bureaucracy buzzwords

Bureaucracy

a large, complex organization of appointed officials; it includes all of the agencies, people, and procedures through which the federal government operates

Bureaucrat

someone who works in the bureaucracy

Cabinet department

one of 15 high level executive branch organizations that help the president run the country; example: department of defense 

Independent agencies

an executive agency that is not part of a cabinet department; in most cases the president appoints the head of the agency but cannot fire that person

Regulatory commissions

an agency of the executive branch that controls some part of the economy

Government corporations

a government agency that performs services that a private company probably would not provide; Example: Tennessee Valley Authority provides electricity to Appalacia (a poor, mountainous region of the east)

Government by proxy

federal services are not actually performed by federal employees but by private contractors or state and local employees

Incrementalism

the slow but steady increase in costs of programs over time because of inflation and increases in wages of bureaucrats; another definition is the slow, gradual change in policy rather than sudden sharp change

Deregulation

decreasing the amount of regulation; generally favored more by the Republicans