CAPSTONE EXAMINATION QUESTIONS-SPRING 2003

Students may choose to answer any question in each applicable set

Set 1: Fiscal Policy Question Set--Answer ONE question (For students in the MPA Program only: MPA-IG students must answer one question from Set 1A.)

A. Although the federal budget is now in deficit, President Bush is still expected to seek an across-the-board cut in income tax rates once Congress reconvenes in January. Discuss this policy decision with regard to the criteria listed below. In your response, be sure to define each of the criteria and to apply them to the income tax rate reduction.

 

Equity (both vertical and horizontal)

Administrative Ease

Political Implications

Economic Impact

Revenue adequacy (including stability).

 

B.     Both the discretionary caps and the “pay-as-you-go” requirements put in place for the Federal budget in the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 have expired. They have not, as yet, been extended.

 

(a) Discuss what the terms discretionary caps and “pay-as-you-go” requirements meant in 1990.  Start your discussion by carefully defining each factor.  Then carefully describe how caps and pay-go requirements changed the budget process put into place in earlier laws, most specifically the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Budget Act of 1985. 

(b) Discuss how the two laws described above differed from and built upon the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 and the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

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Set 1A: Inspector General Question Set----Answer ONE question (For students in the MPA-IG Program ONLY. MPA students must answer one question from Set 1.)

A.     The Enron collapse featured actions by Enron’s accountant, Arthur Anderson, which violated law and accounting practice resulting in a conviction that has nearly destroyed the accounting firm.  Arthur Anderson also engaged in activities with respect to Enron and other clients that, though legal, were deemed to be so serious a conflict of interest that the SEC drafted regulations against the practice and created an oversight board for the accounting industry.  Describe the actions by Arthur Anderson that violated the law, and accounting practice by (1) citing the charges against the accounting firm, (2) identifying the charge(s) on which Enron was found guilty.  Then, describe the activities by Arthur Anderson, as Enron’s accountant, that were the basis of the conflict of interest charges that resulted in regulation and stronger oversight of the accounting industry.  Your description should be followed by an analysis of the effectiveness of the Anderson’s prosecution, new SEC regulations and oversight mechanisms in dissuading other accounting firms from Anderson-like behavior. 

 

B.     The new Department of Homeland Security Act substantially changes the powers of the Inspector General investigators throughout the federal government. (Click here to get to the Homeland Security Act’s outline, then scroll to section 811 and click for the Inspector General changes).   Read Section 6 of the existing Inspector General Act (click here—then scroll to section 6) in order to see just how significantly Inspectors Generals investigative powers have changed. You are to analyze what the potential consequences of these changes are with respect to the following.

--The conduct of operational and compliance audits by Inspectors General

--The degree to which IG’s pursue criminal activities by employees and contractors

--The relationship between the newly empowered IG’s and the heads of their respective agencies

--The culture of investigators in federal IG offices

--The relationship among the IG’s, the Attorney General and federal law enforcement agencies

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Set 2: Research Methods Question Set--Answer ONE question (For students in all programs--all campuses)

A. Recent budgetary problems in most large U.S. cities have created a need for decision makers to look for ways to cut back on expenditures. One area that some cities are looking at is community policing. While there is fairly substantial evidence that it reduces the fear of crime, there is mixed evidence that community policing actually reduces crime rates. Assume that you have been asked to research the impact of community policing on crime rates.

 

1. State your hypothesis.

2. Identify the unit of analysis.

3. Delineate your dependent and independent variables and at least two illustrative control

variables.

4. Conceptualize and operationalize your dependent variable, independent variable and your control variables.

5. Discuss your sampling approach.

6. Discuss your research method, i.e., how you are going to use experimentation, survey research, field research or existing data, or a combination of any of these approaches.  Tell why you have selected this method.

7. Discuss your data analysis techniques.

8. Identify ethical, political, or other problems you envision in implementing your suggested research design.

 

B. The Sanitation Department has created a new program for obtaining greater compliance from store-owners in keeping their sidewalks clean.  The experimental program has been in effect for a period of six months, and now the agency has decided to evaluate the program. The program is highly selective, limited to stores on 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue between 59th Street and 23rd Street.  These stores are more intensely policed: senior sanitation inspectors are assigned only to the streets in question, rather than covering a larger area consisting of all the streets within a sanitation district.  During the experimental period, the agency also implemented a new public-private partnership agreement with the 5th and Madison Avenue Business Association stressing closer cooperation between the merchants and the city. 

To evaluate the program, the cleanliness ratings of the 5th and Madison Avenue sidewalks six months into the program will be compared with the overall cleanliness rating of all sidewalks on commercial streets in Manhattan.  For the research method defects of history, maturation and differential selection and any other defect that applies (a) explain the defect in general, (b) give an example of the defect from the evaluation plan, (c) explain how the example could invalidate possible evaluation findings and (d) design an alternative evaluation plan that solves these defects by using an experimental design.

 

Set 3: Policy Analysis Question Set--Answer ONE question (For students in all programs--all campuses)

A.      The rational model of decision-making has been criticized on both theoretical and practical grounds. Carefully analyze at least two theoretical objections to the rational model. Make sure to identify the individuals associated with those objections, and the ways in which those criticisms paved the way for alternative models, which you should also describe. Identify also two practical cases or situations that exemplify the difficulty of applying the rational model to real-world decision-making. Explain how these cases underscored the relevance of alternative models of decision-making, particularly in crisis situations.

 

B.       Graham Allison views decision-making theory and practice through the prism of his three models.  Discuss in detail Allison’s model II, the “organizational process” model.  Include in your essay

a) the major components of the organization process paradigm

b) a definition and analysis of “bounded rationality” and “theory” and

c) some of the literature on which Allison’s model is based (citing specific authors, articles and books)