Chapter 15
AP US Government
Definitions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Appropriation
Authorization legislation
Bureaucracy
Committee clearance
Competitive service
Discretionary authority
Government by proxy
8. Iron triangle
9. Issue network
10. Laissez-faire
11. Legislative veto
12. Name-request job
13. Red tape
14. Trust fund
Questions
1. What makes the American bureaucracy distinct? What is the scope of the federal
bureaucracy?
2. What is government by proxy? What are the advantages to government by proxy? What
are the disadvantages to government by proxy?
3. How did the federal bureaucracy grow from our founding to modern day? Be specific.
4. What effect did 9/11 have on the federal bureaucracy?
5. How has the federal bureaucracy grown directly and indirectly?
6. What factors explain the behavior of officials?
7. How are people recruited into the federal bureaucracy? How are they retained?
8. What is competitive service? What is excepted service? How does each one work?
9. What is the buddy system? What are the advantages of the buddy system?
10. How do you fire a bureaucrat?
11. What are the personal attributes of bureaucrats?
12. Do bureaucrats sabotage their political bosses?
13. What are the general constraints on hiring, firing, pay, and other employment procedures
for bureaucrats?
14. What are the effects of these constraints?
15. Where do agencies seek alliances? How does the iron triangle work? Why is this
significant?
16. What are the forms of Congressional oversight for the bureaucracy?
17. What can the Appropriations Committee do to provide oversight for the federal
bureaucracy?
18. What are two informal congressional controls over the bureaucracy?
19. What is the legislative veto? What Supreme Court case declared this unconstitutional?
Why is this still debated today?
20. What are the five major complaints about the bureaucracy?
21. How many reform attempts to the bureaucracy were attempted in the 1900s?
22. What did these prior reforms stress?
23. What was the National Performance Review (1993), and what did it call for?
24. What did President George W Bush try to do to reform the bureaucracy?
25. What affect does divided government have on bureaucratic reform?