The Presidency & The Federal Bureaucracy IV

Which interrelationship best illustrates the concept of the iron-triangle?

• the president, the Congress, and bureaucracies

• the federal government, state, and city governments

• special-interest groups, political parties, and voters

• bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees

1. The Office of Management and Budget, the National Security Council, and the Council of Economic Advisors are

• 1. Part of the president’s cabinet.

• 1. Advisory bodies of the Department of State.

• 1. Members of the White House staff.

• 1. The key liaison agencies between the president and Congress.

• 1. Policy-making bodies of the Executive Office of the President.

1. Which statements about bureaucracies is FALSE?

• 1. Bureaucracies are scarcely hinted at in the Constitution.

• 1. How to manage and control bureaucracies is a central problem of democratic government.

• 1. Nothing better illustrates the complexity of modern government than its massive bureaucracies.

• 1. Bureaucratic powers extend to every corner of American economic and social life.

• 1. Each bureaucratic agency is created by the president.

1. Studies have found that most Americans

• 1. Dislike bureaucrats.

• 1. Are indifferent about bureaucracies and bureaucrats.

• 1. Want the government bureaucracy dismantled.

• 1. Actually like bureaucracies.

• 1. Are satisfied with the help received from bureaucrats.

1. The Weberian model depicts a bureaucracy as

• 1. Wasteful, bloated, overstaffed, overpaid, and arrogant.

• 1. A well-organized machine with plenty of working hierarchical parts.

• 1. Inefficient, primarily concerned with maximizing its budget, and largely responsible for the growth of modern government.

• 1. Ambling and groping, affected by chance, and largely operating by a loosely run style of trial and error.

• 1. Fundamentally dangerous to a democratic society.

1. As a percentage of America’s total workforce, federal government employment has

• 1. Been growing not shrinking.

• 1. Been shrinking not growing.

• 1. Been relatively stable.

• 1. Eliminated private sector jobs.

1. Until the late nineteenth century, most government employees got their jobs through

• 1. The merit principle.

• 1. The patronage system.

• 1. Hereditary preferences.

• 1. A lottery system.

• 1. Civil service testing.

1. The federal civil service was created by

• 1. An executive order by President Arthur.

• 1. Article IV of the Constitution.

• 1. The Office of Management and Budget.

• The Pendleton Act.

• 1. The merit principle.

1. The agency created to police the stock market is the

• 1. Federal Trade Commission.

• 1. Federal Communications Commission.

• 1. Federal Reserve Board.

• Securities and Exchange Commission.

• 1. National Labor Relations Board.

1. Government corporations

• 1. Tend to be captured by interest groups.

• 1. Sell stock and pay dividends.

• Are independent regulatory agencies.

• 1. Provide services and charge for them.

• 1. Operate an airline, manufacture steel, and provide health insurance.