Public Policy Analysis
Final Exam
Course Introduction
Public Policy Analysis provides a comprehensive introduction to the systematic study of policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation within the public sector. The course explores foundational frameworks and analytical tools used to assess policy problems, develop effective alternatives, predict policy impacts, and measure outcomes. Students learn to apply methods such as cost-benefit analysis, stakeholder analysis, and impact assessment to contemporary policy issues. Through case studies and practical exercises, the course emphasizes the integration of evidence-based research and ethical considerations in making and recommending public policy decisions in complex and dynamic environments.
Recommended Textbook
Public Policy Politics Analysis and Alternatives by Michael
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13 Chapters
848 Verified Questions
848 Flashcards
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Page 2
E. Kraft
Chapter 1: Public Policy and Politics
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65 Verified Questions
65 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) How are criteria used to evaluate public policy? Discuss the criteria that policy analysts use to evaluate an existing or proposed policy and the focus of each criterion.
Answer: Effectiveness,how well a policy will address the public problem it is designed to alleviate; efficiency,how well it works relative to the cost; equity,whether the policy affects subgroups of people equally; political feasibility,whether the policy will be acceptable in the eyes of government officials.
Q2) A course of government action taken in an attempt to address a public problem is known as a ______.
Answer: public policy
Q3) Cable television services are an example of a ______.
A) pure private good
B) toll good
C) common pool resource
D) pure public good
Answer: B
Q4) The policy criterion of ______ refers to the assessment of how well a policy works relative to the cost of adopting that policy.
Answer: efficiency
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3
Chapter 2: Government Institutions and Policy Actors
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69 Verified Questions
69 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The trend of decentralization of government in the United States transfers policy authority from ______ to ______.
A) federal to local
B) federal to state
C) state to federal
D) local to federal
Answer: B
Q2) What is the benefit of citizen participation in government processes, and how might it be increased?
Answer: Benefit is an increased policy capacity.Citizens can be encouraged by making government more accessible to the public in new ways,citizen advisory committees,and openness.They should also discuss the public's ability to form and/or join interest groups as a way of getting themselves involved.
Q3) The United States relies heavily on ______ policy making, which falls somewhere between gridlock and innovation.
Answer: incremental
Q4) ______ refers to the capability to develop and implement strong government policies.
Answer: Policy capacity
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Chapter 3: Understanding Public Policy Making
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65 Verified Questions
65 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) These types of policies have "winners" and "losers." In other words, some groups benefit at the expense of others.
A) salient
B) redistributive
C) distributive
D) competitive regulatory
Answer: B
Q2) During the ______ stage of policy making, legislators rely on policy analysts to develop and study possible policy alternatives for them to consider.
A) legitimation
B) agenda-setting
C) policy formulation
D) program evaluation
Answer: C
Q3) Following a period of time in which policies are implemented by government, ideally, the policy-making cycle turns to ______, in which the policy outcomes and efficiency are assessed and the policies revised.
Answer: policy evaluation and change
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Chapter 4: Policy Analysis
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66 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Policy analysis that puts a priority on citizen involvement and alignment with public opinion emphasizes ______.
A) democratic political processes
B) rational comprehensive decision making
C) scientific analysis
D) pragmatic adjustments
Q2) The American Enterprise Institute was founded in ______.
A) 1930
B) 1938
C) 1940
D) 1943
Q3) What are think tanks, and how are they involved in policy development? What concerns might be raised about their involvement?
Q4) Explain the difference between consensual and contentious policy analysis.
Q5) Making modest changes in policy is known as what?
A) incremental decision making
B) rational-comprehensive policy making
C) constructing policy alternatives
D) root cause policy making
Q6) Explain what "policy analysis" is and what it entails.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Public Problems and Policy Alternatives
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65 Verified Questions
65 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The State of the USA, Inc., website launched in ______.
A) 2000
B) 2006
C) 2009
D) 2011
Q2) Indicators of sustainability refer to _____ data that attempt to measure a community's progress toward the goal of sustainability.
A) capacity
B) quantitative
C) interview
D) estimated
Q3) The National Park Service (NPS) issues a limited number of backpacking permits at some parks.What type of policy tool is this?
A) subsidizing
B) rationing
C) contracting out
D) providing market incentives
Q4) What are policy tools?
Q5) Economists want to replace the gross domestic product with the ______.
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Chapter 6: Assessing Policy Alternatives
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Sample Questions
Q1) ______ is a tool used by policy analysts to estimate the frequencies of certain conditions in the future based on historical data.
Q2) Which of the following policy analysis criteria deals with whether a policy has a fair process or policy outcome?
A) legitimation
B) equity
C) effectiveness
D) efficiency
Q3) Job impact studies like this are one kind of ______.
Q4) The evaluative criterion of ______ is concerned with how well the policy has worked and the policy outcomes that occur.
Q5) ______ is a close relative of cost-benefit analysis.
A) Risk assessment
B) Opportunity costs
C) Risk evaluation
D) Risk management
Q6) ______ is an economic method of policy analysis that studies the investment needed to enact a policy relative to the expected monetary benefits (in terms of savings or revenues it generates).
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Economic and Budgetary Policy
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64 Verified Questions
64 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The government shutdown of October 2013 was due to ______.
A) a showdown between political parties over the Affordable Care Act and the deficit
B) the federal government exceeding the Fed's target inflation rate
C) a filibuster of the health-care law staged by House Tea Party elected officials
D) the impending passage of the Affordable Care Act
Q2) According to the authors, there has been an economic downturn since ______.
A) 2005
B) 2007
C) 2009
D) 2011
Q3) A ______ tax is a tax that increases with the amount of income a person earns.
Q4) Regulation is defined as ______.
A) the government levying taxes on certain goods
B) use of the budget process to encourage or discourage behavior
C) the government providing information, so citizens can make their own choices
D) the government requiring certain activities be done and, if they are not, assessing penalties
Q5) ______ is critical to all other government functions.
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Chapter 8: Health Care Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) What did many state Republican governors and legislators do concerning the creation of state health-care exchanges?
A) They embraced the idea, lauding the ability of individual states to tailor the exchanges to their own needs.
B) They refused to set up state exchanges as a way of showing discontent with the federal law.
C) Although they were reluctant, they eventually set up the exchanges once the Supreme Court ordered them to.
D) They defied the federal law by not setting up exchanges, and many court cases are now pending.
Q2) What has the transition in the United States from fee-for-service approaches to health care to managed care accomplished?
A) It has held down medical costs and increased preventative care.
B) It has reduced demand.
C) It has insured most Americans.
D) It has increased the quality of medical services and expanded access.
Q3) Explain how the United States has pursued a strategy of incremental reform to health-care policy between the mid-1960s until recently.
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Welfare and Social Security Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Social Security and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are a form of program called ______, since people who meet eligibility criteria can receive benefits.
Q2) Poverty in the United States came to a head during ______.
A) 1950s
B) 1960s
C) 1970s
D) 1980s
Q3) ______ refers to increases made to the amount of Social Security benefits paid to an eligible individual based on inflation and increasing costs of basic goods.
Q4) The ______ category posits that if an individual is receiving benefits, certain family members such as a spouse or children may also be eligible for benefits.
Q5) Put the following demographic groups in descending order of poverty rate (i.e., highest rate listed first, lowest rate last).
A) older adults, children, adults (age 18-64)
B) children, older adults, adults (age 18-64)
C) adults (age 18-64), children, older adults
D) children, adults (age 18-64), older adults
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Education Policy
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66 Verified Questions
66 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain how a school voucher program works.How are these programs related to education quality and how do proponents believe voucher programs might improve this quality? What are the negatives associated with this option?
Q2) Discuss the concerns about K-12 education and higher education using the evaluative criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, and equity.
Q3) ______ is based on the idea that teachers should only receive pay raises for successful student performance.
A) Tenure
B) Merit pay
C) Years-in-service pay
D) Bonus pay
Q4) ______ programs allow parents to send their children to any public school in a particular area.
Q5) Explain some of the policy alternatives that are being considered to improve the quality of K-12 public education.
Q6) Increases in ______ are the major policy issue facing higher education in the United States today.
Q7) President Obama's administration promoted the ______ standards.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Environmental and Energy Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Where Congress has failed in recent years regarding climate change policy, who has succeeded in implementing effective policy?
A) the EPA and local, state, and city governments
B) various bureaucratic institutions at the federal level
C) the Supreme Court, through landmark decisions on environmental policy
D) small businesses and large corporations that have funded and furthered environmental initiatives in the wake of government failure
Q2) The environmental problems of Love Canal, New York, are often referred to as a catalyst in the passing of what law?
A) Toxic Substances Control Act
B) Clean Water Act
C) Clean Air Act
D) Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act
Q3) When was the "environmental decade" of federal legislation?
A) 1960s
B) 1970s
C) 1980s
D) 1990s
Q4) What is an environmental impact statement and what is it used to assess?
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Chapter 12: Foreign Policy and Homeland Security
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Sample Questions
Q1) The National Security Agency (NSA) was created by President ______.
Q2) The major thrust of the U.S.foreign policy between the 1950s and early 1990s could be described as ______.
A) a policy of deterrence through military buildup
B) data mining and surveillance practices
C) using diplomacy to rebuild alliances after the Cold War
D) increase in the capacity to address terrorism
Q3) What were the goals of the Marshall Plan? Was it effective?
Q4) The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act was signed in ______.
A) 2000
B) 2004
C) 2008
D) 2012
Q5) The foreign policy area that refers to actions taken by government officials to conduct military affairs.
A) defense
B) diplomacy
C) foreign aid
D) intelligence
Q6) The U.S.war on ______ began in 2001.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Politics, Analysis, and Policy Choice
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66 Verified Questions
66 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) ______ reflect who participates in the process, who does not, and the different resources that each policy actor brings to the decision-making arena.
Q2) Evaluative criteria are ______.
A) the policy alternatives available to policy actors
B) those that measure the policy actors involved in a policy issue
C) the important aspects of the policy proposal on which you will make comparisons
D) arbitrary standards that are the same for all policy issues
Q3) A policy-making approach (commonly used by the federal government) defined as a series of small policy actions that lead to modest and relatively slow policymaking.
A) strategic policy making
B) rational-economic policy making
C) incremental policy making
D) innovative policy making
Q4) Select a recent public policy alternative and, to the best of your ability, evaluate it using the criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, and equity.What kind of information might you need? What problems may arise in trying to conduct your evaluation?
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