PLC2602 Assignment 1 (COMPLETE ANSWERS) Semester 2 2023 (205967) -DUE 30 August 2023

PLC2602 Assignment 1 (COMPLETE ANSWERS) Semester 2 2023 () -DUE 30 August 2023. 100% CORRECT questions, answers, workings and explanations. for assistance. ............. SECTION A: MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS QUESTION 1 Is the following statement true or false? In South Africa, international and interstate agreements are only binding if they are ratified by both houses of parliament (the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces). 1. True 2. False QUESTION 2 Who defined policy as the authoritative allocation through the political process, of values to groups or individuals in society? 1. Petrus Brynard 2. Thomas Dye 3. David Easton 4. Baker, Michaels and Preston 5. Austin Ranney PLC2602/102/3/2023 18 QUESTION 3 For various different reasons, policy makers sometimes delay or avoid making policy decisions. For example, policy makers may find it too difficult to decide what the best policy is for fighting crime. The decision may be difficult because policy makers are afraid that the specific policy they choose could be unpopular with the electorate. However, if policy makers do not decide to choose a policy response this does not mean that the problem will simply go away. What happens is that policy makers can now only react to the problem with ad hoc decision-making instead of adopting a formal policy response. Because there is no formal policy response, ad hoc uncoordinated policy reactions to issues and problems become routine over time and informal practices become formal policy responses. What do we call this approach to policy decision-making? 1. The elite/mass interaction model 2. The group competition model 3. The policy community model 4. The garbage can model 5. The institutional model QUESTION 4 Who defined public policy as whatever governments choose to do or not to do? 1. Carl Friedrich 2. Kenneth Prewitt 3. Thomas Dye 4. David Easton 5. Gabriel Almond QUESTION 5 Identify the one option that correctly fills in the missing words: Policy implementation is often associated with (i) ............., and is treated as a separate and distinct sphere from politics, which means that administration is concerned with questions of (ii).......... (what is) rather than (iii) ............ questions (what should be or ought to be) assuming that politics is about (iv) ........... whereas administration is the implementation of decisions. 1. (i) public policy (ii) objectivity (iii) theoretical (iv) value judgements 2. (i) public policy (ii) fact (iii) normative (iv) value judgments 3 (i) public administration (ii) fact (iii) normative (iv) management 4. (i) public administration (ii) fact (iii) normative (iv) value judgments PLC2602/102/3/2023 19 QUESTION 6 Indicate which one of the following assumptions of neostatism is incorrect. 1. There are Institutional restrictions on the behaviour of individuals 2. The emphasis should be on government’s function of governing and controlling and less on the allocation of resources 3. The state is a political actor in its own right and is not a neutral referee 4. A distinction should not be made between state and government 5. The state has interests of its own QUESTION 7 Which policy evaluation problem does the case study below represent? An official from the Department of Home Affairs conducts a site visit to a rural ex-patriot refugee community to assess reports that the community suffered from a chronic shortage of medicines and medical equipment. Based on the findings of this official it was decided to implement a project to remedy the shortage of medical supplies. Following the implementation of this policy, the department received reports that the community’s chronic shortage of medical supplies had been remedied. On site during a subsequent visit, however, the official discovers that an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) called “Doctors Without Borders” had also launched a community project to remedy the shortage of medical supplies a few weeks after the official’s first visit to assess the needs of the community. Upon further investigation, the official learns that more than half of the community’s medical supplies now come from international donations and that the government policy intervention had a minimal impact on addressing the chronic shortage of medical supplies in the community. 1. Diffuse policy impacts 2. Official resistance 3. Causality 4. Uncertainty over policy goals 5. Difficulties in data acquisition QUESTION 8 Indicate which one of the following options is not a characteristic of Public Choice Theory. 1. One of the core functions of governments is to manage externalities 2. Policy-makers are guided by cost-benefit analysis and decision-making 3. Public policy is modelled on free market principles 4. Policy-makers are motivated by individual interests 5. The provision of essential public goods is a priority of government PLC2602/102/3/2023 20 QUESTION 9 Identify the one option that correctly fills in the missing word: A public interest group pursues policies that they believe will provide ______ to society. 1. Solidary incentives 2. Selective benefits 3. Purposive incentives 4. Collective benefits 5. Lower taxes QUESTION 10 Which of the following is an essential characteristic of Max Weber’s ideal-type bureaucracy? 1. Hierarchy of authority 2. Salaried careers 3. Specialisation and technical qualification 4. Written rules 5. All of the above [10 Marks] SECTION B: SHORT ESSAY QUESTION Requirements: Format: Assignments must be typed. If you choose to type your responses, please ensure that you meet the following technical requirements: (i) Font Style: Times New Roman or Arial, (ii) Font Size: 11, (iii) Line Spacing: Single, (iv) Margins: Narrow (v) Harvard method of referencing. If you submit a handwritten assignment, it must be neat and legible. All submissions must be in PDF format. Further Research: You have been provided with the necessary information in this Tutorial Letter 102, your study guide and the prescribed book, to answer the designated question. It is not compulsory to conduct further research in order to answer the question in Section B. However, you are welcome to use other sources to enhance your responses, provided that they are a) relevant, b) you do not plagiarise from these sources, and c) you reference these sources in both the body of your text and a bibliography. Additional research will be reflected in the marks that are awarded. However, failure to reference a source that you have used constitutes plagiarism. This also applies to the sources that you have been provided with. Sources are copyright protected by law. PLC2602/102/3/2023 21 Length of Responses: The overall length of Section B must be between 1-2 pages, excluding the cover page, contents page and bibliography. Guidelines: The content of the assignment question has both a generic component that requires you to interact with your study material and an application component for which you will find guidance but not a ready-made answer in your study material. No marks will be awarded for merely copying the content of the study guide. Copying from the study guide constitutes plagiarism. Background: Public policy-making has been described as a process of development or formation of policy. Although in practice it may not always be possible to view the stages of this process as neatly distinguished from one another and moving chronologically in a linear sequence, nonetheless for analytical purposes it is important to be able to distinguish between these stages. This is especially important for the purposes of policy analysis. The identification of policy-relevant problems is stage one of the policy-making process. At this stage, the existence of a potentially infinite number of needs is identified. These needs are the origins of policies. However, because material resources are limited, not all of these needs can be met. Thus, identifying these needs is only one step towards deciding which of these needs will be addressed. That is why this stage of the policy process can be described as a screening process, i.e. a process of considering which of the needs can be translated into policy, given the limited material and other resources available to the public policy-maker. This is why not all problems in society can become policy problems. The question now arises: how does a policy-maker know when a matter is a problem or policy issue. In this regard, there are two important indicators*: public opinion and elite opinion * An indicator is something that provides information about, or measures something. In this case, it provides information about a policy need or policy relevant problem. Assignment Question: Your task in this assignment is as follows: In your own words, you must:  Firstly, explain the roles of public opinion and elite opinion in the identification of policy relevant problems, and then,  Secondly, compare and contrast (i.e. to describe the similarities and differences between) the roles of public opinion and elite opinion in the identification of policy relevant problems.