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reilley Gov Chapter
The Bureaucracy
44
Political Studies
12th Grade
03/23/2007

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Term
Definition
.
Term
Acquisitive Bureaucracies
Definition
Organizations that are self-perpetuating and demand funding that will result in the continued existence of the agency.
Term
Administrative Procedure Act
Definition
A law passed in 1946 requiring federal agencies to give notice, solicit comments, and sometimes hold public hearings before adopting any new rules.
Term
Annual Authorization
Definition
The practice of a legislative committee determining the amount an agency can spend on a yearly basis. This practice is a recent one and curtails the power of the appropriations committees.
Term
Appropriation
Definition
Money formally set aside for a specific use; issued by the House Appropriations Committee.
Term
Authorization Legislation
Definition
Legislation that originates in a legislative committee stating the maximum amount of money that an agency may spend on a given program.
Term
Buddy System
Definition
A job description by an agency which is tailor-made for a specific person. These appointments occur in middle- and upper-level positions in the bureaucracy.
Term
Bureaucracies
Definition
Large administrative agencies reflecting a hierarchical authority, job specialization, and rules and regulations that drive them.
Term
Bureaucratic Culture
Definition
An informal understanding among fellow employees of an agency as to how they are supposed to act.
Term
Civil Service Reform Act of 1964
Definition
Law that replaced the Civil Service Commission with the Office of Personnel Management and the Merit Systems Protection Board. These agencies are responsible for enforcing existing civil service laws, coordinating the testing of applicants, setting up pay scales, and appointing people to federal jobs.
Term
Committee Clearance
Definition
A request made by congressional committees to pass on certain agency decisions. Although usually not binding, it is seldom ignored by agencies.
Term
Competitive Service
Definition
The set of civil servants appointed on the basis of a written exam administered by the Office of Personnel Management or by meeting certain selection criteria.
Term
Conflict
Definition
A bureaucratic pathology in which some agencies seem to be working at cross-purposes to other agencies.
Term
Discretionary Authority
Definition
The ability of a bureaucracy to choose courses of action and make policies not spelled out in advance by laws.
Term
Duplication
Definition
A bureaucratic pathology in which two government agencies seem to be doing the same thing.
Term
Division of Labor
Definition
Skilled workers each have specialized function, resulting in increased productivity.
Term
Freedom of Information Act
Definition
A law passed in 1966 giving citizens the right to inspect all government records except those containing military, intelligence, or trade secrets, or material revealing private personnel actions.
Term
Government Corporation
Definition
Such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, created during the New Deal, having specific responsibilities that facilitate a specific operation of the government.
Term
Hatch Act (1939)
Definition
Law that places restrictions on the kind of political activity a federal employee may participate in.
Term
Imperialism
Definition
A bureaucratic pathology in which agencies tend to grow without regard to the benefits their programs confer or the costs they entail.
Term
Independent Regulatory Agencies
Definition
Agencies that are quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial in nature and operation. Examples include Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.
Term
Iron Triangle Network
Definition
The interrelationship among bureaucracies, the government, interest groups, and the public, which also establishes a pattern of relationships among an agency in the executive branch, Congress, and one or more outside clients of that agency.
Term
Issue Network
Definition
Members of Washington-based interest groups, congressional staffers, university faculty, experts participating in think tanks, and representatives of the mass media who regularly debate government policy on a certain subject. Such networks are placing the iron triangles.
Term
Laissez-faire
Definition
A belief in a freely competitive economy that was widely held in the late nineteenth century.
Term
Legislative veto
Definition
Congressional veto of an executive decision duringthe specified period it must lie before Congress before it can take effect. The veto is effected through a resolution of disapproval passed by either house or by both houses. These resolutions do not need the president’s signature. In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled such vetoes were unconstitutional, but Congress continues to enact laws containing them.
Term
Monopolistic Bureaucracies
Definition
Organizations where there is no competitive equal, such as the Social Security Administration, that also exists in the private sector. Thus the citizen is forced to deal with that particular government agency.
Term
Name-Request Job
Definition
A job in the federal bureaucracy that filled by a person whom an agency has already identified.
Term
National Environmental Policy Act
Definition
A law passed in 1969 requiring agencies to issue an environmental impact statement before undertaking any major action affecting the environment.
Term
Noncareer Executive Assignments
Definition
A form of patronage under the excepted service given to high ranking members of the regular competitive service, or to persons brought into the civil service at a high level who are advocates of presidential programs.
Term
Open Meeting Law
Definition
A law passed in 1976 requiring agency meetings to be open to the public unless certain specified matters are being discussed.
Term
Oversight
Definition
Congressional supervision of the bureaucracy.
Term
Pendleton Act
Definition
Known as the Civil Service Act of 1883, it set up merit as the criterion from hiring, promoting and firing federal employees.
Term
Privacy Act
Definition
A law passed in 1974 requiring government files about individuals to be kept confidential.
Term
Quasi Judicial
Definition
A characteristic of independent regulatory agencies that gives them judicial power to interpret regulations they create.
Term
Quasi Legislative
Definition
A characteristic of independent regulatory agencies that gives them legislative powers to issue regulations.
Term
Red Tape
Definition
Used to describe the difficulty it takes to get answers from a bureaucratic agency.
Term
REGO
Definition
Better known as reinventing government, the plan introduced by President Clinton and Vice President Gore that called for reducing the federal workforce by 12 percent, updating information systems, eliminating wasteful programs and procedures, and cutting red tape.
Term
Regulatory Policy
Definition
Policy that results in government control over individuals and businesses. Examples of regulatory policy include protection of the environment and consumer protection.
Term
Schedule C Job
Definition
A form of patronage under the excepted service for a position of “confidential or policy-determining” character below the level of the cabinet and subcabinet.
Term
Senior Executive Service
Definition
A special classification for high-level civil servants created by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. Members of this service can be hired, fired, and transferred more easily than ordinary civil servants. They also eligible for cash bonuses and, if removed, and guaranteed jobs elsewhere in the government. The purpose of the service is to give the president more flexibility in recruiting, assigning, and paying high-level bureaucrats with policy-making responsibility.
Term
Spoils System
Definition
Another phrase for political patronage, that is, the practice of giving the fruits of a party’s victory, such as jobs and contracts, to loyal members of that party.
Term
Trust Fund
Definition
Trust Fund
Term
Waste
Definition
A bureaucratic pathology in which an agency spends more than is necessary to buy some product or service.
Term
Whistle Blower Protection Act
Definition
A law passed in 1989 which created an Office of Special Counsel to investigate complaints from bureaucrats claiming they were punished after reporting to Congress about waste, fraud, or abuse in their agencies.
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