Practice Final

 The following will give you an idea of the format of the final exam. As you prepare, reread the air midterm and the Johnson appendices that I emailed you. 

https://gov191.blogspot.com/2025/10/air-midterm.html

I. Briefly identify 12 of 14 items (4 points each). Explain each item's meaning and significance. What is fair game for an identification?

• Items that we have covered in class or on the blog;
• Items that appear in bold or italics in the readings;
• Items that cover several pages in the readings.

Items

• ACA premium subsidies
• Hurricane Katrina
• Robert F. Wagner
• No Child Left Behind
• Defense of Marriage Act
• Family Assistance Plan
• Presidential line-item veto
• Title IX
• Taft-Hartley
• NEPA
• Tea Party
• The Laffer Curve
• Stagflation
• The Townsend Plan

II. Short essays. Answer three of four. Each answer should take about half a page. (6 points each).

• Why did Bush and Gore support faith-based initiatives in 2000?
• Why did Joseph Califano oppose the establishment of the Department of Education?
• Why did Truman succeed with desegregating the armed forces but not achieve national health insurance?
• David Stockman said: "None of us really understands what’s going on with all these numbers."  Explain.

III. Answer two of three essay questions (17 points each). Each answer should take about 2-3 large bluebook pages or 3-4 small bluebook pages.

• During the course, we have often discussed the unanticipated consequences of public policy.  Describe and explain three examples.
• "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  Explain how this passage describes the cyclical character of federal education policy.
• Compare and contrast the federal response to the Great Depression and the Great Recession. Did policymakers apply lessons from the first to the second?

Bonus Questions (one point each). Very briefly identify the following:

Frances Perkins

Marian Wright Edelman

Betty Friedan

Ann Kuritz

Ann Gorsuch Burford