Final Paper: The Public Policy Process
Your final assignment is a 5-7 page paper on the public policy process. You should draw upon the assigned readings, your answers to previous discussion questions, and additional research as necessary to describe and reflect upon the public policy process as you have come to understand it. Your paper should begin with an integrative definition of the public policy process, followed by a critique of this way of studying and learning about public policy. Then you should articulate each step of the process model, again drawing on the readings, your responses and additional research. You should conclude with an applied discussion of the utility of the stages model of the public policy process and how it may be applicable in your future ambitions.
Your paper should follow the following format:
- Introduction and overview of the process. This section should reference pertinent readings prior to our engagement of the stages model. It should demonstrate an understanding of research contributions to the field of public policy study/research, both past and present that have advanced the discipline. It should also discuss the durability of the enduring, but imperfect, stages model.
- Description and discussion of each stage of the model as laid out in the course modules (i.e. agenda setting, policy formulation, policy implementation, policy evaluation and policy maintenance, success or termination)— drawing upon the readings, your work and other references to substantiate your points.
- A concluding critique and discussion of the process and the extent to which it aides you in understanding the complex and interdependent stages of public policy making. In other works, critique the public policy process model AND the ways in which the model “comes to life” in policymaking.
Paper Format
- 1.5′ spacing
- 1 inch margins
- 11 pt font
- reference page