PPA 503 – The Public Policy-Making Process

1. PPA 503 – The Public Policy-Making Process Lecture 3b – Components of a Policy Paper

2. Introduction • Outline of policy area. • Why is this important? • In short, tell them what you are going to tell them.

3. Problem Definition • What conditions exist that suggest that there is a problem? • Why do the conditions represent a public problem rather than a private problem?

4. Problem Definition • Who are the stakeholders who will affect the definition of the problem? • What competing problem definitions might the stakeholders have? • What problem definition appears to dominate your policy and why?

5. Agenda Setting • What problem definition appears to dominate your policy and why? • Relying on Kingdon, what combination of problems and politics has brought the issue to public attention?

6. Agenda Setting • Who are the key stakeholders? Did anyone act as a policy entrepreneur to get the policy on the government agenda? • What was the issue attention cycle (i.e, did the issue rise and fall in public attention by producing a solution or without producing a solution)? • What was the outcome of the agenda setting process?

7. Policy Formulation • Who are the stakeholders? • What are the competing definitions of the policy problem? Which definition is dominant?

8. Policy Formulation • Relying on Kingdon, what combination of problems, policies, and politics produce the alternatives? • What are the competing alternatives? • What are the likely outcomes from the implementation of each alternative?

9. Policy Legitimation • What competing values must policy-makers maximize for this problem? • Which values dominate the decision?

10. Policy Legitimation • Who must make the decision? • Is the policy arena for the decision primarily executive, legislative, or judicial? • What is the decision?

11. Policy Implementation • What is the policy decision? • What organization or agency must implement the decision?

12. Policy Implementation • What resources (human, financial, and organizational) will the organization need to carry out the decision? • How will the agency verify that the implementation was successful?

13. Policy Evaluation • What are the goals and objectives of the policy program? • What are the characteristics of the program that will achieve the goals and the objectives?

14. Policy Evaluation • What methods will evaluators use to assess whether the program achieved the goals and objectives? • Will the evaluator assess the success of the implementation, the impact of the program, or both? • What conclusions has the evaluator reached about the program?

15. Conclusion • Summary. • Conclusions. • Recommendations.