Final Exam Flashcards
Which of the following best describes the term “public policy?
What public officials decide to do or not do about public problems.
Which of the following best describes the formal actions that governments take to pursue their goals?
Policy Outputs
Which of the following
best describes the effects that formal policy-related actions actually have on
society?
Policy Outcomes
To which of the following policy scientists can we attribute the observation that: politics is “the authoritative allocation of values for a society.”?
David Easton
Which of the following federal agencies is responsible for ensuring public safety as it relates to the distribution of consumer goods and services?
The Consumer Product Safety Commission
Which of the following policy scientists stated, as follows: politics is about “who gets what, when, and how.”?
Harold Lasswell
Your text identifies several different “contexts” of public policy. Under which of these contexts would you be most likely to find a discussion of the responsibilities of different political institutions under the separation of powers clauses in the U.S. Constitution?
Governing Context
Your text identifies several different “contexts” of public policy. Under which of these contexts would you be most likely to find a discussion of the effects of surpluses and deficits on public policy?
Economic Context
Your text identifies several different “contexts” of public policy. Under which of these contexts would you be most likely to find a discussion of the way in which citizens relate to each other within a particular community?
Social Context
Your text identifies several different “contexts” of public policy. Under which of these contexts would you be most likely to find a discussion of differences in voting behaviors in “red” states versus “blue” states?
Cultural Context
Your text identifies several different “contexts” of public policy. Under which of these contexts would you be most likely to find a discussion of how partisan differences affect voting by members of Congress?
Political Context
Which of the following best describes public parks?
A pure public good
Which of the following best describes electricity services in a particular city?
A toll good
Which of the following best describes air and water?
Common pool resources
Which of the following best describes a car or a television?
Pure private goods
Which of the following best describes the observation that a single individual would be irrational to join an interest group when almost no personal gain follows?
Logic of collective action
In which of the following eras did the deregulation of financial markets occur?
The 1980s
In which of the following eras did the deregulation of energy markets occur?
The 1990s
Which of the following pieces of legislation was passed as a result of diminished faith in the ability of Wall Street financial institutions to limit the kinds of risky investments that contributed to global economic turmoil in the late 2000s?
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
Which of the following best describes a law proposed by a state or locality for voters to approve or reject?
Referendum
Which of the following is not a cause of “policy gridlock?”
Conflict between experts writing on the policy problem in scholarly journals
How many cabinet-level bureaus existed in the first American government?
Three
Which of the following
is most true?
The federal government has grown significantly in size since it was founded.
What is meant by the term “divided government” (in the context of stalemate)?
Divided government occurs when one political party controls the presidency and one political party controls Congress.
Which of the following terms is a label given by critics to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010?
Obamacare
Which Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court supported an expanded role of the national government?
Chief Justice John Marshall
Which of the following best describes the term “dual federalism?”
A period of time in which little integration exists between state and federal governments.
Which of the following terms best describes the United States Congress?
Bicameral
Which of the following American political institutions allows its members the right to filibuster, or talk for an extended period of time in hope of delaying, modifying, or defeating a proposal?
The United States Senate
Which article of the United States Constitution establishes (and describes) the legislative powers of Congress?
Article I
Which of the following best describes the partisan (or party membership) makeup of the United States Congress?
Closely divided between Republicans and Democrats
How long is the term of office for a federal judge?
Federal judges serve life terms
Which of the following American political institutions only engages in reactive policymaking (as opposed to proactive policymaking)?
The Federal Judiciary
How many officials in the executive branch of American government are elected directly in national elections?
Two
Which of the following is another term for informal arrangements such as subgovernments or issue networks?
Iron Triangles
Which of the following is a term which describes a situation in which federal requirements are placed upon state governments without any federal funds allocated to implement the requirements.
Unfunded mandates
Which of the following amendments to the United States Constitution reads as follows: “[T]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the United States respectively, or to the people.”?
The Tenth Amendment
Which of the following were the cabinet offices in the original American government?
War, Treasury, and Foreign Affiars
Which of the following was the fourth department to be added to the original cabinet of the President of the United States?
Justice
After which of the following wars did the United States emerge a “superpower” able to take “… a larger role in world affairs.”?
World War II
Which of the following describes why social scientists utilize theory in their work?
All of these describe why social scientists use theory
Which of the following best describes the primary assumption of “elite theory?”
The values and preferences of the general public are less influential in shaping public policy than those of a smaller, unrepresentative group of people.
Which of the following theories is a formal way to think about the interrelationships of institutions and policy actors and the role of the larger environment?
Political Systems Theory
John Kingdon’s description of subgovernments or issue networks is especially relevant to which of the following theories?
Elite Theory
Which of the following theories is especially useful to formulate predictions of how agency officials and the objects or targets of policy actions are likely to respond to policy initiatives?
Rational Choice Theory
Which of the following theorists are most closely associated with the Advocacy Coalitions Framework?
Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith
Which of the following is true of the term “institution?”
It can have many meanings, It refers to both the “organizations and the rules used to structure patterns of interaction within and across organizations”, and It encompasses how people within organizations relate to one another and to those in other organizations.
According to your text, which of the following best describes rational choice theory?
A highly developed and rigorous theory
Which of the following theories supplies the policy world with terms like “input, demands, support, policy outputs, policy outcomes, and feedback?”
Political Systems Theory
Which of the following is not a stage in the Policy Process Model?
Policy Renumeration
Which of the following statements best defines the term “policy analysis?”
Part science and part political judgment
Which of the following disciplines is not included in the list cited by your text as contributing to the understanding of policy problems?
Literary Criticism
Which of the following best describes the process of policy analysis?
Empirical study and normative assessments
Which of the following is not a step in the policy analysis process?
Seeking feedback from affected citizens
Which of the following steps in the policy analysis process is described by your text as “… perhaps the most important stage in the policy analysis process.”?
Construct policy alternatives
Which of the following steps in the policy analysis process is referred to by some authors as “… projecting the outcomes…”?
Assess the alternatives
Which of the following entities is not identified by your text as an entity regularly engaged in producing policy analysis studies?
All of these entities are identified by your text as regularly engaged in producing policy analysis studies.
Which of the following are identified by your text as motivations for academic policy analysis studies?
Scientific purposes
Which of the following terms best describes the American Enterprise Institute, as it relates to policy analysis studies?
Professional Orientation
Which of the following terms best describes an assistant professor at a research university, as it relates to policy analysis studies?
Scientific Orientation
Which of the following terms best describes the National Rifle Association, as it relates to policy analysis studies?
Political Orientation
Which of the following terms best describes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as it relates to policy analysis studies?
Political Orientation
Which of the following terms best describes the Brookings Institution, as it relates to policy analysis studies?
Professional Orientation
Which of the following is most likely to include an “executive summary” with their policy analysis studies?
Professional policy analysts
Which of the following academic policy journals is most likely to focus on ethical aspects of public policy?
Philosophy and Public Affairs
What does the beginning of any policy study involve?
A description of a problem.
Which of the following is true about most public problems?
Most public problems are not so simple.
Which of the following is often true with regards to public problems?
Public problems are often difficult to understand.
According to your text, best defines the term “contextual data?”
Background information
According to your text, is true with regards to measuring public problems?
Quantitative measures are abundant for most contemporary public problems.
Which of the following political scientists stated that there are “no fixed goals” in the policy process?
Deborah Stone
Which of the following is not a major component of problem analysis?
Repeal the legislation that created the problem
Which of the following Internet search tools does your text recommend for collecting information for purposes of problem analysis?
Which of the following authors, according to your text, focused significant attention on the concept of applying creative thinking to policy action?
Patton and Sawicki
Which of the following, according to your text, best describes the process of examining books, journal articles, Internet sites, and other sources while considering a course of policy action?
Literature review
Which of the following United States Supreme Court Justices said: “A single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”?
Louis Brandeis
Which of the following, according to your text, best describes a technique to encourage creative thinking in public policy or in organizational change?
Brainstorming
Which of the following, according to your text,
best describes that with which analysts often compare policy alternatives?
Ideal situation
Which of the following is a now defunct specialized Internet search tool for searching government Web sites?
Google Uncle Sam
Which of the following states has an especially low seat belt use rate?
New Hampshire
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the definition below most closely associated?:
“The extent to which public policy extends or restricts privacy and individual rights and choices.”
Liberty/Freedom
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the definition below most closely associated?:
“The availability and reliability of technology needed for policy implementation.”
Technical feasibility
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the definition below most closely associated?:
“The likelihood that a department or agency can implement the policy well.”
Administrative Feasibility
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the definition below most closely associated?:
“Fairness or justice in the distribution of the policy’s costs, benefits, and risks across population subgroups.”
Equity
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the definition below most closely associated?:
“Likelihood of achieving policy goals and objectives or demonstrated achievement of them.”
Effectiveness
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the description of “limits to use” (below) most closely associated?:
“Involves projection of available resources and agency behavior that can be difficult to estimate.”
Administrative Feasibility
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the description of “limits to use” (below) most closely associated?:
“Often difficult to anticipate technological change that would alter feasibility.”
Technical feasibility
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the description of “limits to use” (below) most closely associated?:
“Measuring all costs and benefits is not always possible. Policy decision making reflects political choices as much as efficiency.”
Efficiency
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the description of “limits to use” (below) most closely associated?:
“Difficult to determine. Depends on perceptions of the issues and changing economic and political conditions.”
Political Feasibility
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the description of “limits to use” (below) most closely associated?:
“Estimates involve uncertain projection of future events.”
Effectiveness
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the description of “where most likely used” (below) most closely associated?:
“Civil rights, disability rights, tax equity, access to health services and higher education”
Equity
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the description of “where most likely used” (below) most closely associated?:
“Any controversial policy, such as crime control or abortion rights.”
Social Acceptability
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the description of “where most likely used” (below) most closely associated?:
“Virtually all policy proposals where concern exists over how well government programs work.”
Effectiveness
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the description of “where most likely used” (below) most closely associated?:
“Regulatory policies, such as workplace safety and environmental protection; consideration of market-based approaches.”
Efficiency
With which of the following criterion for evaluating public policy (according to your text), is the description of “where most likely used” (below) most closely associated?:
“Proposed national identification cards, restrictions on Internet use, property rights, abortion rights, regulatory actions that constrain choices of corporations and individuals.”
Liberty/Freedom
Which of the following acts of Congress established the land-grant college system (which funds higher-education institutions such as Utah State University)?
The Morrill Act of 1862
Which of the following is a traditional source of education funding in the United States?
Property tax revenue
Which of the following clauses of the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of religion relate to prayer in public schools?
Both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause
Which of the following programs is/are designed or intended to improve schools by promoting competition among schools?
School choice and school vouchers programs
What position to organizations representing teachers, such as the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, take towards testing requirements?
These groups do not support testing requirements.
Which U.S. President believed that education provides an avenue to ensure the continuation of U.S. democracy?
Thomas Jefferson
During which presidential administration was the controversial No Child Left Behind Act enacted by Congress?
The Bush (II) Administration
Which level(s) of government has/have traditionally been most responsible for public education?
State/local governments
Which of the following acts of Congress does your text identify as the “first major education legislation?”
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Which of the following United States Supreme Court cases involves a challenge to prayer at a school-sponsored football game?
Sante Fe Independent School District v. Doe
Which of the following United States Supreme Court cases marks the beginning of consistent rulings against school-sponsored prayer?
Engel v. Vitale
Which of the following professions has the highest median salary (as of 2008)?
Computer Scientist
Which of the following professions has the lowest median salary, as of 2008?
Teacher
According to your text (citing State Higher Education Executive Officers), what happened to per pupil educational appropriations in Utah (as a percentage of change) between 2005 and 2010?
Per pupil educational appropriations decreased during this time period
According to your text (citing the U.S. Census Bureau), which of the following individuals earn the lowest mean salary (as of 2010)?
Females without a high school diploma
How long has the United States been burdened by large federal deficits?
Since the 1980s
Which of the following indices is used by the federal government to measure inflation?
Consumer Price Index or “CPI”
Which of the following American political institutions is most directly responsible for implementing fiscal policy?
Congress
Which of the following American political institutions is most responsible for implementing monetary policy?
The Federal Reserve
The term “open market operations” is most closely associated with which of the following?
Monetary Policy
Which of the following best defines a type of tax that applies the same rate of taxation to all individuals regardless of their income or socioeconomic standing?
Regressive tax
Which of the following best defines a type of tax that is based on the philosophy that higher earners should pay higher taxes both in terms of actual dollars and as a percentage of income?
Progressive tax
Which of the following terms best describes the Congressional Budget Office (or “CBO”)?
Nonpartisan
Which of the following “parts” of the Medicare program are optional?
Part B
Which of the following “parts” of Medicare provides a prescription drug benefit to its recipients?
Part D
Which of the following programs is best described as state-run (or state-administrated), as opposed to federally-run (or federally-administrated)?
Medicaid
Which of the following terms best describes the opportunity to take one’s health insurance coverage with them when they change jobs?
Portability
Which of the following best describes the program which allows individuals who leave their jobs to remain on the employer’s health insurance policy for as long as eighteen months (assuming the employee pays the premiums)?
COBRA
Which of the following is the leading cause of death in the U.S. (in 2005)?
Heart Disease
According to your text, can be substituted for HMO’s (when a wealthier patient finds services provided by HMO’s lacking)?
Boutique health care
The United States Census Bureau established the poverty line at what level in 2012 of yearly income for a family of four?
$23,050
Which of the following U.S. presidents declared a “war on poverty?”
Lyndon Johnson
Which of the following statistical measurements are commonly used by economists to demonstrating a nation’s income equality and inequality?
Gini coefficient
Social Security was enacted during what “era?”
The New Deal Era
Which of the following is not a category of benefits under the Social Security program?
Medicaid
Which of the following terms often refers to Social Security?
“Third Rail”
By what year will each Social Security benefits recipient be supported by only two workers contributing to the Social Security system?
2040
By what year will the Social Security trust funds be depleted (and revenue coming into the program will pay only about 75 percent of the benefits due retirees and other recipients)?
2036
Public education policy has traditionally been in the hands of policymakers from what type of government?
State and local governments
Which of the following acts of Congress established the land-grant college system (which funds higher-education institutions such as Utah State University)?
The Morrill Act of 1862
Which of the following is a traditional source of education funding in the United States?
Property tax revenue
Which of the following figures of historical significance believed education to “… provide[] an avenue to ensure the continuation of U.S. democracy?”
Thomas Jefferson
Which of the following programs is/are designed or intended to improve schools by promoting competition among schools?
School choice and school vouchers programs
Which of the following public educational programs, according to your text, was adopted under the Obama Administration?
Race to the Top
The costs of higher education have recently been rising ______?
Higher than inflation
Which American news outlet remarked that the energy components of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would have amounted to “the biggest energy bill in history,” had they been a stand-along measure of legislation?
The New York Times
The League of Conservation Voters compiles which of the following, as a record of members’ votes on environment-related bills in Congress?
National Environmental Scorecard
Which of the following best represents the George W. Bush Administration’s position with respect to fossil fuels and their relationship to the nation’s energy demands?
The U.S. should increase the use of fossil fuels to meet the nation’s growing energy demands
In what year did the “Earth Summit” take place?
1992
Which of the following was the first National Park created by Congress?
Yellowstone National Park
Which of the following federal agencies was the first to be created by Congress?
The U.S. Forest Service
Which of the following states is not part of Yellowstone National Park?
Colorado
Which of the following natural disasters most notably contributed to the expanded conservation policies of the New Deal under President Roosevelt?
The Dust Bowl
What is the title of Rachel Carson’s influential book that drew the public’s attention to environmental policy in the early 1960s?
“Silent Spring”
What was the result of the Reagan Administration’s efforts to roll back environmental policy during the 1980s?
A strengthening of the major U.S. environmental laws
Which U.S. president created the Environmental Protection Agency?
Richard Nixon
Which of the following statutes does your text describe as what might appear to constitute a coherent national policy on environmental policy?
The National Environmental Policy Act
The concept of “environmental stewardship” became popular in which century?
The Twentieth Century
Which of the following federal agencies administers the Endangered Species Act for land-based species?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Which of the following U.S. presidents, according to your text, declared that the United States was “addicted to oil…?”
George W. Bush
Which of the following is not identified by your text as a federal agency responsible for foreign and defense policy?
FBI
Which of the following terms best describes “Blackwater USA”?
Private Contractor
Which of the following U.S. political offices is not identified by your text as one of the most important policy actors responsible for American foreign policy?
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Who chairs the National Security Council?
The President of the United States
Which of the following is a usual attender of the National Security Council meetings?
The Secretary of the Treasury
Which of the following terms best describes: “a hardheaded or practical appraisal of national interests that emphasizes competition among nation states?”
Realpolitik
Which of the following organizations is the historical counterpart to NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?
The Warsaw Pact
Which of the following is the “most important of the UN policymaking bodies?”
The UN Security Council
Which of the following is an internationally recognized “nuclear weapons state?”
France
Which of the following agencies was replaced by the Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”) in 1947?
The Office of Strategic Services
Which of the following best describes the combination of “… a specification of policy goals as well as the means used to achieve them…”
Policymaking
Which of the following happens when policy actors “… have differing views about the substance of public policies or whether government intervention is justifiable at all.”
Conflict
Which of the following is true of public policy change “most of the time…?”
Change occurs in small steps
Which of the following does your text identify as the “dominant style” of policymaking in the U.S. political system?
Incremental policymaking
Which of the following does your text identify as a “good example of forward-looking and wide-ranging policymaking?”
The 2012 United Naitons Conference on Sustainable Development
Which of the following federal departments did Congressional Republicans want to abolish during the mid-1990s?
The Department of Education
Which of the following is not emphasized by your text as an “evaluative criteria” for public policy?
Environmentalist
Which of the following U.S. Presidents (while campaigning for office) pledged to “make government cool again?”
Barack Obama
Which of the following best describes “Common Cause?
Citizen group
Which of the following may contribute to raising public participation in the future?
Advancements in technology
