Essay 18

One key characteristic of the merit system is that unlike set pay increases and promotions, the merit system runs off of your performance in the particular job. If you do well and exceed your peers, you get a raise that reflects that.


The structure of the federal bureaucracy is almost like a triangle. a few people on top and the majority on the bottom. Few leaders control everything and the power flows downward. Newer, less experienced employees are on the bottom, with the ability to rise up based on merit.


Everyone in some way can affect bureaucracy and make sure it stays in check. Congress can pass new legislation that affects the bureaucracy. Interest groups can also affect it in a non direct way. By holding media events, protesting, and lobbying. The courts can restrict the bureaucracy's freedom by implementing ruling that makes it hard to do whatever they want.


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Essay 17

One specific trend evident in the chart above is that the amount of democratic seats is trending downward.

Between 1984 and 2000, many southern voters tended to vote for republican candidates for president, however, they continued to vote for democratic canidates for congress. This is because of incumbancy advantage. another reason for this odd voting behavior, is due in part to differences between state and national parties. Because national and state parties are largely independent of each other, to get votes Democratic congressional candidates responded to local interests. Democratic presidential candidates responded to a national constituency, thus, a difference occurs.


Over the past few decades, party composition has changed in groups. Women have become more reliable, Democratic voters. Labor union members have become less reliable Democratic voters; have decreased in number and thus there are fewer Democratic supporters.Catholics have become less reliable Democratic voters as well.

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Essay 16

There are several reasons why congress gives federal agencies policy making discretion in executing federal laws. The main reason is because certain federal agencies have the people, the resources, and the experience that the federal government just doesn't have. In addition, agencies can regulate laws and enforce things for longer periods of time whereas congress can change legislatures every two years, giving them little time to actually enforce the laws they create.

The Enviromental Protection Agency takes care of any and all matters that have to do with protecting our enviroment or preserving our land. As with any law, nothing works 100% of the time nor does any law have the ability to work under any situation. With that, there is a certain amount of flexibly written in laws as intended by the founders. For example, if the law states that a certain area is restricted to vehicles and any vehicle found on that land will be cited, the EPA has a certain level of flexibility when enforcing that law. If a driver is purposely on the land, they should be cited, however, If a vehicle is involved in an accident and flys off the road into that restricted land, the EPA can decide whether or not they want to cite the person in that circumstance.

Congress insures that their federal agencies are following legislative intent in two ways. They allocate a supervisor to each agency to investigate and insure that agency is doing what it's supposed to. If they are, the company keeps going on as usual without a glitch. If they are not doing what they are supposed to, the federal government steps in and either guilds them back in the right direction, or removes the agency although. They can also keep agencies in line by controlling how much money they receive. If they are doing a poor job due to a lack of funding, the federal government can allocate more funds to help get the agency to where it needs to be. They can also take away money if the agency isn't doing what it's supposed to.



http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/_ap06_gopo_us_sg.pdf

2006-3 The United States congress and the president together have the power to enact federal law. Federal bureaucratic agencies have the responsibility to execute federal law. However, in the carrying out of these laws, federal agencies have policy making discretion.
(1) Explain two reasons why Congress gives federal agencies policy making discretion in executing federal laws.
(2) Choose one of the bureaucratic agencies listed below. Identify the policy area over which it exercises policy-making discretion and give one specific example of how it exercises that discretion.
a. Environmental Protection Agency
b. Federal Communications Commission
c. Federal Reserve board
(3) Describe two ways in which Congress ensures that federal agencies follow legislative intent.

Essay 15

An Entitlement program is a program run through the government that guarantees certain benefits to a certain group of people or segment of the population. The primary source of revenue for the social security program comes from deductions in paychecks. Every time a person receives a paycheck, a portion of that money goes to paying for social security for the elderly. Unfortunately, the amount of people on social security is far higher than the amount of people working to add to social security as depicted in the above graph. If this trend continues, social security could be a thing of the past and elderly people may go without if they can no longer work. This becomes an even bigger problem as many people are living longer than they used to so the amount of people on social security is rapidly increasing. If you had to be older to start claiming social security, far fewer people would be on social security at one time and the funds wouldn't be depleted as quickly

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/_ap06_gopo_us_sg.pdf

2006-2 In recent decades, entitlement programs have constituted a substantial portion of the United States federal budget. Social Security is the largest entitlement program in the US. From the information in the chart above, and your knowledge of the US government and politics, perform the following tasks.

(a) define entitlement program
(b) What is the primary source of revenue for the Social Security program
(c) Identify one threat to the future of the Social security program should the trends depicted in the chart continue
(d) Describe on demographic trend that threatens the future of the Social Security program and explain how it is responsible for the threat that you identified in (c )
(e) Explain how any one of the trends in the chart above would change if the age of eligibility for social security were raised.