PLC2602 Assignment 1 (DETAILED ANSWERS) Semester 1 2024 - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED

PLC2602 Assignment 1 (DETAILED ANSWERS) Semester 1 2024 - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED Answers, guidelines, workings and references. ... QUESTION 1 What is the lower house of the South African Parliament called? Please select the correct option. a. The Senate b. The National Council of Provinces c. The House of Representatives d. The Houses of Parliament e. The National Assembly PLC2602/102/3/2024 8 QUESTION 2 Please indicate if the following statement is true or false. Policy can be defined as a statement in which goals are set whereas public policy constitutes all of those policies, which are determined in the public sector. Since public policies are made in the public sector and not in the private sector, this distinction is analogous to the distinction between state and civil society. a. True b. False QUESTION 3 Who argues that public policy may either be negative or positive in form, which means that public policy may involve overt government action to do something (positive) or it may involve government’s decision not to do something (negative)? Please select the correct option. a. David Easton b. Max Weber c. Harold D Laswell d. James E Anderson e. Carl Friedrich QUESTION 4 According to Anderson, which stage of the policy-making process is associated with the assessment and appraisal of policy, which can occur throughout the policy-making process? Please select the correct option. a. Policy legitimisation and formalisation b. Policy formulation c. Agenda setting d. Identification of policy-relevant problems e. Policy evaluation QUESTION 5 Please indicate whether the following statement is true or false. Bureaucratic discretion is a dimension of policy implementation because the bureaucracy always has the right to decide what procedures it is expected to follow. a. True b. False PLC2602/102/3/2024 9 QUESTION 6 Please read the following statement and answer the question. The policy-making process can either be viewed as a cyclical process (i.e. it repeats itself in cycles) or as linear (i.e. all developments are milestones on a straight line with a beginning and an end, and therefore each event is new and unique). In the stage called identification of policy-relevant problems, both public opinion and elite opinion can play an important role in determining which needs will be addressed by policy. Yet there is some disagreement amongst scholars about the role that public opinion plays in the identification of policy-relevant problems. Dye argues that public policy shapes public opinion more often than public opinion shapes public policy. Dye provides several reasons for arguing this. Which one of the following reasons does Dye give for his opinion? Please select the correct option. a. The opinion of leaders is far more likely to be influenced by public opinion than by elite opinion. b. Because public opinion tends to be flexible and can therefore change over a relatively short period of time, leaders are more inclined to be influenced by elite opinion, which is more stable than public opinion. c. Leaders have a clear understanding of public opinion because most messages or signals are from the elites, who have a clear perception of public opinion. d. None of the above options are correct. QUESTION 7 Please select the sequence of words that correctly completes the following statement. Legislation is the (i) ….. of a particular aspect of government’s policy in order to grant it (ii) ….. so that it can be (iii) ...... . a. (i) enforcement (ii) authority (iii) enacted b. (i) formulation (ii) legitimacy (iii) enforced c. (i) enactment (ii) authority (iii) enforced d. (i) formulation (ii) legitimacy (iii) implemented PLC2602/102/3/2024 10 QUESTION 8 Agenda setting, the second stage in the policy-making process, is often described as something that just happens. However there are approaches to agenda setting that demonstrate that this is not the case. In fact, they show that certain interest groups have a role in influencing what is placed on the policy agenda by policy-makers. Which one of the following approaches proposes that certain interest groups are placed in a privileged position, since they are recognised by government as the only representatives of specific interests, and are therefore in an exclusive position to influence the policy-relevant problems that policy-makers are likely to place on the policy agenda? Please select the correct option. a. Elite theory b. Neostatism c. Pluralism d. Corporatism e. Public choice theory QUESTION 9 Please read the following scenario and then answer the question. Recent research conducted by an independent committee to measure the impact of government’s policy to speed up the delivery of internet provision to rural communities produced findings that indicated that 57% of all households in the North-West province do not have any form of access to the internet. Government initiated a two-year project to roll out internet infrastructure that would provide internet access to all of the households in the province without internet access, on a pay-as-you-go basis. At the end of the project, government inspectors evaluated the success of the policy and reported to the government that its policy had resolved the problem. However, a senior official of the Department of the Police reported to government that as soon as the project was completed, there was a 36% increase in the crime rate involving theft of cables, which was directly attributable to the success of the government project of providing the necessary infrastructure for the roll-out of internet services to these communities. You must identify which problem of policy evaluation this scenario describes. a. Uncertainty over policy goals b. Official resistance c. Diffuse policy impacts d. Causality e. Unrealistic time perspectives PLC2602/102/3/2024 11 QUESTION 10 Which of the following terms are usually not associated with the concept of the “public”? Please select the correct answer. a. Hierarchy b. Collectivistic c. Authority d. Laissez-faire e. Central control [10 Marks] SECTION B: SHORT DISCUSSION 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 or 12 (iii) Line Spacing: 1,5 (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 prescribed book to answer the designated question/s. 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. All sources are copyright protected by law. Length of Responses: The overall length of Section B of this assignment must be between 1-2 pages, excluding the cover page, contents page and the bibliography. Please do not hand in assignments that are half a page or a single paragraph. 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 PLC2602/102/3/2024 12 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. It is possible to distinguish between the various stages of policy-making for analytical purposes, even though it is not always possible to view these stages in a strictly chronological order. Policy implementation can, for analytical purposes, be described as the fifth stage in the policy-making process. Policy implementation means that the political executive assumes control and directs the relevant institutions to implement the policies. Moreover, one of these institutions plays a particularly important role in policy implementation. Your assignment requires you to identify these institutions and to explain how policy is implemented. Assignment Question: Your study guide identifies and describes policy implementation as the fifth stage in the policy-making approach. In this assignment you must, in your own words (i.e. you may not simply copy your answer from the Study Guide): 1. Identify and describe the main institutions that are responsible for policy implementation. 2. Then you must explain the role of the bureaucracy in the implementation of policy as well as compare and contrast the different roles that the bureaucracy plays in policy implementation. In other words, it is not adequate just to describe how policy is implemented. You must explain the differences between the various roles played by the bureaucracy in policy implementation by comparing these roles. You will not be awarded full marks for merely describing these different roles.