Chapter.13 The Federal Bureaucracy Test Bank + Answers 13e

We The People, 13e (Patterson)

Chapter 13 The Federal Bureaucracy: Administering the Government

1) Which federal agency was lax in requiring the proper safety procedures that could have prevented the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

A) Environmental Protection Agency

B) Department of Labor

C) Department of Transportation

D) Minerals Management Service

E) Executive Office of the President

2) Bureaucracy is based on which of the following principles?

A) hierarchical authority

B) job specialization

C) formalized rules

D) hierarchical authority, job specialization, and formalized rules

E) None of these answers is correct.

3) Modern bureaucracy in America is best characterized in terms of

A) inefficiency, inflexibility, and red tape.

B) hierarchy, specialization, and rules.

C) honesty, efficiency, and patronage.

D) corruption, incompetence, and spoils.

E) waste, red tape, and lack of rules.

4) In promoting their agency's goals, bureaucrats rely on

A) their expert knowledge.

B) the backing of the president and Congress.

C) the support of clientele groups.

D) all of these: their expert knowledge; the backing of the president and Congress; and the support of clientele groups.

E) None of these answers is correct.

5) Which of the following agencies or departments is likely to have strong allies from a group of particular states in Congress?

A) the Department of State

B) the Central Intelligence Agency

C) the Environmental Protection Agency

D) the Department of Agriculture

E) the Federal Trade Commission

6) In the late 1800s, rapid economic growth placed new demands on the federal government and led it to

A) create new federal departments built around economic interests.

B) establish the Senior Executive Service.

C) reorganize the cabinet in order to make it the center of economic policy making.

D) both create new federal departments built around economic interests, and establish the Senior Executive Service.

E) None of these answers is correct.

7) The Department of ________ was founded in 1889.

A) Health and Human Services

B) State

C) Labor

D) Homeland Security

E) Agriculture

8) The number of employees in the federal bureaucracy is about ________.

A) 10 million

B) 2.5 million

C) 5 million

D) 700,000

E) 1 million

9) Compared to the president and Congress, the bureaucracy

A) is held in higher esteem by the public.

B) is authorized by a constitutional amendment rather than by the original Constitution.

C) has a more direct impact on the daily lives of Americans.

D) has changed very little during the nation's history.

E) is more easily controlled by the voters.

10) The cabinet department with the largest number of full-time civilian employees is the Department of

A) State.

B) Defense.

C) Labor.

D) Health and Human Services.

E) Education.

11) The Department of ________ was created in 2002.

A) Transportation

B) Energy

C) Education

D) Veterans Affairs

E) Homeland Security

12) Which of the following statements does NOT correctly describe independent agencies?

A) They have a more narrow area of responsibility than that of cabinet departments.

B) Their heads are appointed by an independent commission.

C) They include organizations like the CIA and NASA.

D) They sometimes exist independently of cabinet departments.

E) Their heads are appointed by the president.

13) Whenever Congress has a perceived need for ongoing control of an economic activity, it has tended to create a

A) regulatory agency.

B) cabinet department.

C) presidential commission.

D) government corporation.

E) blue ribbon panel.

14) The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are

A) all agencies within cabinet departments.

B) all independent agencies.

C) respectively, an independent agency, an agency within a cabinet department, and a regulatory agency.

D) two cabinet departments and a regulatory agency.

E) respectively, an agency within a cabinet department, an independent agency, and a regulatory agency.

15) Federal regulatory agencies have responsibility primarily in the area of

A) economic policy.

B) social welfare policy.

C) foreign and defense policy.

D) law enforcement policy.

E) environmental policy.

16) Regulatory agencies have

A) administrative, legislative, and judicial functions.

B) legislative and executive functions, but no judicial functions.

C) adjudicative and law enforcement functions.

D) multilateral, law enforcement, and executive functions.

E) None of these answers is correct.

17) Amtrak is an example of a(n)

A) cabinet department.

B) government corporation.

C) independent agency.

D) regulatory agency.

E) presidential commission.

18) Most federal civil servants are hired on the basis of

A) merit criteria.

B) patronage.

C) previous job experience in the private sector.

D) the personal preferences of immediate supervisors.

E) a lottery system.

19) When it was developed during the Jackson administration, the patronage system was designed to

A) provide jobs to merit appointees.

B) tie the administration more closely to the people it served.

C) increase congressional control of the bureaucracy.

D) increase judicial control of the bureaucracy.

E) provide jobs to lawyers.

20) As distinct from the patronage system, the merit system for managing the bureaucracy

A) allows the president to appoint top officials of executive agencies, thus making the bureaucracy more responsive to election outcomes.

B) provides for presidential leadership of the bureaucracy, thus giving it greater coordination and direction.

C) provides for a neutral administration in the sense that civil servants are not partisan appointees, thus ensuring neutral work.

D) provides that all programs will be evaluated regularly to determine whether they merit continued funding.

E) All of these answers are correct.

21) The ________ established a merit system for certain federal positions.

A) Morrill Act

B) Hatch Act

C) Pendleton Act

D) Taft-Hartley Act

E) National Performance Review

22) The federal bureaucracy today is

A) extremely wasteful and unresponsive to the public it serves.

B) an ineffective institution in comparison with bureaucracies of democracies with unitary systems.

C) more responsive to the public at large than to the particular interests that depend on its various programs.

D) a mix of the patronage and merit systems, with the vast majority of positions being filled by merit.

E) mostly dominated by patronage politics.

23) The administrative concept of neutral competence holds that the bureaucracy should

A) be staffed by people chosen on the basis of ability and do its work fairly on behalf of all citizens.

B) stay out of conflicts between Congress and the president.

C) be structured on the basis of the principles of specialization, hierarchy, and formal rules.

D) not allow in-fighting between agencies.

E) be staffed by partisan presidents.

24) Which of the following is true of federal employees and labor unions?

A) Federal employees are prohibited from forming labor unions.

B) Federal employees can form labor unions, but their unions by law have limited authority.

C) There are no restrictions on the creation and powers of labor unions by federal employees.

D) Among federal employees, only employees of government corporations can legally form labor unions.

E) Federal employees can form labor unions but are not allowed to participate in collective bargaining.

25) Federal civil service employees cannot legally

A) be fired from their jobs.

B) go on strike.

C) belong to a union.

D) be restricted in their political activities.

E) hold certain key jobs in election campaigns.

26) At the start of the annual budget cycle, the OMB assigns each agency a budget limit based on

A) the president's directives.

B) its own projections of what is affordable.

C) the Justice Department's instructions.

D) congressional guidelines.

E) the guidelines of the Commerce Department.

27) Which of the following steps in the federal budgetary process occurs earliest?

A) The agencies work on their budgets.

B) The president consults with the OMB on agency instructions.

C) Congress completes work on the appropriations bills.

D) Congress adopts a budget resolution.

E) The president submits budget proposals to Congress.

28) Which of the following steps in the federal budgetary process occurs latest?

A) The agencies work on their budgets.

B) The president consults with the OMB on agency instructions.

C) Congress completes work on the appropriations bills.

D) Congress adopts a budget resolution.

E) The president submits budget proposals to Congress.

29) Upon reaching Congress, what first happens to the president's budget proposal?

A) It is subjected to floor debate.

B) It goes to the House and Senate budget committees.

C) It is reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget.

D) It is marked up by the full Senate before moving to the House.

E) It is referred to the House and Senate appropriations committees.

30) What is the congressional equivalent of the Office of Management and Budget?

A) House Appropriations Committee

B) Senate Appropriations Committee

C) Congressional Budget Office

D) House Sergeant at Arms

E) General Accounting Office

31) What happens to the president's budget if it is approved by a vote of the House and Senate?

A) It is reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget.

B) It has reached its final approval and is implemented.

C) It is sent to the president to sign or veto.

D) It is given to the president for any further executive changes to be added.

E) It is referred to the House and Senate appropriations committees for implementation.

32) The federal government's fiscal year starts on

A) January 1.

B) March 1.

C) April 15.

D) July 1.

E) October 1.

33) Policy implementation refers to the bureaucratic function of

A) carrying out decisions made by Congress, the president, and the courts.

B) regulating the distribution of funds to individuals and corporations.

C) delegating legislative authority to smaller operating units of the bureaucracy.

D) both regulating the distribution of funds to individuals and corporations, and delegating legislative authority to smaller operating units of the bureaucracy.

E) None of these answers is correct.

34) What is the chief way administrative agencies exercise control over policy?

A) through the budget

B) by forming an iron triangle

C) rule-making for legislation

D) promoting an agency point of view

E) whistleblowing

35) Bureaucrats tend to follow

A) the wishes of the president.

B) the wishes of Congress.

C) their own agency's point of view.

D) the expectations of the general public.

E) the wishes of federal judges.

36) Bureaucrats are ________ and elected officials are ________.

A) generalists; specialists

B) generalists; generalists

C) specialists; generalists

D) specialists; specialists

E) popular; unpopular

37) ________ is/are most likely to understand trade issues in the United States.

A) The president

B) Members of the Senate

C) Career bureaucrats in the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission

D) Members of the House

E) Federal mediators

38) The special interests that benefit directly from a bureaucratic agency's programs are called

A) clientele groups.

B) pressure groups.

C) entitlement groups.

D) programmatic groups.

E) recipient groups.

39) The importance of clientele groups was especially clear in 2018 when President Trump proposed the 

A) Social Security System.

B) elimination of grants for new mass transit projects.

C) elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency.

D) elimination of PAC and Super PAC financing in elections.

E) U.S. Postal Service.

40) Regarding the educational background of bureaucrats, high-ranking civil servants in continental Europe tend to have a college major specializing in

A) natural sciences and engineering.

B) law or the humanities.

C) social sciences and the humanities.

D) business management.

E) journalism.

41) Studies have found that the U.S. federal bureaucracy

A) becomes far less effective as it grows over time.

B) is much less accountable than the bureaucracies of European democracies.

C) compares favorably in performance to government bureaucracies elsewhere.

D) is one of the least representative of minorities compared to others worldwide.

E) falls far short of the effectiveness of most foreign bureaucracies.

42) What were the "reinventing teams"?

A) teams appointed by Congress to propose budget cuts to the federal bureaucracy

B) groups of executive officials that were under the influence of "agency capture"

C) congressional committees designed to find ways to reduce the size of the national bureaucracy

D) teams that were formed under the National Performance Review to analyze and make recommendations about bureaucratic effectiveness

E) teams appointed by Congress to decide which branches of the federal bureaucracy could be eliminated

43) The National Performance Review addressed which of the following issues about the bureaucracy?

A) responsiveness

B) accountability

C) efficiency

D) the need to reduce red tape

E) All of these answers are correct.

44) Which of the following was the most recent broad initiative aimed at making the bureaucracy more responsive?

A) the Brownlow Commission

B) the National Performance Review

C) the Hoover Commission

D) the Volcker Commission

E) None of these answers is correct.

45) The president can hire about ________ full-time partisan employees to help him or her implement the presidential agenda.

A) 60

B) 150

C) 400

D) 600

E) 2,000

46) The typical presidential appointee spends about ________ on the job before leaving for other employment.

A) six months

B) one year

C) two years

D) three years

E) four years

47) Which of the following statements about how the courts hold the federal administrative agencies accountable is accurate?

A) The courts are considered the first line of defense against agency heads that have overreached in their administrative power.

B) The courts will typically support administrators if administrators have consistently administered the law.

C) Legally, the bureaucracy derives its power from precedent applied by the courts.

D) The courts rarely grant administrators any discretionary authority.

E) The courts have no power to make an agency change its policy.

48) Congress oversees the bureaucracy by using

A) sunset provisions.

B) the Government Accounting Office.

C) oversight hearings.

D) all of these: sunset provisions, the Government Accounting Office, and oversight hearings.

E) None of these answers is correct.

49) How has the Government Accountability Office's role changed?

A) It has acquired wide judicial and adjudication powers to deal with inter-agency disputes.

B) It has changed from a presidential-executive support agency to largely a congressional support agency.

C) It has been given broader powers over time to actually grant additional funds or take away funds directly from agencies.

D) It has its broad powers limited from general oversight down to keeping track of agency spending.

E) It has moved from a limited role of keeping track of agency spending to also monitoring whether the agency is implementing policies in the way Congress intended.

50) Legally, the bureaucracy derives general authority for its programs from

A) acts of Congress.

B) federalism.

C) regulatory rulings.

D) court rulings.

E) the will of the people.

51) The courts have tended to support administrators as long as their agencies

A) choose rules that save money.

B) apply a reasonable interpretation of a statute.

C) follow what the president demands of them.

D) have adequate funding.

E) don't come into conflict with state governments.

52) The Senior Executive Service was established in ________ and consists of about ________ career civil servants.

A) 1887; 800

B) 1911; 800

C) 1933; 1,300

D) 1961; 1,300

E) 1978; 7,000

53) When an individual believes that he or she was improperly disadvantaged by a bureaucrat's decision and contests the decision, the dispute is usually handled by

A) an administrative law judge.

B) a congressional oversight committee.

C) a federal appeals court.

D) a departmental or agency adjudication office.

E) the Supreme Court.

54) The Senior Executive Service (SES)

A) is composed of civil employees that can be fired more easily than normal career civil servants.

B) was designed to combat abuse of the patronage system.

C) is composed of civil employees that can be assigned by the president to any position within the bureaucracy.

D) has been more successful in practice than its proponents anticipated.

E) assigns most of its senior executives to work within a different agency than the one in which they originally worked.

55) An administrative law judge

A) usually works in any agency that needs her or his services.

B) runs trials, but all decisions are made by juries.

C) can gather evidence and take testimony.

D) issues only advisory opinions.

E) seeks to protect federal agencies, not individual citizens.

56) Which of the following is true of the federal government's demographic representativeness?

A) Because the federal government has reduced efforts to specifically promote women and minorities, the proportion of white males that hold top administration positions has increased in recent years.

B) If all employees are taken into account, the federal bureaucracy comes reasonably close to being representative of the nation's population.

C) Women and minorities are better represented in Congress and the judiciary than they are among the top ranks of administrators.

D) The concept of a demographically representative civil service was first endorsed by President Reagan in 1984.

E) There has been much more improvement in the representation of minorities in the civil service than in the representation of women.

57) Which group saw the largest percentage increase of SES positions between 1982 and 2011?

A) blacks

B) Hispanics

C) women

D) white men

E) All of these groups had about the same percentage increase.

58) About three in every five Senior Executive Service positions in the federal bureaucracy are held by

A) women.

B) white males.

C) African Americans.

D) Latino Americans.

E) Asian Americans.

59) Discuss the historical process by which the federal bureaucracy grew from its original size to its present size.

60) Identify four of the five major types of organizations within the federal bureaucracy, and give examples of each.

61) The two main systems of bureaucratic employment are the patronage and merit systems. Describe their respective goals and the major problems associated with each system.

62) What is the federal bureaucracy's main function?

63) What is the "agency point of view"? Why is it important?

64) Discuss three major sources of bureaucratic power.

65) Identify the major ways that the bureaucracy is held accountable by the president.

66) Identify the major ways that the bureaucracy is held accountable by Congress.