PAD 680: Public Policy
—Group Policy Analysis: Route 63 Corridor Study—
Your
assignment is to conduct a relatively brief yet thorough policy analysis on the
Route 63 Corridor. Your task in such an analysis, in brief, is to define the
“problem,” devise several alternatives for solving the problem, develop
criteria for evaluating your alternatives, gather evidence and, finally, make a
recommendation. Your “guide” for conducting the analysis should be Bardach’s Policy
Analysis: A Handbook for Action.
Sources:
·
Your analysis should be brief, yet be based on the
best-quality information that can be obtained in a relatively short time
period. For this project, I want you to base your analysis on the information
you acquire from high-quality examples of the following sources:
o 2 academic
journal articles.
o 5 newspaper or
magazine articles.
o 5 reports,
articles, or policy briefs from interest groups, lobbying organizations, policy
institutes, or think tanks.
o 3 government
reports.
o 3 government
“corridor studies” from similar cases throughout the country.
o Reports, web
sites, or articles from at least 5 similar cases throughout the country.
o Interviews
with at least one member from each of the key stakeholder groups (truckers,
farmers, environmentalists, local economic groups, police, homeowners, etc.).
Guidelines:
·
All papers should be in an acceptable format. You should
base the format for your analysis in large part on the Canadian Airlines
Deregulation and Social Security Reform examples passed out in
class. For other guidelines and examples, please browse the reference material
available through the course web site.
·
I expect all papers will be original work, clearly written,
well organized, grammatically correct and free from typographical and spelling
errors.
·
This group paper must be no shorter than 14 pages and no
longer than 19 pages (double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch
margins).
·
Papers will be due at
the start of class on December 5th.
The following is an example of
the sections that could be included in your report::
·
Title Page [one page]
·
Executive Summary [one page]
·
Background on the Problem [one page]
o
What is the issue or
problem?
·
Benchmarking [one-two pages]
o
Brief description of
the “policy solution” to analogous problems in 5-10 similar cases throughout
the country.
·
Policy Goals and Evaluation Criteria [one-two pages]
o
What should be the
goals of the Route 63 Corridor project?
o
Which criteria will
you use to evaluate the alternatives?
§
Examples:
efficiency, equity, budgetary impacts, effect on economic growth, environmental
impact, preservation of farmland, inter-generational fairness, public safety.
§
Other
Evaluation Criteria: political feasibility; “robustness”
(ability to implement); impact on stakeholders; undesirable and unintended
consequences; impact on client organization.
·
Alternatives [one-two pages]
o
Alternative #1 —
Status Quo
o
Alternative #2 —
o
Alternative #3 —
o
Alternative #4 —
o
Alternative #5 — (add
more if necessary)
·
Evaluation of Alternatives [six-eight pages]
o
(Will include some or all
of the following:)
o
Cost efficiency
o
Equity
o
Impact on state and
local budgets
o Impact on local economic development
o Impact on public safety
o
Stakeholder analysis
o
Political feasibility
o
Robustness
o
Undesirable
side-effects and unintended consequences
·
Recommendations [one page]
·
Appendix—Summary “Outcomes” Table [one page]
·
Bibliography [one page]