APGoPo - The Federal Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy

A hierarchical authority structure that uses task specialization, operates on the merit principle, and behaves with impersonality.

Patronage

A system in which jobs and promotions are awarded for political reasons rather than for merit or competence.

Pendleton Civil Service Act

Passed in 1883, an act that created a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage.

Civil Service

A system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create nonpartisan government service.

Merit Principle

The idea that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotion ratings to produce administration by people with talent and skill.

Hatch Act

A federal law prohibiting government employees from active participation in partisan politics while on duty or for employees in sensitive positions at any time.

Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

The office in charge of hiring for most agencies of the federal government, using elaborate rules in the process.

Independent Regulatory Commission

A government agency with responsibility for making and enforcing rules to protect the public interest in some sector of the economy and for judging disputes over these rules.

Government Corporations

A government organization that, like business corporations, provides a service that could be delivered by the private sector and typically charges for its services. The U.S. Postal Service is an example.

Independent Executive Agencies

The government agencies not accounted for by cabinet departments, independent regulatory commissions, and government corporations. Administrators are typically appointed by the president and serve at the president's pleasure. NASA is an example.

Policy Implementation

The stage of policy making between the establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people affected. Implementation involves translating the goals and objectives of a policy into an operating, ongoing program.

Standard Operating Procedures

These procedures for everyday decisions making enable bureaucrats to bring efficiency and uniformity to the running of complex organizations. Uniformity promotes fairness and makes personnel interchangeable.

Administrative Discretion

The authority of administrative actors to select among various responses to a given problem. Discretion is greatest when routines, or standard operating procedures, do not fit a case.

Street-level Bureaucrats

bureaucrats who are in constant contact with the public and have considerable administrative discretion.

Regulation

The use of governmental authority to control or change some practice in the private sector.

Deregulation

The lifting of government restrictions on business, industry, and professional activities.

Command-and-Control Policy

The typical system of regulation whereby government tells business how to reach certain goals, checks that these commands are followed and punishes offenders.

Incentive System

An alternative to command-and-control, with marketlike strategies such as rewards used to manage public policy.

Executive Orders

Regulations originating with the executive branch. Executive orders are one method presidents can use to control the bureaucracy.

Iron Triangles

Also known as subgovernments, a mutually dependent, mutually advantageous relationship between bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees or subcommittees. Iron triangles dominate some areas of domestic policymaking.