PAD 680.61:  Public Policy

—Policy Memorandum 1: Gauging Support —

 

For all of the policy memoranda the assumption is that you are employed as a policy analyst in any real or fictional public organization of your choosing. For each exercise, address your memorandum to a specific (real or fictional) person working in that organization. Also be sure to give yourself a title (e.g., Policy Analyst) in that organization.

 

In this first exercise, in your capacity as policy analyst you are asked to conduct a rapid analysis on Social Security reform. Your employer wants to know two things: (1) what are the different "sides" on the issue (i.e., what are the various alternatives touted for reforming Social Security); and (2) the approximate levels of public support for each of the various alternatives.

One of the first hurdles you will encounter is that there can be a seemingly limitless number of different options discussed on the various web sites. However, these can almost always be boiled down to a much smaller number of generic, principal alternatives. One of the most important steps, therefore, is to aggregate or "boil down" all the various alternatives you find into four or five reasonably coherent policy options. Note that one of the alternatives is ALWAYS the "status quo" (i.e., "keep things the way they are").

Base your conclusions on the evidence you gather from at least 15 sites on the Internet--including policy institutes & think tanks, newspapers, and opinion poll sites. Length 1.5 - 2 (max.) single-spaced pages. Due February 15th.

 

Guidelines:

·        Your employer in this case is not interested in “fluff.” You should quickly get to the point—what are the range of options out there and what general levels of public support exist for each of the main options?

·        It would not be useful to examine web sites from purely one end of the ideological spectrum. Therefore, your research should include searches of sites from across the spectrum—from the radical left to the reactionary right. See the links on this web site for suggestions as well as the memo-writing page for an example and general memo-writing guidelines.

·        Include a separate bibliography of the sites you researched, including any documents you examined there. Any bibliographical format is acceptable, so long as you include at least the date, the URL (web site address) and the name of the policy institute.