Chapter 13. The Bureaucracy (Inquizitive)
One of the single largest expansions of the bureaucracy happened in the ____ when Franklin Roosevelt created the ______, a series of government programs that created many new government agencies.
- 1930s - New Deal
Look at the infographic about the bureaucracy and legislation and then put these events in the order in which they occur, from earliest to latest.
- Congress passes a bill - The president signs a bill into law - The bureaucracy initially interprets the law - The bureaucracy gets feedback from others about its interpretation of the law
Place the following steps involved in the notice-and-comment procedure in the order in which they would occur.
- Congress passes a law changing existing statute - The agency tasked to implement the statute writes a proposed regulation - Parties affected by the potential new regulation submit comments and proposed changes - The agency alters and issues a revised regulation
Within the __________ you can find the __________, which is responsible for preparing the president's annual budget proposal to Congress.
- Executive Office of the President - Office of Management and Budget
_________ represents the knowledge, personnel, and institutions needed to effectively implement policies that benefit society.
- State capacity
Study the How It Works feature, and then complete the following statement. After the president signs a bill into law, _______ interpret the law, while _________ offer information and suggestions for implementation, trying to insert their preferences into the regulations. After implementation, challenges to the law are dealt with by _________.
- bureaucrats - interest groups - the courts
The federal bureaucracy is composed of millions of _____ and thousands of _________.
- civil servants - political appointees
Civil service regulations sacrifice some of the bureaucracy's ______ in exchange for ______ protection from political forces.
- flexibility - greater
The spoils system was characterized by placing priority on_______ over ________, which was particularly useful to _______.
- party loyalty - policy expertise - political parties
How do bureaucracies influence state capacity?
Bureaucracies boost state capacity with their knowledge of, and experience in implementing, policy
The bureaucracy was transformed from the late 1880s to the 1920s. What changes marked this transformation?
Correct Ans: - Bureaucratic hiring became less political. - The bureaucracy gained greater regulatory power. Incorrect Ans: - The bureaucracy transformed as the spoils system grew more powerful. - The bureaucracy spent more effort on local concerns and less on regulation.
How can the development and revision of federal regulations become political or controversial?
Correct Ans: - Bureaucrats must rely on Congress to secure authority for their agency. - Bureaucrats fear that displeasing Congress might lead to loss of funding. Incorrect Ans: - Many bureaucrats are elected and must respond to voters' needs. - Members of Congress typically write most of the specifics of regulations to be implemented.
How do federal presidential appointees differ from employees within the civil service system?
Correct Ans: - Federal presidential appointees make up the top leadership positions of most cabinet departments. - Federal presidential appointees can be - members of the Senior Executive Service. Incorrect Ans: - Federal presidential appointees must have the same qualifications as the civil servants they supervise. - Federal presidential appointees are less likely to be members of the president's party.
Which of the following options are reasons that members of Congress tend to prefer fire alarm oversight?
Correct Ans: - Fire alarm oversight is a more efficient use of time. - Fire alarm oversight is less likely to waste taxpayers' dollars. Incorrect Ans: - Fire alarm oversight stops problems before they happen.
Which of the following apply to jobs offered by or acquired through the civil service system?
Correct Ans: - Higher-level positions require a college or advanced-education degree. - Civil service salaries are intended to be close to those for similar positions in the private sector. Incorrect Ans: - Civil service regulations are applied to roughly a third of the positions in the federal workforce. - Civil service positions require an applicant to demonstrate they have voted in the past.
How is a Senior Executive Service position different from other bureaucratic positions?
Correct Ans: - It is often a short-term position. - It does not have civil service protections. Incorrect Ans: - Appointments are subject to Supreme Court review. - It must be confirmed by the Senate.
Which of the following are true of the New Deal?
Correct Ans: - It was partially initiated to combat the Great Depression. - It greatly increased the power of the president. Incorrect Answer(s) - It largely ended the segregation systems of southern states. - It reduced the federal role in the economy to increase economic growth.
Which of the following can we conclude from the figure?
Correct Ans: - Most federal workers are employed in white collar jobs such as managerial and professional positions. - Very little of the federal government is employed directly in farming, fishing, and forestry. Incorrect Ans: - Most federal government jobs are service-sector positions.
How do independent agencies differ from executive departments?
Correct Ans: - The president has less control over independent agencies' operations. - Most independent agencies carry out very specialized functions. Incorrect Ans: - Independent agencies are subject to more congressional oversight. - Independent agencies' leadership is more politicized.
Why are regulations often controversial?
Correct Ans: - They are made under uncertain circumstances. - They involve trade-offs between incompatible goals. Incorrect Ans: - They do not solve the problem of control. - They are written by political appointees in the bureaucracy.
The Great Society saw bureaucratic expansions into which of the following areas?
Correct Ans: - civil rights - education - health care Incorrect Ans: - Social Security
The Department of Agriculture and the Department of Veterans Affairs are examples of which of the following?
Correct Ans: - executive departments Incorrect Ans: - congressional committees - independent agencies
Which of the following describe the role of the bureaucracy?
Correct Ans: - implement policies of the president - interpret congressional statutes Incorrect Ans: - write laws on an agency's policy area - determine the constitutionality of Congress's actions
Which of the following are examples of a member of Congress performing police patrol oversight?
Correct Ans: - initiating a bureaucratic audit - interviewing senior bureaucratic personnel Incorrect Ans: - responding to calls from lobbyists and concerned citizens - responding to reports by journalists about bureaucratic actions
A scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been in her federal job, which she gained through the civil service system, for five years. The first three of those years were characterized by stellar performance evaluations. In the last two years, her performance has declined dramatically. Which of the following steps will have to be completed by the division manager in order to fire this employee?
Correct Ans: - show multiple poor performance evaluations for recent years - win an appeals process in which the employee defends her right to keep the job - prove that the employee was warned multiple times about her poor performance with formal letters Incorrect Ans: - prove that the employee is of a political affiliation different from that of the president who appointed her
Watch the animation, and then identify which groups of people might influence the way the bureaucracy interprets and implements a law.
Correct Ans: - the courts - the president - private citizens - interest groups
A scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been in her federal job, which she gained through the civil service system, for five years. The first three of those years were characterized by stellar performance evaluations. In the last two years, her performance has declined dramatically. What action(s) is her division manager most likely to take?
Correct Ans: - transfer the employee to another office - assign the employee different responsibilities. Incorrect Ans: - nothing; keep the responsibilities and workload the same - initiate proceedings to fire her
In what political activities can a federal employee participate?
Correct Ans: - vote - serve as an officer of a political party - fundraise for a campaign Incorrect Ans: - use office resources to support a candidate
Which of the following statements about the size and perception of federal spending are accurate?
Correct Ans: - The size of federal budgets is primarily due to the country's size and population. - Cutting services and government programs is typically unpopular. Incorrect Ans: - Budget-maximizing bureaucrats who seek to increase agency budgets are behind the expansion of the bureaucracy. - Recent administrations have made it a point to increase their executive department budgets.
Which of the following are common strategies for preventing bureaucratic drift?
Correct Ans: - organizing an agency to fit within a -particular government structure - using standardized procedures in the monitoring of agency behavior - appointing specific individuals to run the agency Incorrect Ans: - constantly investigating bureaucratic offices - regularly firing bureaucrats
"Red tape" refers to the difficulty in ensuring that bureaucrats will follow the intentions of politicians.
False
Conservative presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, along with their Republican counterparts in Congress, were able to dramatically shrink the federal bureaucracy.
False
Independent agencies have the same level of oversight and political control as executive departments.
False
The practice of appointing campaign workers and donors to executive agencies ended with the spoils system.
False
Match the president to the program or act he enacted that changed the scope of federal government.
George W. Bush - federal control over local education Franklin D. Roosevelt - Social Security Act Lyndon B. Johnson - health care for the poor
Match the change in the federal bureaucracy to its appropriate period.
Great Society - Civil rights reforms New Deal - Social Security Act Progressive Era - Sherman Antitrust Act - Pure Food and Drug Act pre-Civil War - creation of spoils system
Match each concept to its example.
Red Tape - Individuals seeking to obtain a small business loan from the government must complete a lengthy process involving many meetings and forms. Problem of control - Congress wants the bureaucracy to regulate certain chemical emissions, but the FDA interprets the law in a way that allows the emissions to continue. State capacity - The country is able to successfully end poverty through government action.
Review the table, and then answer the following question. Why might the Department of Education, last on the list, have so much smaller a workforce than the Department of Defense, even though education in the United States also requires a massive workforce?
State and local gov employ most of the people involved in education
Which of the following would be an example of bureaucratic drift?
The EPA designs protections for an endangered species that are in addition to those strictly required by law, based on the desires of its own specialists
Which of the following is an example of regulatory capture?
The Environmental Protection Agency allows coal producers to write many of the regulations on coal pollution limits
If a president wants to correct bureaucratic drift within an agency but lacks congressional support to do so, what can the president actually do?
The president can request that the agency head change the behavior of lower-level bureaucrats
In what major way did the Great Society programs fail to fulfill one of their key intended purposes?
They ultimately did little to decrease poverty
If Congress is concerned about bureaucratic drift, why doesn't it write laws to be more specific?
This would lose the benefit of bureaucratic expertise
As a veteran, you contact your member of Congress because the Department of Veterans Affairs improperly denied a claim that you are entitled to. By doing this, you are helping your member of Congress participate in fire alarm oversight
True
Fire alarm oversight is the method whereby members of Congress respond to complaints about the bureaucracy or problems of implementation only as they arise.
True
Standard operating procedures are often used by Congress to control the actions of low-level bureaucrats.
True
Standard operating procedures exist in part because of Congress's desire to control the bureaucracy.
True
The EPA has been subject to the political desires of the various presidents who have headed the executive branch.
True
The main role of presidential appointees in the bureaucracy is to order or persuade their staff to carry out presidential goals.
True
The problem of control comes about because bureaucrats often have different goals than members of Congress or the president
True
Imagine a situation in which there is a president who prefers less environmental regulation of business. She orders the EPA to ease up on its enforcement of existing environmental rules. Because the people who work for the EPA tend to favor environmental regulation, they ignore the president's orders as much as they can get away with. This is an example of which concept?
a principal-agent game
The system of civil servants and political appointees who implement congressional or presidential decisions is known as what?
bureaucracy
What is bureaucratic drift?
bureaucrats' tendency to implement policies in a way that favors their own political objectives rather than following the original intentions of the legislation
The federal bureaucracy expanded dramatically from 1816 to 1860. What promoted this expansion?
geographic expansion and the Postal Service
What are the Federal Reserve System, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation examples of?
independent agencies
Match the branch of government to its position in the principal-agent relationship.
principal - Congress - president agent - bureaucracy
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) often levies fines well below what is allowed by the law when discovering violations of safety laws by corporations. What strategy is OSHA pursuing when doing this?
seeking the support of private companies against congressional attempts to reduce or end the agency
Civil service regulations make for an inflexible federal workforce. Why do we have such strict regulations?
so that elected officials are unable to influence the workforce based on political or reelection needs
Juan goes into his college's advising office to ask a question about a course. Before he can ask that question, he is told he must fill out an advising template. Juan believes this is a bit foolish as he's just there to ask a simple question, but he is told that everyone who wishes to speak with an advisor must have a completed template. What is this an example of?
standard operating procedure
