PUBLIC POLICY- ANALYTICAL ESSAY

The major component of the assessment for this topic is an analytical essay in which you examine a public policy case study or issue in the light of ideas and debates about agenda setting, policy tools/instruments, and implementation in public policy covered in the topic.

Specifically, this task requires that you identify:

The case study/issue that you have chosen to examine (ie a brief précis of the issue)
The way(s) in which the policy issue that you are analysing has come on to the ‘policy agenda’ of government(s); for example, lobby groups, focusing events, systemic indicators, policy entrepreneurs. (Note that the materials provided in Week 3 – Agenda Setting: General Perspectives will be crucial here.)
The primary policy tools/instruments which have been utilised and deployed by policymakers in relation to your chosen case study/issue and why they have been adopted
The measures which have been put in place to evaluate the efficacy of any of the policy tools/instruments which have been adopted to achieve stated outcomes
The degree to which your case study illustrates and/or recognises the complexity of policy and decision making in practice and the way in which policy makers have attempted to address such complexity.
The case study/issue can be chosen either broadly or more specifically – for example, at the broad level, trade, housing, welfare, education or health policy in different jurisdictions, or, at the more specific level, issues like the impact of free trade policy in particular economic sectors, social inclusion policy and its impact in different policy arenas, or questions of payment and fees for higher education in different countries (to name but a few).

The essential task is for you to present an integrated analysis of the case study in an essay structured, formatted and referenced in accordance with academic conventions.