PSC524 URI Constructing Policy Alternatives Assignment
Question Description
PSC 524 Seminar in Public Policy Problems
Build off of paper 1 (attached)”¦”¦
So far you have articulated a policy problem to analyze, and have begun assembling theevidence that pertains to that issue. Now you are being asked to develop policyalternatives, or “policy options,” for addressing the issue. Bardach suggests “Mak[ing] a listof alternatives you might wish to consider in the course of your analysis” and in the endseriously assessing two or three main alternatives (p. 17). While the first assignmentrequired you to identify a handful of alternatives, this assignment is designed to help youexamine the alternatives that are available to you more comprehensively.In order to formulate alternatives, your first step is to determine if there is alreadyanything out there that is already being considered. If so, make sure that those alternativesare included in your menu of policy options. Bardach notes that other alternatives “mayinclude prominent people’s pet ideas, institutions’ inventories of “off-the-shelf’ proposalsthat simply await a window of opportunity, and prepackaged proposals that politicalideologues are perennially advocating” (p. 17). You may also need to design your ownalternatives, which Bardach covers in pp. 24-31. Once you have collected some viablealternatives, Bardach goes on to suggest trying to summarize the alternative in a simplephrase that emphasizes how it will be implemented or financed.Once you have identified your policy alternatives, now it is time to fully articulate howthose policy alternatives are meant to address your problem and to lay out the variouscosts and benefits of each of the policy alternatives. Your exercise should take the followingformat:
Policy Alternative 1: [List your alternative here in one phrase or sentence all in BoldType]Paragraph 1: Describe the policy alternative in some detail while making sure to beclear how the policy alternative addresses the policy problem that you articulated at thebeginning of the semester. Describe how the policy alternative will be implemented orfinanced. Assess the political feasibility of this approach by describing if it will requirepassage of legislation, a change in an administrative rule, or approval from some type ofauthoritative public body.Paragraph 2: Describe the anticipated financial, public health, economic, political, orefficiency-related benefits of the policy alternative that you are proposing.Paragraph 3: Describe the anticipated financial, public health, economic, political, orefficiency-related costs of the policy alternative that you are proposing.
Policy Alternative 2: [List your alternative here in one phrase or sentence all in BoldType]Paragraph 1: Describe the policy alternative in some detail while making sure to beclear how the policy alternative addresses the policy problem that you articulated at thebeginning of the semester. Describe how the policy alternative will be implemented orfinanced. Assess the political feasibility of this approach by describing if it will requirepassage of legislation, a change in an administrative rule, or approval from some type ofauthoritative public body.Paragraph 2: Describe the anticipated financial, public health, economic, political, orefficiency-related benefits of the policy alternative that you are proposing.Paragraph 3: Describe the anticipated financial, public health, economic, political, orefficiency-related costs of the policy alternative that you are proposing.
Policy Alternative 3: [List your alternative here in one phrase or sentence all in BoldType]Paragraph 1: Describe the policy alternative in some detail while making sure to beclear how the policy alternative addresses the policy problem that you articulated at thebeginning of the semester. Describe how the policy alternative will be implemented orfinanced. Assess the political feasibility of this approach by describing if it will requirepassage of legislation, a change in an administrative rule, or approval from some type ofauthoritative public body.Paragraph 2: Describe the anticipated financial, public health, economic, political, orefficiency-related benefits of the policy alternative that you are proposing.Paragraph 3: Describe the anticipated financial, public health, economic, political, orefficiency-related costs of the policy alternative that you are proposing.Once you have finished this part of the exercise, you should begin thinking about which ofthe various options are superior to the others. In order to do this, you need to chooseevaluative criteria that can be used to choose among the various alternatives that havebeen articulated (see Bardach beginning on p. 31). The final policy analysis assignment willrequire you to choose an alternative on the basis of the criterion you have chosen.
Formatting and Additional Requirements Your Policy Alternative Exercise should follow closely the
