CPM Public Policy Development & Analysis 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which type of policy evaluation is conducted BEFORE a program is implemented to assess its potential effectiveness?
- Summative evaluation
- Ex-post evaluation
- Formative evaluation
- Ex-ante evaluation (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Ex-ante evaluation
Ex-ante evaluation (prospective evaluation) assesses the likely impacts of a proposed policy before it is put into effect.
Question 2: A city wants to reduce traffic fatalities and is considering a speed camera program. Which policy instrument category does this represent?
- Capacity-building instrument
- Hortatory instrument
- Regulatory/enforcement instrument (Correct answer)
- Market-based instrument
Correct answer: Regulatory/enforcement instrument
Speed cameras enforce legal limits through surveillance and penalties, classifying them as regulatory or enforcement instruments.
Question 3: When conducting an environmental scan for policy development, the PESTLE framework helps analyze factors in which six categories?
- Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental (Correct answer)
- Planning, Execution, Staffing, Training, Leadership, Evaluation
- Performance, Efficiency, Scale, Timing, Leverage, Equity
- Public, Executive, Statutory, Technical, Legislative, Empirical
Correct answer: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental
PESTLE stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental factors that can affect a policy's context and success.
Question 4: A public manager is tasked with recommending a policy that maximizes overall societal welfare, even if some individuals are made worse off. This approach aligns most closely with which ethical framework?
- Deontological ethics
- Virtue ethics
- Utilitarianism (Correct answer)
- Rawlsian justice
Correct answer: Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism holds that the best policy is the one that produces the greatest good for the greatest number, even at the expense of some individuals.
Question 5: Which approach to policy formulation is characterized by small, incremental adjustments to existing policies rather than comprehensive reform?
- Rational comprehensive model
- Mixed scanning model
- Garbage can model
- Incrementalism (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Incrementalism
Lindblom's incrementalism describes real-world policy-making as a series of small successive steps away from the status quo, constrained by political and cognitive limits.
Question 6: A federal rule published in the Federal Register and open for public comment is in which stage of the regulatory process?
- Final rule stage
- Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) (Correct answer)
- Congressional review stage
- Executive Order implementation
Correct answer: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) is the stage where agencies publish draft regulations and invite public comment before finalizing them.
Question 7: Which data collection method is MOST suitable for capturing nuanced community perspectives on a proposed housing policy?
- Administrative records review
- Focus groups (Correct answer)
- Randomized controlled trial
- Time-series regression
Correct answer: Focus groups
Focus groups allow facilitators to elicit in-depth qualitative perspectives and probe community attitudes in ways that surveys or administrative data cannot.
CPM Public Policy Development & Analysis 3
Which type of policy evaluation is conducted BEFORE a program is implemented to assess its potential effectiveness?