Discuss the laws that were passed to protect whistleblowers.
What will be an ideal response?
Answers will vary.Federal employees may be reluctant to blow the whistle on their superiors for fear of reprisals. To encourage federal employees to report government wrongdoing, Congress has passed laws to protect whistleblowers. The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 authorized the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), an independent agency, to investigate complaints of reprisals against whistleblowers. Many federal agencies also have toll-free hotlines that employees can use to anonymously report bureaucratic waste and inappropriate behavior.One set of laws encourages reports by making cash rewards to whistleblowers. Under four different programs, if the government saves or retrieves a significant sum as a result of a tip-off, a percentage of the government's gain can be paid to the whistleblower. Under the False Claims Act, a private individual can even pursue a claim in court if the Justice Department fails to proceed.Many such cases involve tax fraud by corporations and individuals, not government malfeasance. In September 2012, the government paid out the largest such reward ever-$104 million. The money went to a banker who blew the whistle on a Swiss bank that was helping U.S. citizens defraud the Internal Revenue Service. The whistleblower, however, also had to serve forty months in prison for his part in the fraud.
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The use of in-depth reporting to unearth scandals, scams, and schemes, at times putting reporters in adversarial relationships with political leaders, is referred to as __________ journalism
a. beat b. gatekeeping— c. investigative d. law-and-order
In which of the following ways do third parties affect American politics?
a. They distract from important policy debates. b. They effectively disprove Duverger's Law. c. They intentionally alter election wins by their ideologically closest major party. d. They push major parties to incorporate new ideas or elucidate current ones.
The political culture which has a negative view of the bureaucracy and which rejects the merit system of employment is:
A. the individualistic. B. the moralistic. C. the traditionalistic. D. all of the above
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was included in the Social Security Act of 1935 . Its original purpose was to provide financial aid to children whose fathers were deceased. By the 1990s, most of the payments were to singleparent families in which the father was alive but seldom involved in the child's life
a. True b. False Indicate whether the statement is true or false