1. What did British scholar Peter Self call “the classic dilemma of public administration”?
a. the conflict between administrators’ decisions and the public good
b. the tension between accountability and effective action
c. making sure that administrators represent the American people
d. maintaining good relations between the branches of government
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: What is Accountability?
Difficulty Level: Easy
2. The concept of ______ accountability ensures that agency officials spend money on the programs they are charged with managing—and only on those programs.
a. process
b. program
c. cash basis
d. fiscal
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Elements of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
3. Process accountability is concerned with agencies perform ______.
a. how
b. which
c. when
d. why
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Elements of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
4. The major shortcoming of the rule of law approach to bureaucratic accountability is ______.
a. elected officials are unable to translate the will of the people into legislation
b. the people are unable to convince elected officials of the public good
c. that it is impossible to translate laws into administrative action with transparency and predictability
d. administrators are often incompetent and poorly educated
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. One of the impediments to bureaucratic accountability is that policymakers ______.
a. often do not want maximum control over administrators
b. do not understand performance measurement
c. often do not want minimum control over administrators
d. focus only on positive control
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: What is Accountability?
Difficulty Level: Medium
6. The politics–administration dichotomy maintains democratic accountability by ______.
a. allowing politicians to be free to act as they see fit
b. separating political decision making from administrative policy
c. shifting responsibility from lawmakers to citizens
d. revealing a clear chain of command
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. The phrase “a government that serves all of us, not a few” means ______.
a. the legal system in the United States works independently from the federal government
b. creating governmental power to serve citizens, while exercising that power ethically and ensuring accountability and transparency
c. the American people are not subject to the same laws as administrators
d. litigation is more prevalent in the public sector than in the private sector
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Governmental Power and Administrative Ethics
Difficulty Level: Medium
8. Which of the following elements of accountability is considered to be the newest and most difficulty objective of control systems?
a. process
b. fiscal
c. program
d. executive
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Elements of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Medium
9. The main components of bureaucratic responsibility are ______.
a. federalism and ethical behavior
b. government by proxy and separation of powers
c. legislative review and government by proxy
d. accountability and ethical behavior
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Holding Administration Accountable
Difficulty Level: Easy
10. Of the three elements of accountability, ______ accountability is the most traditional and widespread.
a. process
b. fiscal
c. program
d. executive
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Elements of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
11. What is the delegation to and supervision of activities by third parties—government, profit-oriented corporations, and nonprofits called?
a. federalism
b. public sector connections
c. bureaucratic accountability
d. administration by proxy
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: The Public Service
Difficulty Level: Easy
12. What two options can administrators take when they face conflicting or confusing directions from controllers?
a. programmatic or process
b. conflict or resolution
c. voice or exit
d. call in sick or see ya later
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Holding Administration Accountable
Difficulty Level: Easy
13. What are the two most critical components of accountability?
a. citizens and government actors
b. citizens and administrators
c. people and actions
d. citizens and consequences
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: What is Accountability?
Difficulty Level: Easy
14. One theme in the study of public administration relates to the need to balance “lofty expectations” with ______.
a. needs of the citizens
b. distrust of government
c. historical roots of modern government
d. accountability
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Problem of Trust in Government
Difficulty Level: Easy
15. Which agency is charged with ensuring that government programs are achieving purposes as defined in statute as part of the concept of program accountability?
a. NASA
b. Government Accountability Office
c. Congress
d. Executive Office of the President
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Elements of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Medium
16. Which of the following provided the foundation for modern government in 1215, in an effort to rein in the power of King John?
a. the rule of law
b. Magna Carta
c. Declaration of Independence
d. Constitution
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 1.2: Explore the history of the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Medium
17. Which type of accountability ensures that agency officials spend money on the programs they are charged with managing—and only those programs?
a. process
b. program
c. cash basis
d. fiscal
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Elements of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Medium
18. What did Woodrow Wilson argue that would safeguard citizens from a tyrannical bureaucracy?
a. the Constitution
b. the Articles of Confederation
c. Allegiance to Congress
d. rule of law
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
19. Gaus concluded that in instances where external forces to the administrator cannot adequately shape the exercise of discretion, then democracy must necessarily rely on administrators’ ______.
a. socialization
b. training
c. professional norms
d. the Constitution
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
20. According to the author, an ethical government should begin with ______.
a. ethical citizens
b. a well-written Constitution
c. ethical public servants
d. a sense of right and wrong
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Public Service
Difficulty Level: Easy
21. According to the text, what was the underlying reason or motivation for changing the source of Flint, Michigan’s public water (from Detroit to the Flint River)?
a. access to higher quality
b. realized cost savings
c. employment opportunities
d. trade deals with Canada
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Is Private Administration Better Than Public?
Difficulty Level: Easy
22. According to the text, what might be the biggest challenge to the government?
a. insurmountable debt
b. morality
c. distrust for political institutions
d. the debt ceiling
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Is Private Administration Better Than Public?
Difficulty Level: Easy
23. According to the text, what is required to connect policymakers to citizens that expect results from their government?
a. access to funds
b. active Electorate
c. running for office
d. public administration
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 1.1 Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Solving the Public’s Demands on Government
Difficulty Level: Easy
24. What describes the underlying notion of accountability?
a. ability to be written
b. provability
c. able to be counted
d. reliability
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: The Meaning of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
25. Who did Progressives believe were best positioned to do government work without trampling individual rights?
a. members of the U.S. Senate
b. members of the U.S. House of Representatives
c. the filibusters
d. administrators
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
26. Separating politics from administration is best described by what term?
a. politics–administration dichotomy
b. common sense
c. Wilson’s Declaration
d. Goodnow’s Promise
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
27. What became a less effective of a tool or safeguard to ensure accountability as government took on more relationships with third-party interests?
a. rule of law
b. the Magna Carta
c. ability to prosecute
d. fewer politicians
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
28. The gradual evolution of European parliaments from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance was an effort to set the balance between
a. rule of law; power of the church
b. common law; power of the church
c. popular rule; the power of kings
d. the Constitution; the law
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.2: Explore the history of the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Easy
29. The branches of the American government operate in a way that produces ______ controller(s) of bureaucratic accountability.
a. one
b. three
c. many
d. no
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Holding Administration Accountable
Difficulty Level: Easy
30. In a system of administrative accountability, ______ hold elected officials accountable and ______ hold(s) administrators accountable.
a. administrators; the president
b. the people; Congress
c. administrators; Congress
d. the people; the elected officials
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Holding Administration Accountable
Difficulty Level: Medium
31. According to the text, ______ is the foundation of bureaucracy in a democracy because it allows ______ to control administrator’s actions.
a. ethics; bureaucrats
b. administrative politics; system purpose
c. accountability; elected officials
d. elected officials; internal controls
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: What is Accountability?
Difficulty Level: Easy
32. Carl J. Friedrich argued that ______ were critical for ensuring accountability; Herman Finer argued in favor of ______.
a. professional norms; legal standards
b. strong controllers; discretion
c. clear direction; discretion
d. legal standards; professional norms
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
33. Public administration is important because it ______.
a. is how we translate our ideals into results
b. is how we run the country
c. determines how we interact with our allies
d. determines how the U.S. is viewed
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Foundations of Public Administration
Difficulty Level: Easy
34. Public policies only gain their meaning in ways in which they are ______.
a. proposed
b. designed
c. evaluated
d. implemented
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Foundations of Public Administration
Difficulty Level: Easy
35. Which of the following is typically at the forefront of critics of the government’s delivery of public services?
a. effectiveness
b. efficiency
c. equity
d. feasibility
Ans: B
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: The Foundations of Public Administration
Difficulty Level: Medium
36. ______ is about the choices among values, including which values get emphasized and which don’t.
a. Performance
b. Accountability
c. Politics
d. Transparency
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Solving the Public’s Demands on Government
Difficulty Level: Easy
37. Public administration exists to get things done. This statement best aligns with which of the following themes?
a. performance
b. accountability
c. politics
d. transparency
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Solving the Public’s Demands on Government
Difficulty Level: Medium
38. ______ is a relationship, and is about answerability to whom, for what.
a. Accountability
b. Politics
c. Transparency
d. Performance
Ans: A
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Solving the Public’s Demands on Government
Difficulty Level: Easy
39. From its first moments, American public administration was grounded in ______.
a. accountability
b. equity
c. politics
d. transparency
Ans: C
Learning Objective: 1.2: Explore the history of the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Historical Roots
Difficulty Level: Easy
40. Defining the nature of ______ power produced the first big division in America.
a. judicial
b. state
c. legislative
d. executive
Ans: D
Learning Objective: 1.2: Explore the history of the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Historical Roots
Difficulty Level: Easy
True/False
1. Political scientist John Gaus agreed with Woodrow Wilson that separating politics from administration could be done by enacting laws that gave elected officials control to guide policy that administrators would simply carry out.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Medium
2. Determining the role of administrators in the new connotational system proved to be easier than expected.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 1.2: Explore the history of the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Historical Roots
Difficulty Level: Easy
3. Citizens and elected officials demand a lower standard of ethics than that expected in the private sector for political appointed public administrators.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Governmental Power and Administrative Ethics
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. Process accountability is concerned with how agencies perform their tasks.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Elements of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
5. As different government agencies have varied cultures, it is difficult to maintain a standard set of professional norms that govern administrative behavior.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Medium
6. Streamlining government to make it more efficient can risk making administrators less accountable.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Solving the Public’s Demands on Government
Difficulty Level: Easy
7. The Progressives of the twentieth century preferred that administrators should have little discretion to carry out the will of elected policymakers.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
8. The rule of law emerged as the guide for setting the balance between governmental power and individual liberty.
Ans: T
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
9. The Progressives believed that a stronger government, equipped to manage to new programs, would prevent the country from driving forward.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 1-3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
10. Not everyone agrees that citizens deserve accountability for their hard-earned tax dollars.
Ans: F
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Elements of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
Short Answer
1. Why does the text refer to the BP and Flint disasters as the “essence of modern government”?
Ans: Answers will vary. After detailing these events, the text claims that in the face of this tragedy, citizens directly affected by it wanted government to restore normalcy to their lives. In essence, the people find problems for government to fix. Government in turn must coordinate and partner with other entities to solve problems through complex systems. As these partners determine what to do and how to do it, politics and competing values come into play. Yet the people, throughout the process, have the expectation that the system is effective, efficient, and accountable. In short the people, in a democratically elected system like the United States, demand results.
Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand the three intertwined themes of the book: politics, performance, and accountability.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Solving the Public’s Demands on Government
Difficulty Level: Hard
2. What are the two main issues involved in keeping agencies fiscally accountable? Please give examples.
Ans: Answers will vary. The people want to make sure that money is actually spent. They also want to make sure that money is correctly allocated according to the law and that money is not wasted. Student examples may vary.
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Elements of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. Describe the component of bureaucratic responsibility known as accountability.
Ans: Answers will vary. Accountability depends on the ability of policymakers to control administrators’ actions. Control, in turn, can be either positive (requiring an agency to do something it ought to do) or negative (seeking to prevent an agency from doing something it should not do). The principal focus of control, however, is on discovering bureaucratic errors and requiring their correction.
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: What is Accountability?
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. Briefly describe the meaning of the politics–administration dichotomy.
Ans: Answers will vary. This phrase suggests that there is a separation between politicians and the policy they make and the actual administration of the policy by public servants or administrators.
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Easy
5. Briefly describe one example of program accountability in the United States at the federal level of government.
Ans: Answers will vary. Student answers could include the example of the work carried out by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) through audits and evaluations.
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Elements of Accountability
Difficulty Level: Medium
Essay
1. What was the profound irony embedded in the decision of the American founders to leave questions of public administration for other generations of leaders to work out? How do their motivations and fears of government haunt us today?
Ans: Answers will vary. Basically, most all of the grievances of the American colonists that produced the American Revolution grew from abuses of administrative power by George III and his Parliament. Although the Constitution created a system that balanced the powers of government among the legislative, judicial, and executive and included checks on those powers, they did little to define exactly how those powers would be exercised. Their greatest fears were embodied in the executive branch, which led to that branch being defined the least. This has led to a vast confusion in recent times over the powers of the executive (since WWII, presidential war powers, for example, have been under question). The textural example of the founders shows that even from the start “American public administration was grounded in politics” and that although the founders wanted to avoid the abuses of power they had suffered under England, they did not outline how this should be done as they created their new government. In part, this was because they could not agree and just wanted to get the Constitution ratified without additional political conflict. Because of their choice to omit more details on public administration, however, conflict is the hallmark of the American political system.
Learning Objective: 1.2: Explore the history of the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Historical Roots
Difficulty Level: Hard
2. What was John Gaus’s response to Woodrow Wilson’s ideas about ensuring bureaucratic accountability? What solution did Gaus offer?
Ans: Answers will vary. John Gaus thought that Woodrow Wilson’s reliance on the rule of law to keep administrators in line (in essence elected officials make laws and administrators carry them out) was an insufficient accountability measure as laws are not always clear and, further, not always translatable into clear and predictable policy that can be carried out. Gaus’s solution was to rely on the administrators’ professional norms. This led to a famous debate in 1940 between Carl Friedrich (who was aligned with Gaus) and Herman Finer about whether it was possible to rely on these professional norms or if external controls were necessary to keep administrators accountable.
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Approaches to Accountability
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. According to the text, the pursuit of ethical behavior in government raises a tradeoff. What is this tradeoff?
Ans: One the one hand, we want skilled employees who can ensure that government’s work is done well. On the other hand, the public expects that those who exercise the public’s trust will meet high standards, and that, in particular, they will not use their power to line their own pockets, advantage their friends, or trade in the future on relationships they developed in public service.
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Governmental Power and Administrative Ethics
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. The text provides several examples of challenges (to administrators) that are presented via enhanced chains of accountability. What are these challenges? Can you offer any advice for how to striking a balance between these competing forces?
Ans: Answers will vary. Good administration requires the exercise of professional judgment. If policymakers create an environment that punishes risk-taking because the potential sanctions for failure are great, the administrators will not take risks. Also, excessive red tape increases the amount of time that it takes to get work done, resulting in delayed results for citizens, for example. The answer should include a response to striking a balance, based on a reasonable amount of opinion and evidence from the text.
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: What is Accountability?
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. The author argues that public administration is no longer simply a direct execution of governmental programs. Why is this? Does this pose any ethical challenges?
Ans: Answers will vary. Public administration today is largely a “government by proxy” that includes complex partnerships among government agencies, the private sector, and nonprofits. Therefore, governments do not necessarily execute programs alone. They rely on a combination of actors at different times. This multiplies the problem of public ethics since many private and nonprofit employees find themselves doing public administration (under higher scrutiny) and they might not even realize it.
Learning Objective: 1.3: Examine the central role of accountability in the administrative process.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Public Service
Difficulty Level: Medium
