• Format:  Type your exam using a standard 12-point font (e.g., Times New Roman or Courier New) on 8.5" x 11" paper, double-spaced, with 1" margins all around.  Exams not meeting these standards will be returned ungraded and penalized as late when received in proper form.  (Well, since this is the final exam, I guess I'll just have to penalize what you turn in.)  If for some reason you cannot meet these standards, please work it out with me before you turn in your exam.
• Writing mechanics:  Remember that I have to grade many pages of the class's writing.  I thus require good writing mechanics so as to reduce my burden as much as possible.  The harder I have to work to understand you, the more your grades go down.  (In addition, I will take points off for bad mechanics.)  Things that obscure your meanings:  misspellings, missing words, improper use of apostrophes, incomplete sentences.  (This is a sample, not an exhaustive list, obviously.)  Let me also say that correct, expressive writing is a fundamental skill necessary for public administrators.

Limit your answers to the length indicated by the word limits shown at the end of each question.  These limits are for your protection, so you won't feel driven to write a dissertation for each one.  You need not reach the stated number of words in order to provide an excellent answer.  (As a matter of fact, I have built some slack into the word limits.)

Answer all four questions.

1. Lindblom's article, "The Science of 'Muddling Through'", argues in effect that the rational analysis of policy is impossible for several reasons:  we don't have a finite list of alternatives;  for any given alternative we don't know exactly who it will affect and what those effects will be;  and the people making the decision have different value systems and so will be unable to agree on how to rank the various alternatives.  Despite these problems, we have been studying in this course how to do policy analysis.  If you were a public administrator , how would you judge when you would use rational policy analysis and what use you would put it to?  [400 words max]

My main purpose in asking this question was to see whether you understood the difficulties with and limitations of rational (cost-benefit type) analysis.  And, of course, whether you had read and understood Lindblom.  So the question was not (as several answers implied), "How do I do rational policy analysis?" but rather "When is rational policy analysis appropriate?"

Here are some considerations of when it is appropriate:

• When we are dealing with a type of decision we've made many times in the past.
• Resources (both money and time) are available and/or the information needed is known (or available).
• There is general agreement on the costs and benefits involved.
• There are few (or at least finite) alternatives available.

In general, rational policy analysis is useful as a starting point to a decision, even if it can't substitute for political decisions.

2. I asserted in class that policy comes out of a simultaneous opening of three different "windows" involving three different types of people or interests.  I named these "problems", "politicians", and "programs".  Make up a hypothetical example (or give a real example) of a public policy that might (or did) emerge from the opening of these three windows.  The point of the question is, of course, for you to show, in the context of this policy, specifically what those three windows were and how they were distinct from each other.  Please don't use any examples we discussed in class, however.  [400 words max]

My main purpose in asking this question was to see whether you understood the nature of the three windows and in particular that they operate independently of each other.  I then looked to see whether the example you used was reasonable.

The main problem I found was that people did not understand that the "politicians" window refers to politicians who, acting as entrepreneurs, seek out (or even occasionally create) and mobilize an organized constituency.  It does not mean that they simply support a policy proposal they like.  So in your answer you should have named several groups that politicians mobilize around the problem and its policy solution(s).

3. Part of any cost-benefit policy analysis is the identification of the most important costs, benefits, and publics.  In general, of course, "most important" means politically most important.  With this in mind, I want you to identify the five most important costs, the five most important benefits, and the five most important publics that should be considered vis-a-vis Donny Ness's proposal to rezone the London Road area.  Specifically, he is proposing [or so I'm assuming!] (a) that the London Road area be rezoned to permit/encourage student / rental housing, (b) that the rezoning permit/encourage student-oriented businesses, including bars, and (c) that the Duluth bus system add a dedicated shuttle service between this area and UMD.  As I understand it, "the London Road area" has not yet been specifically defined, but basically it would run from Superior Street down to the lake and from the Rose Garden (approximately 10th Avenue E) to 21st Avenue E (i.e., the I-35 exit to UMD).  So what I'm looking for in this question are three lists of five items each.  But in these lists don't just give some shorthand answer (e.g., "termites");  give enough detail to round out your point (e.g., "The Association of Professional Minnesota Termites ["TAPROMITE"] will welcome the new construction, because termites find new construction tastier than old").  [600 words max]

There were many more good ideas than I can include here.  One problem with the costs/benefits was that many answers separated what should really be considered as a single net cost (or benefit):  the transfer of student business from the Canal Park area to the London Road area.  Don't give "loss of student business in Canal Park" as a separate item from "gain of student business in London Road", or if you do, you need to explain why one doesn't merely balance out the other.

Possible costs (again, ranked in approximate order of importance):

• Loss of revenue for student-oriented businesses and landlords out of the zone (which might include the UMD Housing Office, depending on how they feel about the pressure on UMD's dorm space)
• Loss of tax revenue if there are tax breaks and other subsidies designed to attract landlords and other business owners to the new zone
• New roads to handle increased traffic flow (especially the 19th Ave East bottleneck!);  parking problems
• Degradation of Leif Erikson Park and, more generally, misuse (as student area) of what might better be a higher-value tourist area near the lake.
• The shuttle system between the zone and UMD:  more buses, more drivers.
• Decreased property values for owners in the area  [It is unclear that this will occur, though.]
• Changing zoning regulations;  changing liquor license system

Possible benefits (again, ranked in approximate order of importance):

• Centralization of student housing means easier policing, less friction with neighbors
• Greater access of UMD students to student-oriented businesses
• More effective use of potential for this strip-malled area
• Greater ease of access to UMD for its students;  makes UMD more attractive to students
• The area might be widely attractive, not just to UMD students, for its concentration of entertainment & related businesses;  if so, then it would bring in additional revenue to the city through greater sales and property taxes instead of just trading off one area (Canal Park) against another
• Less drunken driving by students going between the Canal Park businesses and the East Hillside/UMD area.

Possible publics (ranked in approximate order of importance, as judged by me):  [Note that publics must be organized to be effective, so that, for example, "people using Leif Erikson Park" would not be an important public.]

• Duluth Chamber of Commerce
• Residents and business owners out of the zone
• Residents and business owners in the zone
• Construction companies and the building trades unions
• UMD administration
• UMD students
• Duluth City Council
• Duluth Police Department
• Duluth Transit Authority
• Environmental groups

4. To help with their development of their political agenda for next year, the organization "Students Against UMD" [SAUMD] wishes to find out what UMD-related issues UMD students are concerned about (and in particular, what they're irritated about).  One of its members proposes conducting a survey as follows:  the evening of Friday, May 9, SAUMD volunteers will go through all UMD dorms and place two survey forms under each dorm room door.  A stamped envelope, pre-addressed to "Students Against UMD / [street address] / Duluth, MN 55812", will be attached to each survey form.  (a) List and explain the top five problems you believe this proposal has.  (Some of these will be pretty obvious;  I'm not saying this is a good proposal!)  (b) For the top two of these problems, suggest how SAUMD might change their methodology to overcome the problem(s).  Remember that your discussion should take into account—even if only implicitly—the political goals and social context of SAUMD.  [600 words max]

The greatest weakness in the answers was their failure to explain why the various problems were problems.  The question is not (say) whether people are drunk on a Friday night but whether their drunkeness makes a difference in their responses to a survey about their attitudes toward UMD.  Still, since it was pretty apparent why most of the problems would be problems, I let this issue go unless I really thought the person didn't understand the issue.

It is not a problem that freshmen answer the survey.  The question specifically states that SAUMD is looking for the opinions of UMD students, which would of course include even those who don't know UMD well.  If SAUMD later finds it necessary or desirable to study only informed opinion, they can always exclude the freshmen from such later analysis.