LBrionesBureaucracy Study GuideAPGoPo

A. Read Bureaucracy reading and write 20 questions with answers (variety matters!).

B. Be familiar with the following concepts:

LBrionesBureaucracy Study GuideAPGoPo

Federal Bureaucracy

Spoils system

Patronage

Merit System

Pendleton Act (1883)

Civil Service system

Independent Regulatory Agency (Commissions)

Hatch Act (1939, 1993)

Office of Personnel and Management (OPM)

Government Corporation

Rule making

Regulations

Administrative adjudication

Federal Register

Oversight

Implementation

Iron Triangles

Issue Networks

Policy Coordinating Committees

LBrionesBureaucracy Study GuideAPGoPo

LBrionesBureaucracy Study GuideAPGoPo

C: In-depth:

The Bureaucrats

1. Describe the spoils system, and explain how it changed to the system of many rules that bureaucrats must follow today. Include the Pendleton Act and the Office of Personnel Management in your discussion.

2. How many employees work in the federal executive branch? (check Office of Personnel Management)

3. Explain the two basic procedures through which most federal bureaucrats obtain their jobs: OPM, recruitment.

a. How are members of bur. recruited from the plum book?

b. What is the “rule of three”?

4. Hatch Act (1993) ~~ Federal employees may….Federal employees may not…

Go to Gov't Employment graph and identify 3 trends (be specific). Notice the overall growth of federal gov’t employment marked by periods of decline.

5. What events may have caused these fluctuations?

Among the most significant trends in the US federal government have been the privatization,deregulation, and devolution of the functions of the federal bureaucracy and an increasing amount of power of interest groups and corporations in writing the rules of the bureaucracy.

6. Give 5 examples of Executive Departments & 5 of “larger Non-Cabinet Agencies” (pg. 470 text)

7. How can administrators (officials and agencies of executive branch) influence policy?

8. Complete the chart ~ THEORIES OF BUREACRACY

Theory / Describe the functions & organization
Weberian Model
Acquisitive
Monopolistic
“Garbage Can”

How Bureaucracies are Organized

9. Describe the functions of the four basic types of federal agencies:

cabinet department ~

regulatory agencies ~

government corporations ~

independent executive agencies ~

10. Identify the 15 Cabinet departments?

11. Regulatory agencies:

“Alphabet Soup” / Full name / Responsibilities
FRB
NLRB
FCC
FTC
SEC

12. How responsive are regulatory agencies to 1) the president? 2) The Congress? 3) Interest Groups?

13. What is the “granddaddy” of government corporations?

14. What is an example of a “sick industry” that has been turned into a government corporation?

15. Independent executive agencies generally act like Cabinet departments but perform services rather than regulatory functions. Identify the following:

NASA ~GSA ~

EPA ~NSF ~

16. Compare/contrast independent regulatory agency, independent executive agency, gov’t corporations.

Bureaucracies as Implementers

17. How are bureaucracies essentially implementers of policy & why does the process break down?

18. Use U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness graphic to answer the following questions:

a. How do the causes, goals, and solutions illustrated in the diagram show the need for interagency cooperation to solve the problem of homelessness?

b. How does this diagram reveal some of the challenges of interagency cooperation?

19. Discuss the “iron triangle” relationship and explain how this can be applied to both defense and agriculture. Must include the concept of the “revolving door.”

Toward Reform: Evaluate controls designed to make agencies more accountable

20. Discuss how each of the different branches of government have some oversight responsibilities over the bureaucracies. Provide specific examples.

D. PRACTICE QUESTIONS

21. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a bureaucracy?

  1. It bases its decisions on personal rules.
  2. The organization is large and hierarchical.
  3. Each employee is held accountable to a superior through a chain of command.

22. The Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, and Labor were all created in response to interest group pressure making them ______agencies.

  1. Clienteleb. collaborativec. collective

23. Which of the following is not an example of a government corporation?

  1. AmeriCorpsb. Federal Expressc. Corporation for Public Broadcasting

24. The ______is responsible for disease detection and prevention.

  1. National Institutes of Health
  2. Department of Health and Human Service
  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

25. Which of the following statements is incorrect regarding the federal bureaucracy?

  1. Only about 15 percent of the career civilian employees of the federal government work in the Washington area.
  2. Fewer than 10 percent of the bureaucrats work for welfare agencies.
  3. The government spends much more on welfare and assistance for the poor than it does for social security and defense.

26. Which of the following statements about the Office of Personnel Management is correct?

  1. It certifies the top five applicants for an opening.
  2. It does not advertise for new employees.
  3. It delegates to the individual agencies the responsibility for hiring new personnel.

27. In 1987 the cooperation among the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Organization for Women (NOW), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to defeat Robert Bork’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court was an example of

a. impeachmentd. the recall process

b. litigatione. the initiative process

c. coalition building

28. Federal employees are prohibited from active participation in partisan politics through the

a. 25th amendmentc. Hatch Act

b. Pendleton Actd. SCOTUS ruling in Democratic Nat’l Committee v. Hayes

29. The largest portion of the federal budget covers the costs of

a. national defensed. entitlement programs

b. social welfare programse. tax collection

c. interest on the national debt

30. The rationale for all civil service systems is based on

a. the plum bookd. patronage

b. the merit principlee. Voluntary service

c. the Hatch Act