KTQ 08: Bureaucracy

Unit 2 Examination practice test #3

Implementation

Efforts of departments and agencies to translate laws into specific bureaucratic rules

Oversight

Efforts by Congress, through hearings, investigations, and other techniques, to exercise control of activities of departments and agencies

Fire alarm oversight

Episodic, as-needed congressional hearings on agency operations

Police Patrol oversight

Regular or preemptive congressional hearings on department and agency operations

Merit system

Appointees to positions in public bureaucracies must objectively be deemed qualified for those positions

Spoils System

Appointees to positions in public bureaucracies are based on politics, patronage, and/or nepotism.

Iron Triangle

Stable, cooperative relationships between a congressional committee, the departments and agencies it oversees, and supportive interest groups

Privatization

Transfer of all or part of a program from the public sector to the private sector

Devolution

Passing the responsibility for a program down to a lower level of government

Termination

Ending or eliminating a program, agency, or department

Revenue agency

Responsible for collecting taxes

Regulatory agency

Imposes limits, restrictions, or other obligations on the conduct of individuals or companies in the private sector

Government corporation

Performs a service normally provided by the private sector

Independent agency

Not part of a cabinet subunit of the executive branch

Department

Largest subunit of the executive branch

Fiscal agency

Creates or administers taxing and spending policies

Monetary agency

Creates or administers money and banking policies