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Solved by verified expert:Question 1 Explain the structure of the federal judicial system. What are the responsibilities of each part of the system? Your response should be at least 200 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. Question 2 How does the federal bureaucracy implement policy within the federal government? Give a specific example. Where does the bureaucracy get its power? Your response should be at least 200 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. Question 3 Describe the process by which the federal budget is developed. Your response should be at least 200 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. Question 4 Who holds the federal bureaucracies accountable for their actions? How are they held accountable? Your response should be at least 200 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.All cited sources must be in APA Format
unitvi_political_science_study_guide.pdf
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UNIT VI STUDY GUIDE
Bureaucracy and
Judiciary
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VI
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Discuss the structure of the federal bureaucracy and how it developed.
Determine the method by which the federal budget is developed.
Explain how policy is carried out by the bureaucracy and the power possessed by the bureaucracy.
Examine the methods by which bureaucrats are held accountable for their actions.
Discuss the structure and responsibilities of the federal judicial system.
Elaborate on the process by which justices are appointed to federal courts.
Determine the legal and political influences on judicial decision making.
Discuss the extent of the judiciary’s power in regards to policymaking.
Reading Assignment
Chapter 13:
The Federal Bureaucracy: Administering the Government
Chapter 14:
The Federal Judicial System: Applying the Law
Unit Lesson
Most of us do all that we can to stay as far away as possible from any government agency. Government
agencies themselves really only get noticed when something big goes wrong. After Hurricane Katrina
devastated the gulf coast of Mississippi and New Orleans (with New Orleans getting the worst of it), FEMA
(Federal Emergency Management Agency) was supposed to step in and help. FEMA failed, however, do so
and people were left to fend for themselves. Once this fact came to light, the head of FEMA was forced to
resign. When a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded killing workers and spilling oil into the water, and
killing fish and wildlife up and down the Gulf of Mexico, it was determined that the MMS (Minerals
Management Service) was not doing its job in regulating offshore drilling. The top management of this agency
was forced to resign, and the agency was reorganized in the hopes that this would not happen again.
A country as large as the United States needs a bureaucracy to help run it even though bureaucracy itself
creates problems. When a bureaucracy grows, it has a tendency to become insensitive to those it is
supposed to help. In order for bureaucracy to function properly, there must be rules. However, in the end, the
rules do not always allow for individual cases.
In the beginning, the federal government was small and in touch with what the people needed because those
involved with the government also split time between taking care of home and taking care of government. By
the end of the 1800s, politicians began to spend more and more time away from home taking care of the
business of the government, and the federal bureaucracy began to grow. The first agency created was the
Department of Agriculture in 1889, which was set up to help farmers. From there, agencies grew slowly until
the 1930s and President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. The government saw another jump in
growth in the 1960s with President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society.” Although it seems that the bureaucracy
grows more and more each year, it has, in fact, stayed about the same for the last fifty years. There are
essentially five forms of agencies found within the government: cabinet department, independent agency,
regulatory agency, government corporation, or presidential commission.
In 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot and killed by a disappointed office seeker. Garfield had only
held the presidency for 200 days when he died from his wound. During that time, and during his time in
Congress, he fought for civil service reform. In 1883, Congress enacted the Pendleton Civil Service Reform
PS 1010, American Government
1
Act, which replaced the spoils and patronage systems with the merit system. Within
government
UNIT xthe
STUDY
GUIDE
bureaucracy, the merit system bases hiring and promotions on competitive examinations
or special
Title
qualifications and not on whom you supported in the last political race.
All agencies live or die by their budgets. Without money, no agency program can exist, and only Congress
has the right to tax and spend. The budgetary process lasts one and a half years. It starts in the spring with
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
and the president sending instructions to the
various agencies. Each agency is given a
spending ceiling that they cannot exceed.
Agencies work through the summer, and in
September submit their budget requests to
the OMB for review and finalizing. The
president then submits the budget proposal to
Congress in January, and it is divided and
sent to committee. By April, Congress should
have adopted a budget resolution and
completed work on appropriations bills by
September, in time for the president to sign or
veto it (with the fiscal year starting on October
1st). If all does not go well and a budget is not
passed, as has been the case in recent
years, Congress must pass temporary
funding in order to keep up government
operations.
Budgetary process (Patterson, 2012)
While bureaucracy is constrained by the budget, it gains power in the fact that it has broad discretion when
deciding how to implement policy. Agencies gain power through their policies and must, in turn, play politics to
protect these programs and their power. Clientele groups (those who benefit directly from an agency’s
programs) are more than willing to lobby on behalf of the agency during program or funding reviews. Most
accountability for bureaucratic agencies is taken care of through the president, Congress, and the court
system. Congress will, from time, to time put what is known as a “sunset provision” into legislation so that it
will expire and not linger beyond its usefulness. The Patriot Act had many sunset provisions within it.
Federal courts have considerable power when ruling on the laws passed by Congress. When making rulings,
the judiciary has considerable discretion, and is a political as well as legal institution. While the Constitution
provides for the Supreme Court, it gives Congress the power to create all lower federal courts. The president
nominates and appoints all federal judges, but they must first be confirmed by the Senate. Once in office, they
serve until they die or voluntarily retire. In extreme cases, they can be removed through impeachment.
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States. Congress sets the number of justices on the
court, which is nine, one chief justice, and eight associate justices who each have the same voting power.
The Supreme Court can hear a case through original jurisdiction (able to be the first court to hear a case) or
appellate jurisdiction (ability to review cases that have already been tried in lower courts).
The Supreme Court only accepts around 100 cases a year to rule on. It uses these cases to set precedent for
all lower courts to follow. Four of the justices must agree to hear a case before a writ of certiorari, or the
request for the lower court to submit a
record of the case, is requested. During the
hearing, both sides present oral arguments
lasting no more than thirty minutes each,
and each side submits a written brief
containing the full argument. Once this is
done, the justices gather and discuss the
case and then vote on the case. Once a
case is decided, the opinion is written. The
vote on the case is not considered final
until the opinion explaining the legal basis
for the decision is written and agreed upon.
Federal Court structure (Patterson, 2012)
PS 1010, American Government
2
Below the Supreme Court are ninety-four district courts and thirteen courts of UNIT
appeals.
Each state
decides the
x STUDY
GUIDE
structure of their own courts and how judges will be selected; 95% of all legal Title
cases are decided in state and
local courts and end there also.
The three main sources of law are the Constitution, legislative statutes, and legal precedents. The court
system cannot issue a decision except in response to a case presented to it and must stay within the facts of
the case. While the law is powerful in its ability to knock down laws passed by legislation it is bound by the
law as well and must rule within it.
Click here for a tour of the Supreme Court building.
http://supremecourt.c-span.org/Video/VirtualTour/SC_VT_SCLibrary.aspx
Reference
Patterson, T. (2013). The American democracy (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Suggested Reading
Click here to view a PDF of the Chapter 13 presentation.
Click here to view a PDF of the Chapter 14 presentation.
The White House: Office of Management and Budget
www.whitehouse.gov/omb/overview
National Debt Awareness Center (NDAC)
www.federalbudget.com
Supreme Court of the United States Blog
www.scotusblog.com/
The Case FOR Bureaucracy
www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=20
Learning Activities (Non-Graded)
Budget Puzzle: You fix the Budget
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?_r=0
Federal Budget Challenge
http://federal.budgetchallenge.org/pages/overview
NOTICE: This is a non-graded Learning Activity, so you do not have to submit it. If you experience difficulty in
mastering any of the concepts, contact your instructor for additional information and guidance.
PS 1010, American Government
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