Chapter 15 American Government Study Questions and Terms

Bureaucracy

An administrative group of nonelected officials charged with carrying out functions connected to a series of policies and programs.

Bureaucrats

the civil servants or political appointees who fill nonelected positions in government and make up the bureaucracy.

Civil servants

The individuals who fill nonelected positions in government and make up the bureaucracy; also known as bureaucrats.

Government corporation

A corporation that fulfills an important public interest and is therefore overseen by government authorities to a much larger degree than private businesses.

Merit system

a system of filling civil service positions by using competitive examinations to value experience and competence over political loyalties.

Negotiated rulemaking

A rulemaking process in which neutral advisors convene a committee of those who have vested interests in the proposed rules and help the committee reach a consensus on them.

Patronage

The use of government positions to reward individuals for their political support.

Pay schedule

A chart that shows salary ranges for different levels of positions vertically and for different ranks of seniority horizontally.

Privatization

Measures that incorporate the market forces of the private sector into the function of government to varying degrees.

Public administration

The implementation of public policy as well as the academic study that prepares civil servants to work in government.

Red tape

The mechanisms, procedures, and rules that must be followed to get something done.

Spoils system

A system that rewards political loyalties or party support during elections with bureaucratic appointments after victory.

Whistleblower

A person who publicizes misdeeds committed within a bureaucracy or other organization.

During George Washington’s administration, there were ________ cabinet positions.

4

The “spoils system” allocated political appointments on the basis of ________.

Party Loyalty

Two recent periods of large-scale bureaucratic expansion were ________.

1930s and 1960s

Briefly explain the underlying reason for the emergence of the spoils system.

The spoils system emerged as a way for political leaders to reward supporters with government jobs, ensuring loyalty and strengthening party organization.

The Civil Service Commission was created by the ________.

Pendleton Act of 1883

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 created the Office of Personnel Management and the ________.

Merit Systems Protection Board

Briefly explain the benefits and drawbacks of a merit system.

A benefit of the merit system is that it helps to ensure the most qualified applicants are given the position. A drawback is that the bureaucracy is less responsive to the will of elected leaders than under patronage.

Which describes the ideal bureaucracy according to Max Weber?

An apolitical, hierarchically organized agency.

Which of the following models of bureaucracy best accounts for the way bureaucracies tend to push Congress for more funding each year?

The acquisitive model.

An example of a government corporation is ________.

Amtrak

Briefly explain why government might create a government corporation.

Congress tends to create government corporations to perform services that respond to market forces but are too important to the public to be allowed to fail.

The Freedom of Information Act of 1966 helps citizens exercise oversight over the bureaucracy by ________.

Opening government record to citizen scrutiny.

When reformers speak of bureaucratic privatization, they mean all the following processes except ________.

Whistleblowing

Briefly explain the advantages of negotiated rulemaking.

Negotiated rulemaking allows stakeholders to participate in the rule-making process, reducing conflict, improving cooperation, and leading to more practical and widely accepted regulations.