Unit 2: The evolutionary perspective - Practice Quiz

1 Which stage is commonly associated with the early study of public administration?

2 Which approach focused strongly on formal organization and administrative principles?

3 Which stage emphasized the importance of human behavior in organizations?

4 The behavioral approach in public administration mainly studies which factor?

5 Which approach gave greater attention to administrative efficiency and measurable results?

6 What is a major concern of New Public Administration?

7 New Public Administration developed partly in response to concerns about which issue?

8 Which value is closely linked with New Public Administration?

9 New Public Administration views public administrators as having a responsibility to promote what?

10 Which statement best describes New Public Administration?

11 What is the main focus of New Public Management?

12 New Public Management often applies ideas from which sector to government?

13 Which practice is associated with New Public Management?

14 In New Public Management, citizens are often viewed as what?

15 Which method may be used in New Public Management to deliver public services?

16 The public choice approach applies economic reasoning to the study of what?

17 According to the public choice approach, public officials are generally assumed to be motivated by what?

18 Which institution does the public choice approach often compare with a market?

19 What problem does the public choice approach often associate with government monopolies?

20 Which idea is supported by the public choice approach as a way to improve public services?

21 A government department is organized around clear functions, formal rules, and a strict hierarchy. Which stage in the evolution of public administration does this arrangement most closely reflect?

22 An administrator improves productivity by studying employee motivation, group relationships, and informal communication. Which intellectual development is being applied?

23 A policy team examines how political, economic, and social factors interact before recommending an administrative reform. This reflects which perspective?

24 A reform program treats an agency as a set of interdependent units whose activities affect one another and the external environment. Which perspective is most relevant?

25 Which change best illustrates the movement from traditional public administration toward more contemporary approaches?

26 A public agency gives priority to services for disadvantaged communities, even when those services are more difficult and costly to deliver. Which principle of new public administration is most clearly demonstrated?

27 A city changes its housing policy after discovering that a formally equal rule disproportionately harms low-income residents. This action best reflects the concern of new public administration with:

28 Which administrative decision is most consistent with the value-oriented character of new public administration?

29 An agency evaluates a program by asking whether it improves living conditions for vulnerable citizens rather than only whether it follows established procedures. This illustrates:

30 A public administrator openly supports a reform intended to reduce discrimination in access to government services. Which view of administration does this action represent?

31 A ministry allows managers to choose how to achieve targets but evaluates them using measurable service indicators. Which feature of new public management is illustrated?

32 A government contracts a private firm to collect household waste and compares its results with those of a municipal provider. Which NPM instrument is being used?

33 A public hospital receives funding partly according to the number and quality of treatments it provides. This arrangement most directly reflects:

34 A government agency separates policy formulation from service delivery and gives the delivery unit a formal service agreement. Which NPM practice does this represent?

35 A manager meets all numerical targets by reducing service quality and excluding difficult cases. What limitation of NPM does this example reveal?

36 A public choice analyst predicts that elected officials may support a highly visible project because it increases their chances of reelection. Which assumption supports this prediction?

37 A public choice explanation of bureaucratic expansion would most likely argue that agencies grow because:

38 Several agencies offer similar services, and a reform permits citizens to choose among them using service vouchers. The reform is based mainly on the public choice idea that:

39 A narrowly organized interest group obtains a subsidy whose cost is spread across millions of taxpayers. Which public choice concept best explains why the subsidy may persist?

40 A citizen has little incentive to learn the details of a complex budget because the cost of gaining information exceeds the likely personal benefit. This situation illustrates:

41 Which sequence most accurately represents the broad intellectual movement in public administration from classical to contemporary approaches?

42 An agency introduces standardized procedures but later grants frontline workers discretion after discovering that identical rules produce unequal outcomes across communities. Which evolutionary transition does this best illustrate?

43 Why did the politics-administration dichotomy become increasingly difficult to sustain as a complete description of administrative work?

44 A reform program combines hierarchy, professional expertise, citizen participation, performance measurement, and interorganizational networks. What is the most defensible interpretation of this arrangement?

45 Which observation most strongly supports the claim that administrative evolution is context-dependent rather than universally sequential?

46 A welfare agency meets its aggregate service targets but systematically underserves remote and minority communities. From a New Public Administration perspective, the central criticism is that the agency has neglected:

47 Which policy design best reflects the New Public Administration principle that administrators should be responsive to marginalized citizens?

48 An administrator must choose between a cheaper policy that preserves existing disparities and a costlier policy that substantially improves access for excluded groups. Which justification is most consistent with New Public Administration?

49 Which tension is most characteristic of New Public Administration rather than a simple efficiency-centered model?

50 A department creates participatory forums, but officials use them only to ratify decisions already made and exclude low-income residents through inconvenient meeting times. What is the strongest New Public Administration assessment?

51 A ministry pays schools according to graduation rates, after which schools exclude difficult students and inflate completion records. Which New Public Management problem is most directly illustrated?

52 Which contractual arrangement best addresses the risk that a private contractor will reduce service quality in dimensions that are difficult to observe?

53 A public hospital is granted managerial autonomy and told to compete for patients, but its emergency-care obligations remain universal and unprofitable. Which criticism of New Public Management is most relevant?

54 Which combination most clearly distinguishes New Public Management from traditional bureaucratic administration?

55 An agency improves its measured processing speed by rejecting complex applications more frequently. Which redesign would most directly reduce this adverse incentive?

56 In the public choice approach, why might a program persist even when its aggregate social benefits are lower than its costs?

57 A regulatory agency receives detailed technical information from the industry it regulates, while consumers lack comparable expertise and organization. Which public choice concern is most applicable?

58 Which institutional reform is most consistent with the public choice response to bureaucratic budget maximization?

59 A city allows residents to choose among nearby providers of publicly funded services, but all providers must meet common standards. Which public choice logic is being applied?

60 Which scenario most clearly illustrates a collective-action problem rather than a simple lack of public information?