Exam 2 Review Political Science Chapter 13

Agency advisory committee

•  Group of outside experts, interest group representatives, or citizens that advises an agency on policy or rules. Gives agencies information and gives outsiders a voice.

Bureaucracy

• Large organization of appointed (not elected) officials who carry out laws and policy, marked by hierarchy, specialization, and rules (Max Weber's model).

Bureaucratic discretion

• The freedom bureaucrats have to interpret vague laws and decide how to implement them. Gives agencies real policy-making power.

Bureaucratic network

• The web of agencies, state and local governments, contractors, and nonprofits that together deliver policy. Much of government work is done through these networks rather than by one agency.

Bureaucrats

• Employees of government agencies who implement policy, mostly career civil servants rather than political appointees.

Civil service

• System of hiring and promoting government workers by merit (exams, qualifications) rather than political loyalty. Created by the Pendleton Act (1883), replacing the spoils system.

Coproduction

• Services are produced jointly by agencies and the people receiving them. Outcomes depend on citizen participation (students studying, taxpayers filing accurately, patients following treatment).

Critical tasks

• The behaviors an agency must carry out to accomplish its core mission. Employees' attention and agency culture tend to center on them (James Q. Wilson).

Departments

• The 15 largest cabinet-level agencies, each led by a secretary appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate (State, Defense, Treasury, and so on).

Executives

• Top agency leaders who set goals, represent the agency to outsiders (Congress, president, public), and secure resources. One of Wilson's three levels of bureaucrats.

Fire alarm oversight

• Congress reacts to complaints from citizens or interest groups about agency conduct rather than constantly monitoring. Efficient but reactive.

Government corporations

• Agencies run like businesses that charge for services and are partly self-funding (U.S. Postal Service, Amtrak, FDIC, Tennessee Valley Authority).

Incrementalism

• Policy and budgeting change in small steps from the status quo, not through big overhauls.

Independent agencies

• Agencies outside the cabinet departments that are headed by presidential appointees (NASA, EPA, CIA). Narrower in scope than departments.

Managers

• Mid-level officials who turn executives' goals into operations and supervise operators. One of Wilson's three levels.

Operators

• Front-line employees who do the agency's actual work and interact with the public (police officers, teachers, caseworkers). One of Wilson's three levels.

Organizational culture

• Shared values, norms, and habits in an agency that shape how employees behave and what they see as their job.

Police patrol oversight

• Congress proactively and regularly monitors agencies (hearings, reports, audits) instead of waiting for complaints. More thorough but costly. Contrast with fire alarm.

Red tape

• Excessive rules, forms, and procedures that slow decisions and frustrate citizens, often the byproduct of efforts to ensure accountability and fairness.

Regulations

• Rules with the force of law created by agencies to implement statutes.

Regulatory commissions

• Independent boards (SEC, FCC, FTC) that write rules and adjudicate disputes in a particular industry. Members have fixed terms and are balanced by party, so presidents can't fire them at will.

Representative bureaucracy

• Idea that the bureaucracy should reflect the demographic makeup of the population it serves, which can improve legitimacy and responsiveness.

Rulemaking

• Process by which agencies create regulations. Under the Administrative Procedure Act, they publish a proposed rule, accept public comment, then issue a final rule.

Satisficing

• Herbert Simon's idea that decision makers pick the first acceptable option rather than searching for the best one, because of limited time and information.

Sense of mission

• Employees' commitment to the agency's goals, which can boost motivation and effectiveness (and sometimes narrow focus).

Standing

• An agency's legitimacy and reputation with its political environment (Congress, the public, interest groups), which affects its ability to get support and resources. Check how your textbook defines this term.

Strategic triangle

• Framework (Mark Moore) for agency managers: define the public value to create, secure legitimacy and political support, and build the operational capacity to deliver.

Chevron doctrine

•  From Chevron v. NRDC (1984): when a statute is ambiguous, courts defer to an agency's reasonable interpretation. Boosted bureaucratic discretion. The Supreme Court overruled it in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024), shifting interpretive power back to courts.