Item 1. When considering Americans’ overall trust in government (under the heading “Public Trust in Government Near Historic Lows”), what do you see as the two most compelling trends, patterns, and historic changes in public opinion? When do notable trends begin and end? What is their apparent path across time? Be sure to support your answer with as much specificity (numerically speaking) and clarity as possible.
Item 2. As you move deeper into the data (graphs and raw numbers) presented by the Pew Research Center, what relationships (apparent correlations) do you see between:
a person’s party membership and their level of trust in government
a person’s ideology and their trust in government
a person’s generational status (millennial, Gen X, and so on) and their trust in government
a person’s race/ethnicity and their trust in government
Item 3. Based on your responses to Item 1 and Item 2 above, identify and briefly discuss what you regard as the implications of these data? How might these data, and the relationships you identify in Item 2 above, inform the study of public administration? You may decide to cast your response in terms of some (perhaps not all) of the key themes of PSPA 360, such as:
politics
democracy
responsiveness
accountability
neutral competence
Item 4 (15 points possible). The author of your text, Donald Kettl, observes that “government depends on public administration as the connection between those who make policy and the citizens who expect results.” As we discussed often this semester, public administrators and the administrative agencies they lead are vitally important points of connection between citizens and their government. It is, perhaps, because of its special role in the relationship between citizens and government that public administration, and its study in academic settings, is deeply informed by the themes of accountability and performance. In view of this, what do you see as the most important mechanisms or processes by which administration is made accountable to citizens (i.e., to “the governed) and accountable for the performance of public programs? What terms, ideas, and concepts did you encounter over the last 15 weeks (and, importantly, when reading the Kettl text) that you regard as essential understanding the subjects of accountability and performance in public administration?
Item 5 (15 points possible). In PSPA 360, students spend much time examining theories of organization (recall the organization theory chapter in the Kettl text) and various approaches, or models, of decision making (recall the chapter of the Kettl text dedicated to decision making). In light of your encounter with the relevant chapters of the Kettl text and our many class discussions, what do you see as the most important challenges faced by government when trying to manage organizations and make decisions about public problems? Using terms, ideas, concepts, and theories presented by Kettl, why are solutions to public problems often so hard to create? [Before answering, spend some time thinking about the nature of public problems, in general. Do public problems, as a distinct class of challenges encounter by human beings, have special qualities? You’ll recall some early semester readings on this subject in addition to some advice provided in another short article about how public policy education might be reformed.]
Item 6 (10 points possible). Recently, you submitted a research project that involved application of the basic steps of policy analysis. Becoming familiar with the basic techniques of policy analysis required careful reading of Bardach and Patashnik’s text, A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis. In view of the work you did on your policy analysis project, discuss:
how the policy analysis process examined in this course enhanced your capacity to respond to societal challenges; and