Portfolio Due Date:
The Portfolio is due: Thursday, April 22.
Questions/Issues That Must Be Addressed Within Portfolios
The portfolio is not a question and answer session. These questions are provided to you as a guide. Once your portfolio is completed for any section, you should review and ask if all the issues listed in that section have been addressed. If the answer is yes, then you have completed your work. If the answer is no, then you should supplement whatever is missing.
***Agenda Setting Portfolio Questions/Issues
What is agenda setting?
How does agenda setting occur from public problems?
Why may public problems not get the attention of government?
What are the kinds of agendas?
What tools are used in policy discussions/arguments?
What are the models of agenda building and their implications for agenda setting?
Who participates in agenda building?
How can we predict who will participate in agenda building?
Why can it be said that agenda building is the most important aspect of the policy process?
How do we achieve mobilization?
***Policy Formulation Portfolio Questions/Issues
What is policy formulation and how does it differ from agenda setting?
Who determines policy formulation? Who participates in policy formulation?
Explain why problem definition is important in the policy formulation process.
Who are policy entrepreneurs and what is their role in problem definition?
What are top-down models of policy formulation and how do they differ from the bottom-up model?
What is the technical difference between the rational comprehensive model and the incremental model of policy formulation? Explain the strengths and weaknesses of each model in the policy formulation process.
What is the target population model? How does it differ from the conventional conception of policy formulation?
Who are street-level bureaucrats? What are street-level bureaucracies?
How do street-level bureaucrats make public policy?
***Policy Implementation Portfolio Questions/Issues
What is policy implementation?
How does it differ from agenda setting and policy formulation?
What is the difference between self-executing and other forms of policy?
Who participates in policy implementation? What is the formula for knowing who participates?
What is the major role of bureaucratic agencies in policy implementation?
Why are laws crafted in complex legal language? What is the implication of this for bureaucratic agencies?
What is rule-making? Why is this important in policy implementation?
What are the basic questions involved in policy implementation? How do we know when these questions are answered satisfactorily?
Discuss matters associated with management by objectives (MBO), decision tree, and the critical path methods.
Discuss the roles of agencies, legislatures, courts, interest groups, etc. in policy implementation.
***Policy Evaluation Portfolio Questions/Issues
What is Policy Evaluation? How does it differ from the other policy stages?
Why is Policy Evaluation a necessary step in the policy process?
What are the kinds of Evaluations undertaken and how do they differ?
Distinguish between Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Goals.
Why must Policy Evaluation be driven by Primary Goals?
Who determines the standards for success?
What is the role of bureaucratic agencies in Policy Evaluation?
What is the role of the courts? What about interest groups?
Policies that are not achieving their goals should be discontinued. What are the problems associated with Policy Discontinuity?
Public Policy can be evaluated for efficiency, effectiveness, adequacy, and equity. Describe each of these standards and say why they are important yardsticks for evaluating policy generally.
What are the five questions that are associated with practical program evaluation?
Guidelines for Presentations
We are not looking forward to uninformed, street-level conjectures. Each student will conduct basic research with a view to answering some basic questions about the subject matter. In other words, be prepared to give the class some important technical information they would not have known baring your presentation. Each topic will be slightly different. Thus, feel free to develop questions relevant to your subject and discuss them with the teacher as part of your preparation.
In all cases, each presentation must pose and answer the following questions:
**What is the question and what is the matter at stake?
**Why is the matter important and important in what sense?
**What are the groups involved?
**Who is on the other side of the issue?
**How have the groups pursued their policy arguments?
**What are the arguments: what facts do we know and what dont we know?
**What has been resolved; what remains to be resolved?
Lecture Schedule
March 9/11/16 General Introduction
Assigned Readings: None.
Issue One: Finding Me, My Place in the World (Me, Inc.)
Rationality/Public Choice
Assigned Readings: Article
The Nature of Public Issues (Social/Private Problems)
Assigned Readings:
Anderson, Chapts. 1-2.
Kingdon, Chapt. 1.
Public Policy and the Policy Environment
Assigned Readings:
Anderson, Chapts. 1-2.
Kingdon, Chapt. 1.
March 18/23 Problem Identification and Agenda Setting
Assigned Readings:
Anderson, Chapts. 1-3.
Kingdon, Chapts. 2-3
March 25/30 Continue: Problem Identification and Agenda Setting
April 1 Assigned Readings:
Anderson, Chapts. 1-3.
Kingdon, Chapts. 2-3
Policy Alternatives, Policy Formulation, and Rationality
Assigned Readings:
Anderson, Chapts. 3-4.
Kingdon, Chapts. 4-10.
Michael Kraft. “Citizen Participation and the NIMBY Syndrome …… Western Political Quarterly 1991:299-328.
-Charles Lindbloom. “The Science of Muddling Through” Public Administration Review 1959:79-88.
April 6/8/13 Street-Level Policymaking Assigned Reading:
Assigned Readings:
Michael Lipsky. Street-Level Bureaucracy (article, all).
Administrative Rule-Making, Policy Implementation,
Implementation Tools and Practice, Theory and Politics
Assigned Readings:
Anderson, Chapts. 5-6.
Kingdon, Chapters 5-9.
David B. Robertson. “Program Implementation Versus Program Design: Which accounts for policy failure?” Policy Studies Review (May, 1984): 391-405.
Jarnes D. Sorg. “A Typology of Implementation Behaviors of Street- Level Bureaucrats.” Policy Studies Review (Feb, 1983): 391-406.
April 15 Policy Evaluation Theory and Practice, Politics, Policy Termination and Feedback.
Assigned Readings:
Anderson, Chapts. 7-8.
Walter Williams & John Evans. “The Politics of Evaluation: The case of head start,” in Cases in Public Policy Analysis ed. Charles E. Anderson (1976): 293-309.
Anne L. Schneider. The Evolution of a Policy Orientation for Evaluation: A guide to practice.” Public Administration Review (July/August, 1986): 356-363.
Seminar: Science, Technology, and Public Policy
Topics- Reproductive technologies, the environment, homeland security, DNA, etc
April 20 Continue: Policy Evaluation Theory and Practice, Politics, Policy Termination and Feedback.
April 22 Wrap-Up
Portfolio Due
Policy Presentation: Policy Topics
Homeland Security;
Drug Legalization;
Illegal Immigration;
Healthcare Reform;
Climate Change;
Affirmative Action;
Domestic Energy Development;
Gun Control;
Role of Government/Business;
Gay/Lesbian Marriage;
Reproduction Rights;
Off-Shore Drilling;
Domestic Violence;
Americans With Disabilities Act;
Aviation Technology and the Missing Boeing 777;
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