Final Exam Study Guide

State & Local Government / Andrews

Spring 2019

Final Exam Study Guide

If you can discuss the following subject areas and apply your knowledge to the kinds of scenarios listed below, you should do well on the final:

Your responses can include information, examples and other details from any of the following sources: our textbook, your notes, notes you borrow from other students (with their permission, of course), any experience you had with your community partner, examples you learned about through other students’ presentations about their community partner experiences, anything our guest speakers shared in their talks, insights gained during our role play communities, your blog entries, blog entries of other students, examples or information you acquire from outside sources relating to current events.

1)   You should be able to discuss the different types of local governments and describe under what circumstances it might be appropriate to form a regional government. Why might local citizens support or object to a regional government proposal?

2)   Bureaucracy is beautiful. Discuss. 

3)   Types of budgets. Outline the different types of budgets relevant to state and local governments and purposes or applications for which each budgeting approach might be used.

4)   A budget is a statement of values. Is this a true statement? You should be able to discuss some examples that illustrate this idea, including examples of both where financial resources come from and what they are used for.

5)   Which city, town or rural area are you from (Lakeville, Unidad or Ornesse)? You should be able to describe the different kinds of taxes that might be imposed in your community, as well as in the other two communities, prior to moving to a regional governing structure. How do these tax structures reflect the values of your communities? Are they progressive or regressive taxes?

6)   You should be able to explain what gerrymandering is, how it happens, and why it is considered to be contrary to democracy. You should also be able to solve a gerrymandering problem, demonstrating how the same area with the same population can be redistricted in different ways which result in either a fair or unfair result. After the final, we will review the gerrymandering question together and you will have an opportunity for a do-over on Tuesday 23^rdif you want to respond to that question again. The do-over will involve a different gerrymandering puzzle.