Chapter 8: Bureaucracy Definitions

Department of War

(in 1947 consolidated, along with the Department of the Navy, a later creation, into the Department of Defense)-responsible for military matters and national defense

Whistleblowers Protection Act

A federal law intended to prevent employees in the bureaucracy from being punished for reporting or revealing government misconduct.

Civil Service System

A government employment system in which employees are hired on the basis of their qualifications and cannot be fired merely for belonging to the wrong political party; originated with the federal Pendleton Act in 1883 and expanded at other levels of government In the half-century that followed.

Hatch Act

A law that limits the participation of federal employees in political campaigns.

Patronage System (Spoils system)

A system that rewards the supporters of successful political candidates and parties with government jobs while firing supporters of the opposing party.

Government Corporations

Agencies with independent boards and the means to generate revenue through sales of products and services, fees, or insurance premiums, and which are intended to run like private corporations.

Whistleblowers

An employee who reports or reveals misconduct by government officials or others.

Bureaucracy

An organization with a hierarchical structure and specific responsibilities intended to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. In government, it refers to departments and agencies in the executive branch.

Department

Any of the 15 major government agencies responsible for specific policy areas whose heads are unusually called secretaries and serve in the president's cabinet.

Independent Agencies

Federal agencies with narrow responsibilities for a specific policy issue, such as the environment, not covered by one of the fifteen departments.

Issue Networks (Policy Communities)

Interest groups, scholars, and other experts that communicate about, debate, and interact regarding issues of interest and thus influence public policy when the legislature acts on those issues.

Regulations

Legal Rules created by government agencies based on authority delegated by the legislature.

Administrative Law Judge

Official who presides over quasi-judicial proceedings within government agencies and renders decisions about disputes governed by statutes, such as appeals from denials of Social Security disability benefits.

Independent Regulatory commission

Organizational entities in the federal government that are not under the control of the president or a department.

Senior Executive Service

Program within the federal executive branch, established by congress in 1978 to enable senior administrators to be moved between jobs in different agencies to enhance the performance of the bureaucracy.

Decentralization

Proposed reform for government agencies intended to increase efficiency in administration and create closer contacts with the local public; permits regional and local offices to manage their own performances without close supervision from headquarters.

Department of State

Responsible for diplomacy and foreign affairs.

Privatization

The process of turning some responsibilities of government bureaucracy over to private organizations on the assumption that they can administer and deliver services more effectively and inexpensively.

Iron triangle

The tight relationships between employees in government agencies, interest groups, and legislators and their staff members, all of whom share an interest in specific policy issues and work together behind the scenes to shape laws and public policy.

Department of Justice

responsible for legal matters under federal law

Department of the Treasury

responsible for tax revenues and government expenditures