Unit 3.4 - American Government: Bureaucracy and Policy

What is a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives?

• Executive branch

• Congress

• Bureaucracy

• State legislatures

What act ended the spoils systems and created the civil service?

• Pendleton Act 1883

• Spoils System Act 1829

• The Hatch Act 1939

• Civil Service Reform Act 1929

Which bureaucracies are part legislative and part judicial institutions that monitor social and economic sectors for adherence to the rules and regulations governing these sectors and for fairness?

• Independent Regulatory Commissions

• Federal Departments

• Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal

• None of the above

What are the broad social purposes of bureaucracies?

• To implement public policy

• To grow as much as possible to offset and regulate capitalism

• To impose order and stability in society

• None of the above

How many Departments are in the cabinet?

• 10

• 15

• 19

• 50

Who are the bureaucrats in the federal bureaucracy?

• The Secretaries of each Department

• The undersecretaries of the Departments

• The civil service employees

• All the above

What are government corporations?

• Failed corporations taken over by the government like GM, Chrysler and major banks and financial institutions that collapsed in 2008

• All the independent agencies

• Government organizations that have to pay-as-they-go like the Post Office and Amtrak

• None of the above

What type of administrative system was used prior to the establishment of merit system in the federal bureaucracy?

• The spoils system

• Nepotism

• The Pendelton system

• None of the above

What political term describes trading loyalty for jobs and contracts?

• Spoils System

• Patronage

• Malfeasance

• Graft

The House Committee on Veterans Affairs, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) work together to achieve policies that benefit veterans.

This is an example of which of the following?

• Corporate lobbies

• Political action committees

• Issue networks

• Iron triangles