vague about its intent when setting up a new agency or program.

Question 70

Describe what the Pendleton Act (1883)was,and how it helped reduce patronage.