Exam 8: Public Administration: Budgeting and Service Delivery

If a state constructs its budget by making small adjustments to the previous year's expenditures while avoiding a comprehensive review of requested funds, it is engaging in which type of budgeting?

Which of the following statements about collective bargaining in state and local government is true?

Strikes for government employees at the state and local level are permitted

The special funding procedure for one-time, nonrecurring expenditures, such as purchasing university buildings, rapid transit systems, and bridges, is called

The policy of affirmative action is grounded in the related concept of representative bureaucracy.

If a police department tracks arrests, clearance rates, crime rates, and citizen satisfaction surveys to evaluate how well they meet their objectives and these results are utilized in determining budget priorities, the department is using which type of budgeting?

Should public employees be allowed to collective bargain and strike? What are the implications for state budgets, service delivery, and democracy?

Long-term investments, such as buildings, highways, bridges, etc. are funded through a capital budget.

In public budgeting, incrementalism refers to using last year's expenditures as a base for this year's budget figures.

In 1883, New Jersey became the first state to enact a merit system.

Criticisms of bureaucrats are widespread. To what do you attribute this phenomenon? Is it fully deserved? Should citizens be concerned by it? In your opinion, do bureaucrats serve the public interest? How do you define the public interest?

State enactment of merit-based civil service systems was motivated by

Twenty-four states, including Montana, Indiana, and Kentucky, have _______ budget cycles.

Describe how government programs, services, and priorities are affected and delivered by the expanded use of e-government and other new forms of technology. How are current and future employees affected?

Under affirmative action, the absence of overt discrimination in employment may not be sufficient; organizations can implement preferential hiring and promotion schemes to redress existing imbalances in the composition of their workforce.

Bowman and Kearney describe bureaucracy as a "paradox," which is both problematic and beautiful. Describe the major components of this paradox and provide at least two specific illustrations of each side of the paradox. In summary, discuss if it is possible to overcome this paradox.

Budgets are normally based on fiscal years. The most common fiscal year used by state and local governments is

More often than not, good government workers are the scapegoats for vague and poorly designed statutes and policies, failed political and corporate leadership, and other factors beyond the control of civil servants.

Surveys of women show that only 10 percent of the respondents report being a victim of sexual harassment.

The Pendleton Act of 1883 established the first merit system in the state of Massachusetts.