UAPP110 CHAPTER QUIZZES
The highest quintile (20%) of the U.S. population earns about __ of the total income in the country.
50%
Which statement describes government policy with regard to regulation of amusement park rides in the United States?
A patchwork with some rides unregulated, others regulated by states, while still others are regulated locally
The __ is a measure that represents the average change in price over time of a market basket of consumer goods and services.
CPI
____ 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.
Cost of living adjustments or COLA
Nearly every policy proposal is concerned with the criterion of ______
Effectiveness
Which statement below defines the term "public policy"?
Government action taken in response to a public problem
A ____ refers to what happens to the public problem after a policy is enacted.
Policy outcome
_____ refers to the checks and balances that our Constitution sets up among the three branches of government.
Separation of powers
Which new program, enacted in 1996, ended the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program?
Temporary assistance to needy families
Market incentives as tools or instruments of policy are defined as
a special category of taxing or imposing fees to encourage consumers or companies to change behavior
The slow start and frequent crashing of the Affordable Care Act website, Healthcare.gov, is an example of failure to measure up to which of the following evaluative criteria?
administrative feasibility
Cities that use "visioning" exercises to get citizens to think about what they desire for future development in their community are using ____ to compare policy alternatives.
an ideal situation
Part __ of Medicare covers physician charges, diagnostic tests, and other charges than hospital stays.
b
The U.S. Congress has two elected bodies. This structure is called a ____ Congress.
bicameral
Federal ____ grants for community development activities give states and local governments a set amount of money and enable them to determine how the money is spent.
block
Which of the following terms refers to the ability of a method of taxation to keep up with inflation and economic growth?
buoyancy
State and national parks require visitors to purchase a permit for using the park. Which policy tool is being used in this example?
charging fees
This "cousin" of cost-benefit analysis does not attempt to assign dollar values to potential benefits but instead assumes they will occur and looks for the cheapest way to achieve them.
cost-effectiveness analysis
The growing cost of tuition at public universities in the United States is directly related to ____.
decreasing funding for higher education by states
A recession is likely to affect the policies that government adopts to stimulate jobs. This is an example of which context affecting the development of public policy?
economic context
During and after the Great Recession, various governmental entities proposed policies to create jobs, increase the minimum wage, and regulate financial markets. This was likely a result of which context impacting the policy-making process?
economic context
Public service announcements on television or radio represent what form of government policy tool?
education
The policy instrument of _____ refers to government attempts to convey important information to citizens in order to influence their behavior.
education
With the scarcity of government resources in the past several years, the evaluative criterion of ___ has become more and more important.
efficiency
Critics of the U.S. health care system argue that, in the long run, treating the diseases that afflict people who are obese is much more costly than investing in strategies to prevent obesity. They argue that, in this way, the U.S. health care system is not
efficient
The ___ theory of policy making focuses on the role of experts and leaders in formulating public policy.
elite theory
The main reason that government gets involved in addressing a public problem is to
ensure that the public good is maintained and protected
What are some examples of preventative health care?
environmental protection, diet and exercise, and health education
Which of the following policy analysis criteria deals with whether a policy has a fair process or policy outcome?
equity
The issue of ___ has surfaced with regard to the financing of public education due to the fact that _____.
equity/poor students receive lower-quality education
Federal cabinet departments and major agencies such as the CIA and EPA are found in which branch of government?
executive
Over the past two decades, income of U.S. citizens has become more equitably distributed across income levels.
false
The Affordable Care Act is a form of single-payer health care.
false
U.S. policy making has often been referred to as an innovative approach.
false
The U.S. system of government is a(n) ________ system in which the national government shares authority with states and local governments in areas of public policy.
federal
The trend of decentralization of government in the United States transfers policy authority from ____to ____.
federal to state
In the U.S. health care system, insurance typically pays for each doctor's visit, test, and exam separately. This is called
fee-for-service health care
One of the largest federal programs for the poor is SNAP. What does it provide?
financial resources to purchase food
____ policy refers to the government's budgetary process and includes all of the activities it does related to taxing and spending.
fiscal
A local government is interested in planning for certain services for older adults as the Baby Boom generation ages. The agency develops estimates of the number of older adults who will be living in the area in 2015, 2020, 2025, and 2030. This is an example of
forecasting
Which statement describes the reason that U.S. policy making is characterized by conflict over which policies to adopt?
government officials, interest groups, and citizens promote their views about what to do
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009) attempted to stimulate economic growth primarily using which economic policy tool?
government spending
The ____ theory of policy making explains the policy process as an ongoing interplay among interest groups.
group theory
___ is the policy-making theory suggesting that policy making occurs through a dynamic struggle among a variety of policy actors, interest groups, government officials, and the public.
group theory
Overall, the two broad problems that the U.S. health care system faces overall right now are
growing costs and poor access to health care services
The Gini coefficient measures ___.
income inequality
The ___ part of Affordable Care Act requires that everyone is responsible to obtain health insurance coverage from their employer, through a government program, or by purchasing it themselves.
individual mandate
The _____theory of policy making emphasizes the formal and legal parts of governmental structure.
institutional
When the economy grows, often inflation increases as well. This condition illustrates the principle of ____.
interrelationship of economic goals
Which of the following describes what is known about the effectiveness of the TANF legislation?
it has reduced the number of people receiving welfare but had an unclear impact on numbers in poverty
Programs that require someone to have a low income in order to participate are known as ____.
means tested programs
The ___ program, established in 1965 and funded jointly by states and the federal government, provides health care coverage for poor adults and children.
medicaid
Which government program provides medical insurance for the elderly as an entitlement?
medicare
In the United States, health care is viewed as a _____, in contrast to many other developed countries, which consider health care to be a right.
merit good
__ is based on the idea that teachers should only receive pay raises for successful student performance.
merit pay
How is public education (kindergarten through high school, or K-12) funded in the United States?
mostly local property taxes and state funds, minor amount from federal
When the Environmental Protection Agency adopts regulations that force power plants to take into consideration the actual costs to deal with pollution and the health problems it causes, what type of market failure is the EPA addressing?
negative externality
Which government office is in charge of monitoring how other agencies conduct cost-benefit analyses?
office of management and budget
____ are observable ways to define a problem.
operational measures
____ refers to collecting and interpreting information that clarifies the causes and effects of public problems.
policy analysis
____ refers to the process of the government choosing which specific policy instruments will be used to address a public problem.
policy formulation
The popularity or relative power of a political party, pressure exerted by interest groups, and the influence of third parties (such as the Tea Party) are examples of the ____ affecting how decisions are made by government.
political context
Many individuals recently urged President Obama to reform health care by setting up a single-payer system like the Canadian system. In developing his health care reform plan, the president ruled out that option early using the criterion of ____, because it was likely to be "dead on arrival" in Congress.
political feasibility
____ has been defined as "who gets what, when, and how," or the exercise of power in making decisions of public policy.
politics
Education is often cited as something that benefits more than just the person getting the education; it benefits society in a number of other ways. This is called:
positive externality
The type of policy analysis typically conducted by think tanks is called
professional
This analytical technique uses historical data to make estimates of future numbers.
projection
____ are individuals that are concerned about the negative balance of trade.
protectionists
Government officials propose public policies in response to ___, or conditions that the public widely perceives to be unacceptable.
public problems
The only type of good for which there is no market failure, and the government need not intervene to prevent it.
pure private good
Indicators of sustainability refer to ___ data that attempt to measure a community's progress toward the goal of sustainability.
quantitative
The ____ theory of policy making draws heavily on economics to explain the actions of voters and also of elected officials as attempts to maximize self-interest.
rational choice
The ____ approach to policy analysis defines a problem, identifies goals, develops alternative proposals, and uses criteria to evaluate each alternative to choose the policy action.
rational-comprehensive
The National Park Service (NPS) issues a limited number of backpacking permits at some parks. What type of policy tool is this?
rationing
The primary goal of all welfare and social security programs is to
reduce the number of people living in poverty
Which of the following is NOT a prominent proposal to reform the Social Security program?
requiring recipients to undergo employment training and obtain jobs
This decision-making tool analyzes the potential harm to people or other negative effects of a proposed policy solution.
risk assessment
Which policy allows parents to send their children to any public school in a particular area?
school choice
Which policy allows parents with children in low-performing public schools to send their children to private schools at taxpayer expense?
school vouchers
The aging of the Baby Boom generation has led to growing interest in reform of government programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Similarly, immigration policy is in the forefront due to the influx of immigrants to the United States. These are examples of the ___ influencing policy.
social context
How are public colleges in the United States funded?
some state funding, tuition, and grants/donations
____ refers to the availability and reliability of technology needed for policy implementation.
technical feasibility
Which statement describes how most welfare programs are financed and implemented?
the federal government provides much of the funding and state governments manage the programs
Privatization of Social Security has been one of the major proposals for reform. Privatization refers to
the government provides funds to individuals that they are responsible to invest
regulating is defined as
the government requiring certain activities to be done and, if not, assessing penalties
The distributive effects of a tax are
the impact it has on different groups
Which of the following is an example of data that could be collected to study the root causes of poverty?
the number of students that drop out of high school
The current Social Security program, financed by payroll taxes, is capped at just over $107,000 of income. This is an example of _______.
the regressive tax
Policy analysts study the nature of the problem. Which statement below best defines what this refers to?
the severity, scope, and causes of the problem
What feature makes the U.S. health care system distinct from that of most other countries?
the significant involvement of many for-profit companies and providers of care
One of the major criticisms of President Bush's No Child Left Behind educational policy was that
there is not enough money to fully implement it; it was essentially an unfunded mandate
Market mechanisms as tools or instruments of policy are defined as
those that rely upon the laws of supply and demand to influence the behavior of individuals or corporations
According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, almost half of older adults have been kept out of poverty by the Social Security program.
true
Increasing the rate of higher education attainment among an area's adult population has been shown to strengthen the workforce, increase income, and improve quality-of-life features.
true
Recent changes to Social Security mean that individuals can retire with full benefits at age 67.
true
Systems theory refers to an interaction among government institutions and the larger social, economic, and cultural context in which they operate.
true
The most pressing concern about U.S. K-12 education is declining quality of education.
true
The policy criterion of efficiency refers to the assessment of how well a policy works relative to the cost of adopting that policy.
true
The welfare reform act of 1996 (TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) emphasized the need to find employment as one of its requirements.
true
Traditionally, a significant portion of funding for public schools in the United States comes from local property taxes.
true
