What are the benefits and drawbacks of providing citizens with enormous amounts of information about ...

(Ans. #1)

An ideal response will:
1. Note the factors that have contributed to increased availability of information: pressure from interest groups such as OMB Watch and the Sunlight Foundation and the low cost of information provision via the Internet.
2. Explain one or more advantages of information availability, such as the fact that citizens can use such information to monitor the bureaucracy.
3. Explain one or more disadvantages of information availability, such as the fact that too much information might make it difficult for citizens to find what they are interested in or to understand the policy process.

(Ans. #2)

An ideal response will:
1. Define independent regulatory commissions as units in the executive branch that make and enforce rules to protect the public interest, such as the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Communications Commission.
2. Note that that their independence comes from the structure: commissioners, once appointed, serve long terms and cannot be dismissed by the president; and these commissions do not report to the president like independent agencies do.
3. Explain that these agencies are removed from presidential and congressional control so that they will be insulated from political influence in decision-making.

(Ans. #3)

An ideal response will:
1. Describe how the federal bureaucracy has changed from the 1950s, when most employees were white and most female employees were in lower-level positions, to 2013, when the number of women and minorities in the federal workforce reached an all-time high.
2. Note that today women make up almost half of the federal workforce and minorities about one-third; however, in spite of the increases in numbers, women and minorities are not equally represented in all departments and agencies, and they are not represented at all levels of the bureaucracy (e.g., they hold barely 15 percent of the top jobs).
3. Identify that one way to increase diversity throughout the departments would be to recruit more women into the military and technical departments, and a way to increase diversity at all levels would be to increase training and mentoring programs to move both women and minorities into professional and management positions