BSocSc Bachelor of Social Science Public Policy and Administration 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which type of government budget approach allocates funding based on the previous year's budget plus an incremental increase, rather than building from zero?
- Incremental budgeting (Correct answer)
- Zero-based budgeting
- Performance-based budgeting
- Program budgeting
Correct answer: Incremental budgeting
Incremental budgeting is the dominant approach in U.S. government, in which last year's appropriations serve as the baseline and negotiations focus on marginal additions or cuts rather than comprehensive program review.
Question 2: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 requires public employers and businesses to:
- Provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities (Correct answer)
- Hire a fixed percentage of employees with disabilities
- Build dedicated facilities exclusively for disabled workers
- Offer financial compensation to employees who acquire disabilities on the job
Correct answer: Provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities
The ADA prohibits disability discrimination and requires covered employers, governments, and public accommodations to provide 'reasonable accommodations' — modifications that enable individuals with disabilities to participate fully.
Question 3: In U.S. social welfare policy, 'means-tested' programs are those that:
- Restrict benefits to individuals or families below a certain income threshold (Correct answer)
- Provide universal benefits to all citizens regardless of income
- Test recipients' job-readiness before providing assistance
- Evaluate the effectiveness of benefits before renewing them
Correct answer: Restrict benefits to individuals or families below a certain income threshold
Means-tested programs like SNAP, Medicaid, and TANF limit eligibility based on income and assets, contrasting with universal programs like Social Security that provide benefits regardless of financial need.
Question 4: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 expanded health coverage primarily through:
- Medicaid expansion to low-income adults and health insurance marketplaces with subsidies (Correct answer)
- Creating a single-payer government health insurance system
- Requiring employers to provide private health insurance to all employees
- Establishing government-run community health clinics in all counties
Correct answer: Medicaid expansion to low-income adults and health insurance marketplaces with subsidies
The ACA extended coverage through two main mechanisms: expanding Medicaid eligibility to adults up to 138% of the poverty level and creating state-based insurance marketplaces offering subsidized private plans.
Question 5: The concept of 'regulatory capture' in public administration refers to:
- When regulatory agencies come to serve the interests of the industries they regulate rather than the public (Correct answer)
- When government regulations become too complex for agencies to enforce
- The process of bringing new industries under federal regulatory oversight
- When private firms take over government regulatory functions
Correct answer: When regulatory agencies come to serve the interests of the industries they regulate rather than the public
Regulatory capture occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or political interests of the industry it is supposed to oversee.
Question 6: In U.S. public policy, the 'devolution' trend of the 1990s primarily involved:
- Shifting responsibility for social programs from the federal government to states (Correct answer)
- Transferring military authority from the Pentagon to regional commands
- Moving government operations from cities to rural areas
- Transferring public services to private non-profit organizations
Correct answer: Shifting responsibility for social programs from the federal government to states
The 1996 welfare reform and other 1990s legislation transferred significant authority for social programs to states, giving them flexibility to design their own programs within broad federal guidelines and block grant funding.
BSocSc Bachelor of Social Science Public Policy and Administration 2
Which type of government budget approach allocates funding based on the previous year's budget plus an incremental increase, rather than building from zero?