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Chapter 13: The Federal Bureaucracy

True/False Quiz

True/False Quiz


This activity contains 20 questions.

	Most Americans trust government and believe on the whole that it works more efficiently than the private sector.    True  False

	American bureaucracy is organized to resemble the standard pyramidal form found in most other democratic countries.    True  False

	The Constitution specifies the number and kinds of departments and executive agencies to be established.    True  False

	The Great Depression resulted in a reversal of many of the regulatory acts Congress passed in earlier years and thus led to a reduction in the size of the government.    True  False

	Interest groups seldom have the power to influence the creation of departments in the executive branch.    True  False

	Government corporations can sell stock, retain and reinvest earnings, and borrow money.    True  False

	Congress always passes laws that have clearly stated goals and detailed procedures to guide the actions of the president and the bureaucrats in the executive branch.    True  False

	Congress often gives bureaucratic agencies the power to write specific rules.    True  False

	Because bureaucrats exercise a great deal of discretion, they do not simply follow a set of orders from Congress or the president, but find many opportunities to exercise their own judgment    True  False

	Under the spoils system, election winners were expected to clear out people who were loyal to the previous administration and replace them with their own people.    True  False

	In strictly demographic terms, the civil service is filled with people who are similar to other Americans.    True  False

	Women and minorities are under-represented in all levels of the civil service.    True  False

	People holding the highest policymaking positions in the federal bureaucracy do not enter government service by way of competitive merit examinations; instead, they are appointed by the president.    True  False

	In contrast to the vast majority of federal government employees who are covered by civil service regulations, top political appointees are not representative of the American people.    True  False

	Political appointees usually stay in their positions for much longer periods of time on average than most career civil servants.    True  False

	Public opinion focuses mainly on the content of public policies rather than on the bureaucratic agencies or the bureaucrats who carry them out.    True  False

	Presidents have great difficulty controlling the bureaucracy.    True  False

	Congress has no real control over the bureaucracy in the executive branch due to the separation of powers stipulation embodied in the Constitution.    True  False

	The charge of excessive red tape is almost always hurled at agencies that are carrying out policies which citizens don't like.    True  False

	Congress has passed no laws which attempt to curb bureaucratic abuses and make agencies more accountable to the people.    True  False

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