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Definition
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| Acquisitive Bureaucracies |
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Definition
| Organizations that are self-perpetuating and demand funding that will result in the continued existence of the agency. |
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| Administrative Procedure Act |
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Definition
| A law passed in 1946 requiring federal agencies to give notice, solicit comments, and sometimes hold public hearings before adopting any new rules. |
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| 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. |
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| Money formally set aside for a specific use; issued by the House Appropriations Committee. |
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| Authorization Legislation |
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| Legislation that originates in a legislative committee stating the maximum amount of money that an agency may spend on a given program. |
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| 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. |
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| Large administrative agencies reflecting a hierarchical authority, job specialization, and rules and regulations that drive them. |
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| An informal understanding among fellow employees of an agency as to how they are supposed to act. |
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| Civil Service Reform Act of 1964 |
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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. |
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Definition
| A request made by congressional committees to pass on certain agency decisions. Although usually not binding, it is seldom ignored by agencies. |
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| 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. |
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| A bureaucratic pathology in which some agencies seem to be working at cross-purposes to other agencies. |
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Definition
| The ability of a bureaucracy to choose courses of action and make policies not spelled out in advance by laws. |
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| A bureaucratic pathology in which two government agencies seem to be doing the same thing. |
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Definition
| Skilled workers each have specialized function, resulting in increased productivity. |
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| Freedom of Information Act |
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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. |
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| Such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, created during the New Deal, having specific responsibilities that facilitate a specific operation of the government. |
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| Law that places restrictions on the kind of political activity a federal employee may participate in. |
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| A bureaucratic pathology in which agencies tend to grow without regard to the benefits their programs confer or the costs they entail. |
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| Independent Regulatory Agencies |
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Definition
| Agencies that are quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial in nature and operation. Examples include Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. |
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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. |
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| 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. |
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Definition
| A belief in a freely competitive economy that was widely held in the late nineteenth century. |
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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. |
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Term
| Monopolistic Bureaucracies |
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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. |
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Definition
| A job in the federal bureaucracy that filled by a person whom an agency has already identified. |
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Term
| National Environmental Policy Act |
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Definition
| A law passed in 1969 requiring agencies to issue an environmental impact statement before undertaking any major action affecting the environment. |
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Term
| Noncareer Executive Assignments |
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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. |
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| A law passed in 1976 requiring agency meetings to be open to the public unless certain specified matters are being discussed. |
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| Congressional supervision of the bureaucracy. |
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| Known as the Civil Service Act of 1883, it set up merit as the criterion from hiring, promoting and firing federal employees. |
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| A law passed in 1974 requiring government files about individuals to be kept confidential. |
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| A characteristic of independent regulatory agencies that gives them judicial power to interpret regulations they create. |
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| A characteristic of independent regulatory agencies that gives them legislative powers to issue regulations. |
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| Used to describe the difficulty it takes to get answers from a bureaucratic agency. |
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| 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. |
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Definition
| Policy that results in government control over individuals and businesses. Examples of regulatory policy include protection of the environment and consumer protection. |
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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. |
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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. |
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| 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. |
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| A bureaucratic pathology in which an agency spends more than is necessary to buy some product or service. |
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Term
| Whistle Blower Protection Act |
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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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