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Video

Federal Bureaucracy Organization
Learning Objective: 8-1: Describe the development of the federal bureaucracy over time.

Questions to consider:

1. What role does the federal bureaucracy play in the government?
2. What are some of the features of the federal bureaucracy?
3. Who is responsible for overseeing the federal bureaucracy?
    

Structure of the Bureaucracy
Learning Objective: 8-2: Relate when the federal government grows most quickly, and why.

Questions to consider:

1. What does the statement describing the bureaucracy as “where the policy in writing meets the policy in action” mean?
2. Who are bureaucrats and what does it mean to say that they are meant to serve the president’s policy needs rather than his political needs?
3. What role does the president’s cabinet play in the executive branch? How are cabinet members selected?
    

Visualizing the Growth of Federal Regulation Since 1950
Learning Objective: 8-2: Relate when the federal government grows most quickly, and why.

Questions to consider:

1. How has regulations such as financial regulations and environmental regulations contributed to the growth in the size of government over the past 50 years?
    

Homeland Security Department Creation Announcement
Learning Objective: 8-2: Relate when the federal government grows most quickly, and why.

Questions to consider:

1. What reasons does President Bush cite for creating the Department of Homeland Security?
2. What are some of the already existing agencies that brought into the Department Homeland Security?
3. How might combining intelligence and security agencies under one larger agency help the government prevent acts of terrorism? Does the creation of the Department of Homeland Security lowers transaction costs, or raise them? Why or why not?
    

A Breakdown of Secret Service Scandals
Learning Objective: 8-3: Explain the bureaucracy’s culture and the challenges it faces.

The VA Hospital Scandal
Learning Objective: 8-3: Explain the bureaucracy’s culture and the challenges it faces.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is institutional reform of large bureaucracies so difficult to achieve?
2. How much fault should lie with the president for the VA hospital scandals? Defend your answer
    

The Daily Show: Rand Paul Interview
Learning Objective: 8-3: Explain the bureaucracy’s culture and the challenges it faces.

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver: Translators
Learning Objective: 8-3: Explain the bureaucracy’s culture and the challenges it faces.

Internal Revenue Service Oversight
Learning Objective: 8-4: Identify the tools that Congress and the president use to control bureaucracies.

How Bureaucracy and Red Tape Can Lead to Better Innovations
Learning Objective: 8-5: Discuss why red tape is often an important check on the operation of massive bureaucracies.

U.K. Red Tape Challenge
Learning Objective: 8-5: Discuss why red tape is often an important check on the operation of massive bureaucracies.
 

Web Resources

Richard Cordray CFPB Confirmation Imperiled By Senate Republicans, Again
Learning Objective: 8-4: Identify the tools that Congress and the president use to control bureaucracies.