PAC Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the PAC exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.
📚 PAC Topics to Study (22)
✍️ Sample PAC Questions & Answers
1. In South Dakota v. Dole (1987), the Supreme Court ruled that:
South Dakota v. Dole upheld Congress's power to withhold 5% of federal highway funds from states that did not raise the drinking age to 21, establishing broad authority for conditional spending.
2. What is a policy implementation plan?
A policy implementation plan is a detailed roadmap that translates a policy decision into actionable steps. It specifies who is responsible for what, the timelines involved, necessary resources, and how the policy will be put into practice, ensuring a structured and coordinated execution.
3. Which approach to policy implementation emphasizes the importance of allowing local actors to adapt policy to their specific contexts?
Bottom-up implementation theory, associated with Elmore and Hjern, argues that local discretion and adaptation improve program effectiveness.
4. Which of the following best describes 'program fidelity' in policy implementation?
Program fidelity measures how closely actual program delivery matches the model or design that evidence showed to be effective.
5. Which planning framework involves working backward from a desired future state to identify the steps needed to achieve it?
Backcasting starts with a defined future goal and works backward to identify the policies and actions required to reach that goal from the present.
6. A policy analyst is evaluating a job creation tax credit. Which outcome measure most directly tests whether the credit caused new jobs to be created?
Evaluating additionality—jobs created above the counterfactual baseline—is essential to determine whether the credit caused employment growth or simply subsidized jobs that would have appeared anyway.