Key Terms For Goverment Class: The Bureaucracy

Front 1

hierarchical authority structure

Back 1

a chain of command that is hierarchical; the top bureacrat has ultimate control, and authority flows from the top down

Front 2

task specialization

Back 2

a clear division of labor in which every individual has a specialized job

Front 3

extensive rules

Back 3

clearly written, well-established formal rules that all people in the organization follow

Front 4

clear goals

Back 4

a clearly defined set of goals that all people in the organization strive toward

Front 5

the merit principle

Back 5

merit-based hiring and promotion; no granting of jobs to friends or family unless they are the best qualified

Front 6

impersonality

Back 6

job performance that is judged by productivity, or how much work the individuals gets done

Front 7

what is divided supervision?

Back 7

congress has the power to create, organize and disband all federal agencies. most of them are under the control of the president, although few of them actually have direct contact with him. so the bureaucracy has two masters: congress and the president

Front 8

close public scrutiny

Back 8

emphasis in american political culture on individual rights and their defense agaisnt abuse by goverment makes court challenges to agency actions more likely. about half of the cases that come to the federal court involve the united states goverment as the defendant or the plaintiff.

Front 9

regulation rather than public ownership

Back 9

in most western european nations the goverment owns and operates large parts of the economy; the united states goverment agencies regulate the privately owned enterprizes they prefer regulation to ownership

Front 10

statitics for federal civilian employees (part one)

Back 10

1. About 57% are male, 43% are female
2. About 73% are white and 27% are minority ( including blacks, asians, native americans and hipanics.)

Front 11

statitics for federal civilian employees (part two)

Back 11

1. About 33% are hired by the defense dept. 26% by the postal service and 41% for all other agencies.
2. Only 10% percent work in washington and the other 90% works around the country.

Front 12

statitics for federal civilian employees (part three)

Back 12

1. The average age is about 42
2. The number of federal employees per 1000 people in the U.S. population drop from about 14 in the 70's to about 10 in the 90's

Front 13

statitics for federal civilian employees (part four)

Back 13

1. Bureaucrats hold a huge variety of jobs, but most federal employees are white-collar workers, such as secretaries, clerks, lawyers, inspectors, and engineers.
2.20,000 work on U.S. territories 100,000 work in foreign nations.

Front 14

cabinet departments (part one)

Back 14

1. Department of State
2. Department of Treasury
3. Department of Defense
4. Department of Justice

Front 15

cabinet departments (part two)

Back 15

5. Department of Interior
6. Department of Agriculture
7. Department of Commerce
8. Department of Labor

Front 16

cabinet departments (part three)

Back 16

9. Department of Health and Human Services
10. Department of Housing and Urban Development
11. Department of Transportaion
12. Department of Energy

Front 17

cabinet departments (part four)

Back 17

13. Department of Edecation
14. Department of Veterans Affairs
15. Department of Homeland Security

Front 18

The Intelligence Reform & Terrorism Prevention Act

Back 18

It called for the most sweeping overhaul of the nation's intelligence gathering apparatus in half century

Front 19

conflict

Back 19

agencies that often work at cross purposes with one another

Front 20

"red tape"

Back 20

the maze of goverment rules,regulations, and paperwork that makes goverment so overwhelming to citizens that many people try to avoid any contact

Front 21

waste

Back 21

spending more on products and/or services then is neccesary

Front 22

lack of accountability

Back 22

the difficulty in firing or demoting an incompetent bureaucrat

Front 23

hatch act

Back 23

requires employees once hired to have as little to do with political parties as possible

Front 24

unchecked growth

Back 24

the tendencies of agencies to grow unnecessarily and for costs to escalate proportionately

Front 25

duplication

Back 25

a situation in which two agencies appear to be doing the same thing