Deck 10: Policy Implementation, Failure, and Learning

Question 1

Instrumental policy learning entails

A)learning about better strategies for making political arguments.
B)learning about the effectiveness of policy tools .
C)an analysis of attitudes towards program goals.
D)learning about how to use computer technology to improve implementation.

Answer 1

learning about the effectiveness of policy tools .

Question 2

Political learning entails

A)learning about better strategies for making political arguments.
B)an evaluation of policy tools and techniques.
C)an analysis of attitudes towards program goals.
D)learning about how to use computer technology to improve implementation.

Answer 2

learning about better strategies for making political arguments.

Question 3

Social policy learning entails

A)learning about better strategies for making political arguments.
B)learning about social causes of problems .
C)an analysis of attitudes towards program goals.
D)learning about how to use computer technology to improve implementation.

Answer 3

learning about social causes of problems .

Question 4

What is the main debate over who learns in notions of organizational learning in the policy process?

A)The idea that people never learn no matter what happens to them.
B)Whether or not we can attribute learning to nonhuman entities, such as organizations.
C)The idea that people cannot learn under conditions of bounded rationality.
D)The idea that experience is an unreliable basis for learning.

Question 5

Which of the following is not one of Peter May's categories of learning?

A)instrumental policy learning
B)political learning
C)environmental learning
D)social policy learning

Question 6

Ingram and Mann say that all of the following are potential explanations for policy failure except for

A)The impact of changing circumstance.
B)The problem of bounded rationality.
C)Excessive policy demand.
D)Realizable policy expectations.
E)Accurate theory of causation .
F)Choice of effective policy tools.

Question 7

Which one of the following is NOT one of the three main approaches used to study implementation?

A)bottom-up
B)top-down
C)synthesis of top-down and bottom-up
D)alternative selection

Question 8

The first era of implementation studies tended to focus on

A)individual case studies.
B)attempts to create more general approaches (top-down, bottom-up) to the study of implementation.
C)attempts to synthesize theories of implementation into theories that encompass the strengths of earlier approaches.
D)the attempt to reconcile implementation studies with the problems studies of agenda setting.

Question 9

The second era of implementation studies tended to focus on

A)individual case studies.
B)attempts to create more general approaches (top-down, bottom-up) to the study of implementation.
C)attempts to synthesize theories of implementation into theories that encompass the strengths of earlier approaches.
D)the attempt to reconcile implementation studies with the problems studies of agenda setting.

Question 10

The third era of implementation studies tended to focus on

A)individual case studies.
B)attempts to create more general approaches (top-down, bottom-up) to the study of implementation.
C)attempts to synthesize theories of implementation into theories that encompass the strengths of earlier approaches.
D)the attempt to reconcile implementation studies with the problems studies of agenda setting.

Question 11

Our system of multiple levels of government (federalism)

A)makes implementation easier because there are many participants in delivering government services.
B)makes implementation more difficult because policy designers cannot always count on state and local cooperation.
C)makes policy implementation more difficult because there are too many states and local governments.
D)makes implementation easier because state and local governments prefer to fund national or state programs.

Question 12

Policies without publics are

A)policies that no one wants to see passed.
B)policies that don't get a lot of news media attention.
C)policies developed with relatively little public input or attention.
D)secret policies that governments hide from their people.

Question 13

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA) did all of the following except

A)requiring more stringent searches of airline passengers.
B)"federalizing" airport screening processes.
C)requiring airlines to install anti-missile technology on airplanes.
D)requiring airlines to install more secure doors between the cockpit and the passenger cabin.

Question 14

Street-level bureaucrats are

A)people with near total discretion to implement the law as they see fit.
B)people in positions where they directly implement policies by interacting with people with minimal immediate supervision.
C)the lowest-level people in an organization.
D)government officials whose work tends to be solely outdoors.

Question 15

Does the top-down approach to the study of implementation assume that policy goals are clearly defined? If so, explain what might be some of the problems with that assumption.

Question 16

Why is understanding policy failures just as important, if not more important than understanding policy successes?

Question 17

In the textbook, Birkland argues that the "underwear bomber" case tipped the balance in favor of using screening machines that showed a clearer image of a screened passenger's body under his or her own clothes. Do you agree that public sentiment supports the use of such machines? Explain why.

Question 18

Does the failed attempt to bomb Northwest Airlines flight 253 in 2009 reflect policy failure? Or policy success? Make an argument for either position, and explain what your answer means for understanding policy learning.

Question 19

Policy designers working from the top levels can structure policy designs in such a way as to promote greater compliance and implementation success.

Question 20

Why do Goggin and his colleagues believe that implementation is as much a matter of negotiation and communication as it is a matter of command?

Question 21

Policy enactment and implementation are distinctive elements of the policy process.

Question 22

Explain how an "excessive policy demand" might be used as an explanation for a policy failure.

Question 23

Explain three impediments to effective policy implementation.

Question 24

List two major explanations for policy failure.

Question 25

What are the characteristics of top-down approaches to policy implementation?

Question 26

Why is policy failure often hard to define?

Question 27

For policy makers and public managers policy implementation is the easiest aspect of the policy making process.

Question 28

Explain why it wasn't until the 1960s before people began to explicitly study policy implementation.

Question 29

Explain how the selection of policy tools is part of the development of policy implementation strategies.

Question 30

Explain the basic assumptions of the top-down approach to implementation studies.

Question 31

What is the most important problem with top-down models of policy implementation? Cite two problems with this model

Question 32

Explain the basic assumptions of the bottom-up approach to implementation studies.

Question 33

Explain and provide examples of "street level bureaucrats."

Question 34

A top-down approach to the study of implementation recognizes that policy goals are ambiguous and not explicit.

Question 35

The policies enacted in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act had all been debated and considered before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Question 36

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act has been proven to be a policy failure.

Question 37

According to Woodrow Wilson, the implementation of a policy should be easy because the agencies need only carry out the will of the legislature.

Question 38

Policy goals are usually unclear, ambiguous, and subject to change.

Question 39

Insufficient policy demand is one explanation for policy failure.

Question 40

Policy makers and managers do not find the implementation process frustrating because it is difficult to model and predict.

Question 41

The bottom-up approach to the study of policy implementation focuses on the policy designer's intention.

Question 42

Teachers, firefighters, and police officers are examples of street-level bureaucrats.

Question 43

The top-down approach to the study of implementation has proven superior to the bottom-up approach.

Question 44

The bottom-up approach to the study of implementation has proven superior to the top-down approach.

Question 45

The study of implementation is both theoretical and practical.

Question 46

Single-loop learning involves not only thinking about how a policy or process works, but also the fundamental assumptions of the policy.

Question 47

There are some policies about which most members of the public know or care very little.

Question 48

Policy failure is easy to detect and is clear to all participants in the policy process.