A pattern of stable relationships between an agency in the executive branch, a congressional committee or subcommittee, and one or more organized groups of agency clientele is the definition of a (n)
Select one:
a. issue network.
b. clientele group.
c. picket-fence legislation.
d. iron triangle.
answer
d. iron triangle.
FEEDBACK: This configuration, known as an iron triangle, forms a pattern of stable relationships among an agency in the executive branch, a congressional committee or subcommittee, and one or more organized groups of agency clientele.
question
A recent example of a high-profile Congressional oversight hearing includes which of the following?
Select one:
a. the attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya
b. the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria
c. the San Bernardino terrorist attack
d. the investigation into Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
answer
a. the attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya
FEEDBACK: Oversight is the effort by Congress, through hearings, investigations, and other techniques, to exercise control over the activities of executive agencies. Recent examples include Benghazi, reform of the postal service, and security concerns over the healthcare.gov website.
question
After Congress makes laws, bureaucracies are in charge of _____ them.
Select one:
a. implementing
b. revising
c. appealing
d. ratifying
answer
a. implementing
FEEDBACK: Congress is responsible for making the laws, but in most cases legislation only sets the broad parameters for government action. Bureaucracies are responsible for filling in the blanks by determining how the laws should be implemented.
question
Agencies responsible for collecting taxes, both domestic and external, include the IRS for income taxes, the U.S. Customs Service for tariffs and other taxes on imported goods, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for the collection of taxes on the sale of those particular products. Together, they are called
Select one:
a. revenue agencies.
b. tax authorities.
c. tax commissions.
d. revenue commissions.
answer
a. revenue agencies.
FEEDBACK: One of the first actions Congress took under President George Washington was to create the Department of the Treasury, and probably its oldest function is the collection of taxes on imports, called tariffs. Now part of the Department of Homeland Security, federal customs agents are located at every U.S. seaport and international airport to oversee the collection of tariffs. But far and away the most important of the revenue agencies is the IRS, a bureau within the Treasury Department.
question
An example of an independent agency, that is, an agency that is not part of a cabinet department, would be which of the following?
Select one:
a. the Forest Service
b. the Supreme Court
c. the Central Intelligence Agency
d. the Federal Bureau of Investigation
answer
c. the Central Intelligence Agency
FEEDBACK: Not all government agencies are part of cabinet departments. Some independent agencies are set up by Congress outside the departmental structure altogether. Some examples include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
question
Created in 2002, the ____ joined the Justice Department as the major bureaucracy charged with domestic security.
Select one:
a. FBI
b. Criminal Division
c. Department of War
d. Department of Homeland Security
answer
d. Department of Homeland Security
FEEDBACK: In 2002 the new Department of Homeland Security joined the Justice Department as the major bureaucracy charged with domestic security. The department took over some of the security-oriented agencies previously controlled by other departments.
question
During the last thirty years, federal employment as a percentage of the total workforce has
Select one:
a. declined slightly.
b. not changed much.
c. risen significantly.
d. risen sharply.
answer
a. declined slightly.
FEEDBACK: Since 1950, the ratio of federal employment to the total workforce has been steady, and in fact has declined slightly in the past 30 years.
question
In 2010, Congress and the president created the ___ to identify systemwide risks to the financial sector.
Select one:
a. Internal Revenue Commission
b. Treasury Department
c. Financial Stability Oversight council
d. Revenue Agency
answer
c. Financial Stability Oversight council
FEEDBACK: In 2010 the Financial Stability Oversight Council was created to identify systemwide risks to the financial sector. As part of its duties, the council devised a rule to identify "systemically important" nonbank financial companies that would pose a grave threat to U.S. financial stability in the event that they failed and to prompt stiffer regulatory oversight of those companies.
question
In contrast to presidents Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush, President Obama has
Select one:
a. not cut a major government program or agency.
b. not contributed to the growth of the federal workforce.
c. not criticized big government as a problem or a thing of the past.
d. initiated strong reviews of federal bureaucracy to attempt to find efficiencies and savings.
answer
c. not criticized big government as a problem or a thing of the past.
FEEDBACK: Whereas presidents Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush all either proclaimed an end to big government or an intention to fight to reduce the size of government, President Obama has concentrated on mentioning ways in which government intervention can be helpful.
question
President Carter's "zero-based budgeting" called for
Select one:
a. a significant portion of each agency's staff to be privatized from year to year.
b. each agency to have no increase in budget from year to year.
c. each agency to rejustify its entire mission rather than merely its next year's increase.
d. initial budgetary decisions to be made by the White House.
answer
c. each agency to rejustify its entire mission rather than merely its next year's increase.
FEEDBACK: Carter tried to impose a stringent budgetary process on all executive agencies. Called "zero-based budgeting," it was a method of budgeting from the bottom up, whereby each agency was required to rejustify its entire mission rather than merely its next year's increase.
question
Privatization is
Select one:
a. when a private service is bought out by the government, essentially nationalizing it.
b. when a public service goes bankrupt and is no longer offered as a result.
c. when a formerly public service is provided by a private company but paid for by the government.
d. when a public service is outsourced to a company overseas.
answer
c. when a formerly public service is provided by a private company but paid for by the government.
FEEDBACK: Most of what is called privatization is the provision of government goods and services by private contractors under direct government supervision. Privatization simply means that a formerly public activity is picked up under contract by a private company or companies.
question
Taxing and spending policies are called
Select one:
a. monetary policy.
b. redistribution policies.
c. fiscal policy.
d. Fed policies.
answer
c. fiscal policy.
FEEDBACK: Americans tend to reserve the term fiscal policy to refer to taxing and spending policies. They use the term monetary policy for policies having to do with banks, credit, and currency.
question
The ___ is a system of 12 Federal Reserve banks that facilitates exchanges of cash, checks, and credit; regulates member banks; and uses monetary policies to fight inflation and deflation.
Select one:
a. The National Bank
b. Federal Reserve System
c. Federal Banking System
d. National Institute of Federal Banking
answer
b. Federal Reserve System
FEEDBACK: A key monetary agency is the Federal Reserve System (called simply the Fed), which is headed by the Federal Reserve Board. The fed has authority over the interest rates and lending activities of the nation's most important banks.
question
The federal merit system was created by the
Select one:
a. Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.
b. Civil Service Act of 1883.
c. Classification Act of 1923.
d. Classification Act of 1949.
answer
b. Civil Service Act of 1883.
FEEDBACK: In 1883 the federal government attempted to imitate business by passing the Civil Service Act. The act required that appointees to federal office be qualified for the job to which they were appointed. This policy came to be called the merit system.
question
The main criticism of the National Performance Review is that it
Select one:
a. did not constitute a more sweeping approach to reform.
b. did not meet its goal of saving money and reducing the federal workforce.
c. only targeted the Department of Defense.
d. did not make government work more effectively.
answer
a. did not constitute a more sweeping approach to reform.
FEEDBACK: The streamlining of government business procedures brought about by the National Performance review did help make government work more effectively, but it did not institute the more sweeping approach to reform demanded by some political leaders.
question
The statement that "there can be no meaningful consent where those who are governed do not know to what they are consenting" is an argument in favor of
Select one:
a. government secrecy.
b. democracy.
c. more transparency in government.
d. the PATRIOT Act.
answer
c. more transparency in government.
FEEDBACK: These words were spoken by a critic of the level of secrecy that U.S. government agencies in charge of national security had assumed in their stated goal of protecting the American people. It indicates that there should be more openness and less secrecy in government.
question
To ensure a working merit system, MOST government employees are hired
Select one:
a. on the basis of open, competitive exams.
b. through patronage.
c. by the spoils system.
d. on the basis of who they know.
answer
a. on the basis of open, competitive exams.
FEEDBACK: The goal of the merit system was not merely to put an end to political appointments under the "spoils system" but also to create a system of competitive examinations through which the very best candidates were to be hired for every job.
question
What "clientele" mobilized to prevent the elimination of the Department of Education during the Reagan administration?
Select one:
a. student organizations
b. parent groups
c. teachers' unions
d. federal employee groups
answer
c. teachers' unions
FEEDBACK: President Reagan was committed to dismantling the Department of Education during his administration but was thwarted by the mobilization of the departments' clientele-teachers unions and educational administrators.
question
Which agency has authority over the interest rates and lending activities of the nation's most important banks?
Select one:
a. the Federal Reserve System
b. the Office of Management and Budget
c. the Bureau of the Budget
d. the Congressional Budget Office
answer
a. the Federal Reserve System
FEEDBACK: The Federal Reserve System (called simply the Fed) has authority over the interest rates and lending activities of the nation's most important banks. It is headed by the Federal Reserve Board.
question
Which of the following is a contemporary example of bureaucratic imposed rules?
Select one:
a. The FDA imposing new rules for daily allowances for soda consumption
b. The OMB imposing new rules on the federal government's yearly budget
c. The CIA imposing new guidelines on
what forms of torture are permissible
d. The EPA imposing new emission standards for automobiles
answer
d. The EPA imposing new emission standards for automobiles
FEEDBACK: In the first year of the Obama administration, the EPA ruled that greenhouse gases posed a threat to public health and that the emissions from new motor vehicles contributed to greenhouse gas pollution. The agency then imposed new emissions standards for automobiles, which would raise the average fuel economy for new vehicles.
question
Which of the following is an example of a government corporation?
Select one:
a. The Internal Revenue Service
b. The Federal Bureau of Investigation
c. Amtrak
d. The Federal Communications Commission
answer
c. Amtrak
FEEDBACK: Government corporations are a type of government agency that are more like private businesses in performing and charging for a market service, such as transporting railroad passengers (Amtrak).
question
Which of the following is true with respect to reducing the size of the bureaucracy through the process of termination during the twelve years of the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations?
Select one:
a. Literally dozens of programs and thousands of federal workers were terminated.
b. While there is little evidence that people were terminated, a large number of programs were terminated.
c. Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush were successful in eliminating the Departments of Education, Commerce, and Labor.
d. Not a single national government agency or major program was terminated.
answer
d. Not a single national government agency or major program was terminated.
FEEDBACK: Termination of government agencies and programs is a difficult and rare process. Even in the 12 years of the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, both of which proclaimed a strong commitment to the reduction of the national government, not a single national government agency or program was terminated.
question
Which of the following statements about the Department of Defense is accurate?
Select one:
a. By far the largest number of career government professionals working abroad are under the authority of the Department of Defense.
b. The Department of Defense is the only major government agency responsible for external U.S. security.
c. The command structure of the Department of Defense has not changed in any serious way since World War II.
d. The creation of the Department of Defense completed a real and deep unification of the War Department and the Navy Department.
answer
a. By far the largest number of career government professionals working abroad are under the authority of the Department of Defense.
FEEDBACK: Despite the importance of the State Department in foreign affairs, fewer than 20 percent of all U.S. government employees working abroad are directly under its authority. By far, the largest number of career government professionals working abroad are under the authority of the Defense Department.
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