Poli Sci

Front 1

what is the primary goal of congressman?

Back 1

reelection

Front 2

what is "particularism"?

Back 2

If the district is unaffected by and unconcerned with the matter at hand, the congressman may then take into account the general welfare of the country (otherwise members looks out for their own district)

Front 3

In addition to its control over the budget, its legislative
powers, its various checks on the other branches of
government, Congress controls?

Back 3

the bureaucracy

Front 4

What does divided government mean?

Back 4

Responsibility is blurred in programmatic policies, compared to in casework or pork barrel activities (difficulty to assign credit) (Mayhews study proves this!)

Front 5

What is the policy if stuck in gridlock?

Back 5

 President’s unilateral actions
 Stronger role for bureaucrats
 Stronger role for courts
 Stronger role for states and localities

Front 6

What is Wildavsky: The Two Presidencies?

Back 6

The United States has one President, but it has two presidencies; one presidency is for domestic affairs, and the other is concerned with defense and foreign policy

Front 7

constitutional power is what in wildavskys two presidencies?

Back 7

commander in chief

Front 8

what distinctions can be made between foreign and domestic policy?

Back 8

1) blame
2) Opinions are easier to gauge in domestic affairs because, for one thing, there is a stable structure of interest groups that covers virtually all matters of concern

Front 9

what is Neustadt: Presidential Power?

Back 9

The president has many powers set forth in the U.S. Constitution. Yet unspecified powers are also important,perhaps more so.

“Presidential power is the power to persuade.”

Front 10

what does going public mean?

Back 10

Presidents can go over the heads of members of Congress to their bosses -- the American public

Front 11

A well ordered society would require at least what three things?

Back 11

political equality, political liberty, and economic liberty

Front 12

The three goals (political equality, political liberty, and economic liberty) need?

Back 12

might very well conflict with one
another, quite possibly, indeed, must conflict with one
another

Front 13

What does Dahl say is the most crucial goal?

Back 13

political equality and therefor it should be given precedent

Front 14

Political equality serves?

Back 14

not only as a means of self- protection but the freedom to help determine, in cooperation with others, the laws and rules that one must obey

Front 15

A constant struggle with political equality is?

Back 15

we Americans have always been torn between … conflicting visions of what American society is and ought to be

Front 16

Lindblom presents two models of how policy is formulated in the face of conflicting goals which are?

Back 16

1) Rational-comprehensive model
2) Successive limited comparisons model

Front 17

What are the steps Rational-comprehensive model?

Back 17

 List all goals and values in order of importance
 List all possible policy outcomes
 Rank outcomes according to listed values
 Adopt the policy that best meets all goals and values

Front 18

What are the steps of Successive limited comparisons model?

Back 18

 Consider most relevant goal/value to the problem in question, disregard rest
 Outline a few alternatives that occur to you
 Compare alternatives based on limited past experiences
 Choose policy, perhaps changing goals/values in doing so

Front 19

Lindblom suggests one way to muddle through is?

Back 19

rely on public opinion.
--> But, classic concerns: majority rule vs. minority rights, minority preference intensity
-->Also: “Administrators cannot escape these conflicts
by ascertaining the majority’s preference, for preferences have not been registered on most issues; indeed, there often are no preferences in the absence of public discussion”

Front 20

Policy making is?

Back 20

-->Policy is not made once and for all; it is made and re-made endlessly
Making policy is at best a very rough process.

Front 21

incrementalism?

Back 21

small steps

Front 22

punctuated equilibrium?

Back 22

dramatic steps

Front 23

Policy in the U.S. is characterized by?

Back 23

punctuated equilibria

Front 24

We have temporary inaction followed by significant change. What are examples of this?

Back 24

 1981 tax cuts, 2001 tax cuts
 Iraq War
 Financial bailouts

Front 25

Winners do what?

Back 25

establish policy monopolies to secure their policy gains
 Institutional structure limits access to the process
 Reinforced by a powerful supporting idea
 “Iron triangles” of interest groups, committees, bureaucrats
 Big business or policy elites

Front 26

Loser do what?

Back 26

continually attempt change
 Using new symbols
 Reforming coalitions
 Looking for political change (electoral and structural)
 Seeking to open “policy windows” (Kingdon)

Front 27

Who wins between winners and losers? Why?

Back 27

Status quo is held in place for prolonged periods
 Getting the public involved is difficult (Graber)
 Institutional structures resist changes
-->Checks and balances
--->Need supermajorities, multiple steps
--->Strong grip of political parties?

Front 28

What changes are needed when policy is far out of line with public preferences?

Back 28

 New coalitions form
 Realignment of positions
 Massive examples
--->Civil War
--->populist and monetary reforms
--->New deal

Front 29

incremental vs. dramatic changes debates play out through?

Back 29

the budget process

Front 30

What is the budgeting process?

Back 30

Budgeting is never only comparing two similar items but rather an unlimited number of choices. We then have to make comparisons within categories where we can make meaningful comparisons. Usually we have to compare different and incomparable things

Front 31

What is the "process" in the budget process?

Back 31

 President submits budget
 Congress tries to form budget template/resolution
 Subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee try to reconcile their spending caps in that resolution with authorized programs
 Can lead to very difficult decisions
 Ultimately passing spending bills on annual basis

Front 32

Examples of bureaucratic activities?

Back 32

 Delivers mail, monitors and protects food supply
 Oversees student loans, runs veterans’ hospitals
 Fights wars, educates children, rehabilitates prisoners
 Collects taxes, approves pharmaceuticals, lots of others

Front 33

What is the paradox of the bureaucratic activities?

Back 33

Public disapproval of big government generally, yet strong approval of individual tasks accomplished by bureaucracy

Front 34

What is the Bureaucratic structure?

Back 34

 Organized by legislative branch

 Hierarchical (up to fifty layers)

 Headed by political appointees (about 4000 at national level) with about 4.1 million “civil service” and other employees

Front 35

What is the Parkinson's Law?

Back 35

Work and personnel expandto consume all available resources

Front 36

What is the Peter Principle?

Back 36

In hierarchical organizations, personnel are promoted up to that point at which their incompetence becomes manifest – hence, all important positions are held by incompetents

Front 37

What is Niskanen's Theory?

Back 37

Top bureaucrats seek to maximize the total budget of their bureau during their tenure – hence, all bureaucracies are too large

Front 38

Wilson said There are at least three ways in which political power may be gathered undesirably into bureaucratic hands. What are they?

Back 38

 [Lack of accountability] “by the growth of an administrative apparatus so large as to be immune from popular control,”
 [Fear of privatization] “by placing power over a governmental bureaucracy of any size in private rather than public hands,”
 [Unfair treatment] “or by vesting discretionary authority in the hands of a public agency so that the exercise of
that power is not responsive to the public good.”

Front 39

What are the other two concerns about burueacracy?

Back 39

 [Lack of efficiency]
 [Iron triangles] Key legislative subcommittees
give bureaucrats budgets and policy discretion; bureaucrats give interest groups desired policies; interest groups aid legislators (time and money)

Front 40

How can you overcome the concerns of lack of accountability?

Back 40

 Elected politicians have numerous levers of control over bureaucrats
 Agency heads appointed by President and approved by Senate
 Congressional control over budgets
 Congressional oversight hearings keep agencies in line
 President can manipulate resources, missions, agency
structure

Front 41

How can we overcome the fear of privitization?

Back 41

 Many traditional bureaucratic activities have been privatized

 Government contracts for most construction and manufacturing jobs

 Extends to schools, prisons, foster care, port security

 Some benefits due to competition and expertise of companies

 Re-raises fears of lack of accountability

Front 42

How can we overcome the fear of lack of efficiency?

Back 42

 Could be problematic, yet all large complex organizations (public or private) suffer from such inefficiencies
 Balancing interests against one another can approximate efficiency

Front 43

How can we overcome the fear of iron triangles?

Back 43

 Most have broken down due to growing openness and
transparency of the public policy process
 Now typically discussed in terms of “issue networks”
 Heclo: “the iron triangle concept is not so much wrong as it is disastrously incomplete … Looking for closed triangles of control, we tend to miss the fairly open networks of [issue experts]”
Could force public to the sidelines

Front 44

Why does congress create bureaucracy?

Back 44

• Policy complexity, need for expertise
• Blame-shifting
• Constituency service opportunities

Front 45

What is congressional power?

Back 45

– Congress creates and empowers agencies with ordinary legislation.
– Congress defines rulemaking authority
– Congress provides the funding that allows them to carry out their work through annual budgeting.
– Hearings and investigations
– Mandatory reports
– Inspectors general
– General Accounting Office

Front 46

What is bureaucratic power?

Back 46

– Program complexity, expertise
– Job security

Front 47

Code of Federal Regulations is reaching how many pages?

Back 47

150,000 pages

Front 48

how many major rules are added per year?

Back 48

600

Front 49

Why are there implementation failures?

Back 49

 “Implementation may fail because the original plan was infeasible” (p. 142)

 “Street-level bureaucrats are notorious for being too busy coping with their day-to-day problems to recite to themselves the policies they are supposed to apply”

 “We can discover and then incorporate [important considerations] into our plans only as the implementation process unfolds”

Front 50

Why is there little hope for effective policymaking?

Back 50

we lack a good causal theory of where problems come from, which policies might solve them, and how to implement those policies

Front 51

Other implementation problems may arise from?

Back 51

 Lack of financial resources
 Difficulties controlling hierarchical bureaucracies
 Local variation in targets of policy
 Too much or too little media coverage
 Disconnect between views of those adopting policy and those implementing it

Front 52

Effective policy implementation can be achieved by?

Back 52

-make general and vague objectives

-assign implementation to sympathetic agenecies who will give it a high priority

-give minimum veto points

-give enough financial support to conduct analysis and get facts

Front 53

What is judical activism?

Back 53

Courts, through interpretation of the Constitution and the laws, now reach into the lives of the people, against the will of the people, deeper than they ever have in American history

Front 54

What is judicial review? And when did it begin?

Back 54

 Most commonly leads to upholding legislation, interpreting how
laws apply to specific cases
 Occasionally declaring laws unconstitutional
 Occasionally writing new policies
Started on Marbury vs Madison case

Front 55

What are the Approaches to statutory interpretation

Back 55

---> Textualist
---> Legislative history

Front 56

What are the legislative checks on judiciary?

Back 56

 Appointment process
 Change in Court size and jurisdiction (especially
lower courts)
 New legislation
 Constitutional Amendments

Front 57

When does policy evaluation occur?

Back 57

following interpretation and implementation

Front 58

What is textualist?

Back 58

 Look to language of statute (or Constitution), do not read
more into it (strict interpretation/construction)
 May be incomplete – assumes everything not explicitly written is not covered

Front 59

What is legislative history?

Back 59

 Look at legislative history (focus on intent)
 Fear of manipulated debate? Should only intent of
supporters matter? How to weigh compromise?

Front 60

What is fire alarms?

Back 60

Congress prefers to allow third parties to oversee the executive branch performance by means of established rules and procedures

Front 61

What is police patrol?

Back 61

examining a sample of agencies at its own initiative

Front 62

1946 Administrative Procedures act does what?

Back 62

 Agency announces it is considering a change
 Solicits views of all relevant parties
 Holds hearings (often trial-like, with testimony,
experts, cross-examination)
 Formulates and publishes provisional rule
 More comments and hearings
 Issues and implements new rule (full force of law)
 Must have written record of substantial evidence in favor of rule, why alternatives rejected
 Rule overturned by courts if procedures not followed or if arbitrary treatment used

Front 63

what is a faithful translation?

Back 63

an ill-formed policy idea or theory would bring into being all the inconsistencies, inadequacies, and/or unfortunate consequences inherent in the pristine conception

Front 64

what is a faithless translation?

Back 64

straighten out logical defects and/or alter elements so that the consequences were more desirable than those in the original plan