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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After students have read and studied this chapter they should be able to:
 Describe the policymaking process, including:
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Agenda building
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Policy formulation
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Policy adoption
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Policy implementation
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Policy evaluation
 Discuss the rising cost of heath care and provide several reasons for this trend.
 Define Medicare and Medicaid.
 Explain who are the uninsured.
 Describe the recent legislative developments regarding universal health care coverage in
the U.S.
 Explain the meaning of a personal health insurance mandate.
 Describe increases of unauthorized immigrants and the effects of this increased population.
 Explain the attempts of the U.S. House and Senate to pass bills controlling the flow of
unauthorized immigrants and the companies who hire them.
 Describe trends in crime rates over the last few decades, including changes in the rate of
violent crime, theft, and murder.
 Define “incarceration rate” and explain the demographic categories of prisoners.
 Compare U.S. incarceration rates with those of other nations.
 Explain the nature of the political dispute over global warming.
 Explain the concept of a moral hazard and provide examples from the financial crisis of
2008.
 Explain the basic ideas behind Keynesian economics and how they have been applied to
policies in America (the Great Depression).
 Define recession and explain how the federal government attempts to measure
unemployment.
 Detail the mechanisms of the public debt, distinguishing between net and gross public debt.
 Describe how the Federal Reserve System implements monetary policy (increasing or
decreasing the rate of growth of the money supply) including key concepts of loose and
tight monetary policies and the impact of time lags on monetary and fiscal policy.
 Define progressive and regressive taxes and identify which taxes fall into each category.
 Talk about the political challenges of our tax system