MPA Study Guide 2026

The spoils system ('to the victor go the spoils') fills government positions with political supporters of the winning party rather than selecting employees based on qualifications and merit.

Administrative discretion is the latitude that agencies and administrators have to make choices about how to apply rules, allocate resources, or respond to situations within their statutory authority.

Incrementalism, associated with Charles Lindblom's 'muddling through,' holds that most policy decisions involve only modest, incremental departures from prior policy because of cognitive limits and political constraints.

Evidence-based policymaking integrates the best available research, data, and program evaluations into government decision-making to improve policy effectiveness.

Institutional isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell) explains how organizations in the same field tend to become similar through coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures.

Neo-Classical theory in management emerged as a response to the purely mechanistic views of classical theories, shifting focus to the human element within organizations. The Human Relations Movement, stemming from the Hawthorne Experiments, is the cornerstone of Neo-Classical theory. It emphasized the critical role of social and psychological factors, informal groups, and employee motivation in influencing organizational productivity and satisfaction.