We The People: Thomas Patterson- Chapter 13- The Federal Bureaucracy- Quiz Questions
Which of the following is a principle of bureaucratic organization?
Hierarchical authority, job specialization, and formalized rules.
Compared to the president and Congress, the bureaucracy
Has a more direct impact on the lives of Americans.
Which of the following statements does NOT correctly describe the typical independent agency?
Its head is appointed by an independent commission.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are
Respectively, an agency within a cabinet department, an independent agency, and a regulatory agency.
Federal regulatory agencies have a responsibility primarily in the area of
Economic Policy.
Regulatory agencies have
Administrative, legislative, and judicial function.
Most employees are hired on the basis of
Merit Criteria.
Policy implementation refers to the bureaucratic function of
Carrying out decisions made by Congress, the president, and the courts.
As distinct from the patronage system, the merit system for managing the bureaucracy
Provides a neutral administration in the sense that civil servants are not partisan appointees, thus ensuring even-hand work.
When it was developed during the Jackson administration, the patronage system was designed to
Tie the administration more closely to the people it served.
In the 1800s, rapid economic growth placed new demands on the federal government and it led to
Create new federal departments built around economic interests.
The federal bureaucracy today is
A mix of the patronage and merit systems.
The special interests that benefit directly from a bureaucratic agency's programs are called
Clientele Groups.
Which of the following is true of the federal government's demographic representativeness?
If all employees are taken into account, the federal bureaucracy comes reasonable close to being representative of the nation's population.
The cabinet department with the largest number of full-time civilian employees is the Department of
Defense.
Regarding the education background of bureaucrats, high-ranking civil servants in continental Europe, compared to American bureaucrats, tend to have a college major specializing in
Law.
The National Performance Review addressed which of the following issues about the bureaucracy?
All of these issues: responsiveness, accountability, and efficiency.
The number of employees in the federal bureaucracy is about
2.5 million.
The chief way that administrative agencies exercise power over policy is through
Rule-making, or deciding how a law will operate in practice.
Amtrak is an example of a(n)
Government Corporation.
Which of the following agencies or departments is likely to have strong allies from a group of particular states in Congress?
The Department of Agriculture.
Studies have found that the U.S. federal bureaucracy
Compares favorably in performance to government bureaucracies elsewhere.
What "multiple-use" policy is the U.S. Forest Service tasked with?
Preserving forests for environmental reasons, and opening them up for logging.
__________ is/are most likely to understand the trade issues in the United States.
Career bureaucrats in the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission.
The __________ established a merit system for certain federal positions.
Pendleton Act.
Whenever Congress has perceived need for ongoing control of an economic activity, it has tended to create a
Regulatory Agency.
The administrative concept of neutral competence holds that the bureaucracy should
Be staffed by people chosen on the basis of ability and do its work fairly on behalf of all citizens.
In terms of holding the bureaucracy accountable, the most important unit within the Executive Office of the President is
Office of Management and Budget.
When an individual believes that he or she was improperly disadvantaged by a bureaucrat's decision and contests the decision, the dispute is usually handled by
Administrative Law Judge.
How has the Government Accountability Office's role changed?
It has moved from a limited role of keeping track of agency spending to also monitoring whether the agency is implementing policies in the way Congress intended.
The Department of __________ was created in 2002.
Homeland Security.
The courts have tended to support administrators as long as their agencies
Can apply a reasonable interpretation of a statute.
The Department of __________ was founded in 1889.
Agriculture.
Which of the following was the most recent broad initiative aimed at making the bureaucracy more responsive?
The National Performance Review.
The importance of clientele groups was especially clear in 1995 when House speaker Newt Gingrich threatened to "zero out" funding for the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Bureaucracy is best characterized in terms of
Hierarchy, specialization, and rules.
In promoting their agency's goals, bureaucrats rely on
All of these: their expert knowledge, the backing of the president and Congress, and the support of clientele groups.
Congress oversees the bureaucracy by using
All of these: sunset provisions, the Government Accounting Office, and enabling provisions.
At the start of the annual budget cycle, the OMB assigns each agency a budget limit based on
The president's directives.