7. Government is defined as
a. any group of people involved in politics.
b. the structured arrangements which produce decisions resolving conflict.
c. only a predetermined set of countries that recognize each other as having
legal power.
d. any person or group of persons who have power but who respect the right
of all people to be free.
9. The process that determines “who gets what, when, and how” is known as
a. decision-making. b. political science. c. politics. d. paternalism.
10. Harold Laswell’s definition in question #9 implies that
a. people are in conflict over valued things in society.
b. societies have a set of procedures to resolve the question of “who gets
what, when, and how.”
c. individuals are anti-social.
d. both a and b.
11. Which of the following defines politics?
a. “who gets what, when, and how.”
b. “the authoritative allocation of valued things.”
c. “the competitive process engaged in a society to allocate scarce resources
and determine priorities.”
d. All of the above are definitions of politics.
12. Decisions which are authoritative are those
a. which can be backed up by legitimate power.
b. that are made with the approval of a majority of the public.
c. which can be repealed in a referendum.
d. that are made by a small percentage of society.
14. In class, we introduced a public policy classification scheme. Which of the
following questions must be answered in order to classify a policy under this
scheme?
1. Who is the primary target group?
2. Why is government implementing the policy?
3. What are the goals of the policy?
4. What is the activity of government with respect to the primary target group
[what is government doing to or for the primary target group]?
5. Who are the secondary target groups?
a. 1, 3, and 5 b. 1, 2, and 4 c. 2 and 4 d. 1 and 4
15. In which class of public policy does government set standards for behavior,
inspect for compliance with the standards, and punish for non-compliance?
a. resource extractive b. regulatory c. redistributive
d. internal organization and management
16. Under the policy classification scheme introduced in class, which of the
following is NOT one of the five activities that government can undertake with
respect to a primary target group?
a. give b. take c. symbolize d. lie
13. Suppose a city council passed an ordinance in 1990 which prohibits
individuals and businesses from posting signs (i.e., garage sale signs, small
business advertising) on right-of-ways, intersections, street lights, telephone
poles, city property, etc. Because Code Enforcement (the city department
responsible for enforcement of the ordinance) does not have enough
manpower, it has not issued a single citation for violation of the ordinance in
seven years. Consequently, these signs are pervasive around the city.
What important principle of public policy does this example illustrate?
a. Public policies NEVER work.
b. City governments have little authority to make public policy decisions.
c. Public policies consist of decisions AND action - the action of government
determines the content of public policy.
d. Public policies are what government intends to do.
14. In class, we introduced a public policy classification scheme. Which of the
following questions must be answered in order to classify a policy under this
scheme?
1. Who is the primary target group?
2. Why is government implementing the policy?
3. What are the goals of the policy?
4. What is the activity of government with respect to the primary target group
[what is government doing to or for the primary target group]?
5. Who are the secondary target groups?
a. 1, 3, and 5 b. 1, 2, and 4 c. 2 and 4 d. 1 and 4
15. In which class of public policy does government set standards for behavior,
inspect for compliance with the standards, and punish for non-compliance?
a. resource extractive b. regulatory c. redistributive
d. internal organization and management
16. Under the policy classification scheme introduced in class, which of the
following is NOT one of the five activities that government can undertake with
respect to a primary target group?
a. give b. take c. symbolize d. lie
17. A city council passes and the police enforce an ordinance imposing fines on
the parents of minor children who are “on the streets” past a 1:00 a.m.
curfew. This is an example of which class of policy?
a. resource extractive b. symbolic c. regulatory d. resource extractive
18. The United States denies the People’s Republic of China most favored
nation trading status as a result of China’s alleged human rights violations.
This is an example of which class of policy?
a. resource extractive
b. symbolic
c. regulatory
d. resource extractive
34. The National Endowment for the Humanities awards a research grant to a
team of historians and anthropologists to study the ancestral claims of certain
native American tribes to “ceremonial” lands. This is an example of which
type or class of public policy?
a. resource allocative
b. resource extractive
c. regulatory
d. internal organization and management
35. The City Health Department inspects a local restaurant and finds “slime in
the ice machine,” inadequate refrigeration for perishable foods, and roach
and rodent droppings on cabinet shelves, the floor, and food containers. This
is the third round of violations for this restaurant. The Health Department
closes down the establishment until standards are met. This is an example of
which type or class of public policy?
a. resource allocative
b. resource extractive
c. regulatory
d. internal organization and management
36. Once every ten years (subsequent to the decennial census), the 450 seats in
the United States House of Representatives are reapportioned to reflect
population shifts. Legislatures in each of the 50 states redraw congressional
district lines (within their states) so that each district contains (roughly) the
same number of people. As a result of the 1990 census, the number of
representatives allotted to Texas increased from 28 to 30. The Texas
legislature last redrew district lines in 1991 to account for this change.
Redrawing congressional district lines by state legislatures is an example of
which type or class of public policy?
a. resource allocative
b. resource extractive
c. regulatory
d. internal organization and management
37. The Federal Trade Commission enforces the standards of the Fair Credit
Reporting Act of 1968. This legislation requires finance companies, retail
stores, nonfederal credit unions, and other creditors to inform consumers on
the costs of buying on credit, including total charges and the rate of interest
on unpaid balances. This is an example of which type or class of public
policy?
a. resource allocative
b. resource extractive
c. regulatory
d. internal organization and management
38. In 1964, Congress passed the Employment Opportunity Act that established
the Job Corps. This program provides intensive vocational training and basic
education to youths from 14 to 21 years of age who are poor, out of school,
and out of work. This is an example of which type or class of public policy?
a. resource allocative
b. resource extractive
c. regulatory
d. internal organization and management
39. A few years ago, Congress passed a resolution declaring that surviving
Japanese-Americans who had their property confiscated when they were
interned in concentration camps during World War II were entitled to
compensation. Checks for $20,000 were then mailed by the U.S. Treasury
Department to all those eligible. This is an example of which type or class of
public policy?
a. resource allocative
b. resource extractive
c. regulatory
d. internal organization and management
40. Under state law in Texas, voters may elect to establish special district
governments called Crime Control and Prevention Districts to distribute sales
tax revenues to municipal governments for the purposes of implementing
law enforcement programs. In March 1995, voters in the City of Fort Worth
established the first such district in the state. In October 1995, the Fort
Worth Crime Control and Prevention District began funding anti-crime
programs to be implemented by the City of Fort Worth Police Department.
This is an example of which type or class of public policy? [HINT: the policy
action in this case is the distribution of sales tax revenues from the Crime
Control District to the Fort Worth Police Department.]
a. resource allocative
b. resource extractive
c. regulatory
d. internal organization and management
44. The U.S. Department of Commerce requires that shrimpers operating in U.S.
waters install “turtle-excluder devices” [TEDs] on their nets to reduce the
number of sea turtles that are inadvertently killed in shrimp harvests. The
Coast Guard randomly inspects shrimping boats and may impose fines on or
impound the vessels of shrimpers who are not in compliance. This is an
example of which type or class of public policy?
a. resource allocative
b. resource extractive
c. regulatory
d. internal organization and management
17. The United States denies the People’s Republic of China most favored
nation trading status as a result of China’s alleged human rights violations.
This is an example of which class of policy?
a. resource extractive b. symbolic c. regulatory d. resource extractive
27. In class, we proposed two opposing lines of argument concerning the
apparent lack of efficiency and effectiveness of government in the United
States. Which of the following are the proper pair of criticisms?
a. incompetent or corrupt politicians AND uninformed voters
b. uninformed voters AND the amount of money in election campaigns
c. incompetent or corrupt politicians AND a decentralized political system
d. none of these
28. The framers of the U.S. Constitution attempted to prevent tyranny by
a. requiring that congress defer to the other branches of government.
b. not giving congress many powers.
c. making tyranny unconstitutional.
d. decentralizing political power through institutional mechanisms such as
separation of powers.
29. Both politics and policy differ between the American and parliamentary
versions of democracy. The form of democracy developed in the United
States is a product of
a. its constitutional system.
b. the treaty that ended the American Revolution.
c. the dominance of strong political parties in the American system.
d. the “Connecticut Compromise.”
30. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the American system, but IS
of the parliamentary system?
a. The legislature may remove the executive on grounds of policy
disagreement.
b. The executive and members of the legislature are separately elected.
c. Members of the legislature are constitutionally-prohibited from serving in
the executive’s cabinet.
d. Divided party government is highly probable.
31. In a parliamentary system, the prime minister is usually chosen by the
a. nation’s voters. b. legislature’s majority party. c. cabinet.
d. ruling monarch.
32. Which of the following is NOT a likely feature of politics in a parliamentary
system?
a. legislative/executive deadlock b. strong political parties
c. coalition government d. all of these are likely features.
33. An important implication of our comparison of the parliamentary and
American systems is that the structure of a political system emphasizes some
values and not others. Which values are BEST served by the decentralized
nature of the American system?
a. efficient and effective government
b. effective, but prudent government
c. circumscribed (limited), deliberate government
d. crippled, impotent government