Policy Analysis Paper: The paper requires two submissions. The first, a proposal, is a very short document (no more than two pages), describing a policy issue of interest to you currently under consideration by the federal, state, or local government. It must be of manageable size, and current. Huge changes in law (such as the creation of Medicare Part D or the full implementation of the PPACA health care reform act) are too overwhelming for this task.The paper itself examines that policy issue in two ways. It reviews its history through the present (doing a condensed literature review), and then presents an analysis and recommendation for future action, using the format which follows. You can take an issue which is of particular interest to you/your employer/your professional association now, trace recent action on it in the Congress or the Maryland General Assembly, and present it as a proposal to a legislator or agency head. The paper should be a maximum of 15 pages, as the policymaker you advise has a very limited attention span. Use headings and subheadings to make it easier to read, and proper grammar, spelling, and citations.
Format for Policy Analysis Paper:
1. Verify, Define and Detail the Problem - Examine the history of the issue through the present, providing a condensed literature review of previous research/legislation on it. Settle on a definition of the problem which you feel can be tackled through legislative action and then describe the problem as clearly as you can.
2. Establish Evaluation Criteria - How will you know when the problem is solved? How can you compare possible approaches? Enumerate criteria which are important to the key actors dealing with this problem. What are your/their objectives and goals in the process?
3. Identify Alternative Policies - Describe the most promising policies which could be undertaken to combat the problem you have identified.
4. Evaluate Alternative Policies - What are the expected impacts and drawbacks of the alternatives under consideration? Will they have different possibilities of being passed and/or funded?
5. Display and Select Among Alternative Policies - This can be done by using a chart, outline, or other form to describe the plusses and minuses of each approach. At a minimum, identify potential supporters and opponents, funding sources, patterns of possible implementation and predicted problems.
6. Monitor and Evaluate Policy Outcomes - If available, information on what actually happened with this policy or its predecessors provides valuable insight. Such feedback enables us to move back to the beginning and see the next problem emerge.