Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the Submit my answers button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:

Today, federal spending in Canada is approaching ________.
a) $100 billion
b) $200 billion
c) $50 billion
d) $300 billion
e) $5 billion

Question 2:

According to the merit principle, hiring and promotion decisions are expected to be based on ________.
a) relevant experience
b) academic degrees
c) professional credentials and certification
d) other attributes deemed to be relevant to the competent performance of the job
e) all of the above

Question 3:

In the context of public service hiring, “patronage” means that hiring is based on ________.
a) ability and credentials
b) the ability to pay off a government official
c) academic achievement and political sympathies
d) friendship, family, loyalty, or in exchange for benefits of various sorts
e) belonging to a marginalized social group

Question 4:

The term “whistleblowing” refers to _________.
a) the practice of a constituent attempting to recall a Member of Parliament
b) the summoning of Members of Parliament to a parliamentary session
c) bringing attention to government actions or policies believed to endanger public safety
d) the Speaker of the House making a ruling on procedure
e) the act of announcing the prorogation of Parliament

Question 5:

Today federal departments and agencies employ roughly ________ people.
a) 1 million
b) 754,000
c) 263,000
d) 613,000
e) 198,000

Question 6:

The personal income tax accounts for close to ________ of all federal government revenue.
a) one-third
b) one-quarter
c) half
d) two-thirds
e) one-tenth

Question 7:

Globalization, with its unprecedented ease and speed of capital movements, has made governments ________.
a) more sensitive to the demands of businesses
b) more dependent on revenue from the taxation of individuals
c) more sensitive to the expectations of investors
d) both a and b
e) all of the above

Question 8:

The term “positive state” refers to ________.
a) a state that is active in attempting to shape society and influence its direction
b) a state that consistently runs budget surpluses
c) a state whose spokespersons urge citizens to be positive and upbeat
d) a state that is unusually intrusive in the lives of individual citizens
e) a state that attempts to create programs that are evidence-based

Question 9:

Restrictions on the political rights of public servants first emerged in ________.
a) 1900
b) 1908
c) 1939
d) 1967
e) 1972

Question 10:

The “crisis of the state” that began in the 1970s referred to ________.
a) the effects of oil shock
b) the inability or unwillingness of governments to finance the welfare state policies
c) the effects of the Cold War and increase of communist sentiments in society
d) the end of Keynesianism
e) the effects of globalization on national borders

Question 11:

The case of________ was not a case about the political rights of public servants.
a) Fraser v. PSSRB
b) Osborne v. Canada
c) Haydon v. Canada
d) CSN v. Attorney-General (Canada)
e) none of the above cases was about the political rights of public servants

Question 12:

The major role of the bureaucracy is ________.
a) policy implementation
b) measuring public opinion
c) election campaign strategy
d) media relations
e) controlling parliamentary decision-making

Question 13:

The major components of the bureaucracy are ________.
a) the public service, agencies and tribunals, and Crown corporations
b) the public service, Crown corporations, and the courts
c) agencies and tribunals, Crown corporations, and the military
d) Crown corporations, the courts, and the military
e) the military, the courts, and the public service

Question 14:

Senior permanent officials are both ________.
a) academics and political advisers
b) academics and policy advisers
c) managers and political advisers
d) managers and policy advisers
e) lawyers and economists

Question 15:

People of non-British and non-French ancestry now comprise over ________ of the Canadian population.
a) 15 per cent
b) 20 per cent
c) 25 per cent
d) 30 per cent
e) 40 per cent

Question 16:

More than ________ of Canadian workers are employed in the broadly defined public sector.
a) 10 per cent
b) half
c) one-third
d) one-fifth
e) one-quarter

Question 18:

The expectation that the composition of the bureaucracy reflect in fair proportion certain demographic characteristics of society is called ________.
a) representation equality
b) workplace equality
c) diversity bureaucracy
d) substantive equality
e) representative bureaucracy

Question 19:

The question of ________ has been problematic in the idea and implementation of representative bureaucracy.
a) which groups should be singled out for representation
b) what constitutes “fair proportion”
c) the extent to which, if at all, other values like efficient performance and equal rights for all are compromised by such a policy
d) whether the idea of a representative bureaucracy can be squared with the idea of a politically neutral one
e) all of the above

Question 20:

Between 1965 and 1975, federal government revenue increased by almost ________.
a) 100 per cent
b) 75 per cent
c) 400 per cent
d) 50 per cent
e) 200 per cent

Question 21:

The 2002 the federal government directive to departmental managers required that ________.
a) they increase the proportions of visible minorities on their staffs to 20 per cent
b) recruitment advertisements for departmental positions feature visible minorities
c) one-fifth of appointments to the executive category of the public service be from visible minorities by 2005
d) both a and c
e) all of the above

Question 22:

Affirmative action programs are required by ________.
a) the Employment Equity Act
b) the Multiculturalism Act
c) the Public Service Employment Act
d) the Diversity Affirmation Act
e) the Equal Opportunity Act

Question 23:

Some examples of agencies and tribunals are ________.
a) the CBC, the National Energy Board, and the Canadian Labour Relations Board
b) the National Energy Board, the National Transportation Agency, and the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission
c) the National Transportation Agency, PetroCanada, and the Canadian Revenue Agency
d) the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, the Immigration and Refugee Board, and Via Rail
e) the Treasury Board, Air Canada, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Question 24:

________ is not a function of the bureaucracy.
a) Provision of services to the public
b) Generating policy advice
c) Interpretation of regulations
d) Providing campaign support for ministers
e) Disbursement of funds to groups, organizations, and individuals

Question 25:

The groups that are usually considered as needing “fair” representation in public-sector employment do not include ________.
a) women
b) visible minorities
c) the disabled
d) Aboriginal Canadians
e) the LGBTQ community

Question 26:

The politics-administration dichotomy refers to the notion that politicians should make choices in their own best interest.
a) True
b) False

Question 27:

In 1985, the Supreme Court, in Fraser v. PSSRB, ruled that public servants had no right to criticize the government under any circumstances.
a) True
b) False

Question 28:

In 1991, the Supreme Court, in Osborne v. Canada, ruled that a clause in a federal act prohibiting public servants from working for or against a candidate violated their Charter rights.
a) True
b) False

Question 29:

In 2004, the Federal Court, in Haydon v. Canada, elaborated on the balance between public servants’ free speech rights and their duty of loyalty.
a) True
b) False

Question 30:

In Lament for a Nation, George Grant supported the close relationship between senior public servants and the Liberal Party.
a) True
b) False

Question 31:

It was economic growth, and not spending cuts, that was primarily responsible for the transformation of deficits into surpluses starting in 1997.
a) True
b) False

Question 32:

The administrative state has been significantly downsized over the past couple of decades.
a) True
b) False

Question 33:

One effect of globalization has been the development of an international architecture of policy-making and globalized networks of interests and ideas that influence domestic state officials and civil society.
a) True
b) False

Question 34:

The term “state capacity” means in part adequate stream of revenue to cover the cost of government expenditures.
a) True
b) False

Question 35:

Governments that have instituted policies of affirmative action and quota hiring have done so chiefly for political reasons.
a) True
b) False

Question 36:

Affirmative action programs and quota hiring are not used in pursuit of representative bureaucracy.
a) True
b) False

Question 37:

One of the goals of the 2013 private member’s bill C-473, An Act to Amend the Financial Administration Act, was to increase female representation on the boards of directors of federal Crown corporations.
a) True
b) False

Question 38:

The “Ottawa mandarins” were a coterie of top officials associated with particular parts of the bureaucracy who exercised tremendous influence on the direction of federal policy.
a) True
b) False

Question 39:

Cabinet ministers no longer depend on the permanent bureaucracy for advice on policy.
a) True
b) False

Question 40:

Most laws contain provisions delegating to bureaucrats the authority to interpret the general terms of the law in its application to actual cases.
a) True
b) False

Higher Education

Canadian Democracy, Eighth Edition: Chapter 10