Free Practice Questions for Concurso Nacional Unificado (CNU)

Explanation: According to John Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework, agenda setting occurs when three largely independent streams—problems (indicators, crises, feedback), policies (proposals generated in the 'policy primeval soup'), and politics (national mood, elections, changes in administration)—converge. A policy window opens, allowing policy entrepreneurs to connect a recognized problem with an available policy solution within a favorable political climate.

Explanation: Michael Lipsky defined street-level bureaucrats as frontline public servants (such as teachers, police officers, social workers, and primary healthcare workers) who interact directly with the public. Because they operate with significant day-to-day discretion, inadequate operational resources, and ambiguous organizational goals, their routine decisions, coping routines, and simplifications effectively constitute the actual delivered public policy.

Explanation: The textbook public policy cycle is an analytical heuristic composed of sequential stages: (1) Agenda Setting (identifying and prioritizing public problems); (2) Policy Formulation (designing viable alternatives and intervention models); (3) Decision-Making (authoritative selection of a policy option); (4) Implementation (executing programs, mobilizing resources, and mobilizing administrative bodies); and (5) Monitoring & Evaluation (tracking operations, measuring outcomes/impacts, and informing policy maintenance, termination, or reform).

Explanation: Charles Lindblom's Incrementalism ('The Science of Muddling Through') argues that due to cognitive constraints, imperfect information, and conflicting values, real-world policymakers do not conduct exhaustive rational searches. Instead, they make marginal, step-by-step adjustments ('incremental changes') to existing policies, relying on successive limited comparisons and partisan mutual adjustment among competing political actors.

Explanation: Amitai Etzioni developed 'Mixed Scanning' as a realistic compromise between the overly idealistic Rational-Comprehensive approach and the overly conservative Incremental approach. Mixed scanning combines broad, high-level strategic reviews (fundamental decisions that set overarching policy direction) with detailed, incremental analysis of specific operational components (incremental decisions).

Explanation: Cohen, March, and Olsen characterized public organizations and universities as 'organized anarchies' exhibiting three properties: (1) problematic preferences (vague, inconsistent goals discovered through action rather than predetermined); (2) unclear technology (processes not fully understood by members); and (3) fluid participation (actors spend varying time and effort). In this setting, decisions result from the stochastic collision of four streams: problems, solutions, participants, and choice opportunities inside a 'garbage can'.

Explanation: Baumgartner and Jones's Punctuated Equilibrium Theory posits that policy processes are characterized by extended periods of stability and incrementalism (enforced by institutional friction, policy monopolies, and positive feedback subsystems), interrupted by sudden, explosive periods of major policy disruption ('punctuations') triggered by shifts in media attention, public framing, or successful 'venue shopping' by advocacy coalitions.

Explanation: Theodore Lowi established that 'policies determine politics'. In his matrix, Redistributive Policies (such as progressive tax reforms, comprehensive agrarian reform, or broad social welfare expansions) involve direct transfers of resources from one socio-economic class to another, generating intense zero-sum ideological conflict between broad social groups and organized political coalitions.

Explanation: Peter Hall classifies policy change into three orders: First-order change involves routine adjustment of instrument settings (e.g., raising interest rates); Second-order change introduces new policy instruments without altering core goals (e.g., replacing tariffs with quotas); Third-order change represents a profound 'paradigm shift' where the overarching goals, normative worldview, theoretical assumptions, and instruments are radically transformed (e.g., the transition from Keynesianism to Monetarism).

Explanation: Pursuant to Decree No. 10,411/2020 and Law No. 13,874/2019, Regulatory Impact Analysis (AIR) is a structured, evidence-based ex-ante procedure that analyzes the reasonable consequences of prospective regulatory acts. It assesses the regulatory problem, identifies stakeholders, evaluates regulatory and non-regulatory alternatives, and compares estimated compliance costs, administrative burdens, and social benefits before the authority decides to promulgate the norm.