Assignment 2 – due Wed. Jan. 21, 2009

Readings: Conway et al, ch. 1

Assignment:

I. Models are designed to help us better understand how policy is made. No one model provides a good explanation for all kinds of policies! For this assignment, I want you to examine public policy from the perspective of the three models described in Conway et al.

I want you to pick three different issues and for each, see which model provides the best explanation of how policy is made in that area. In other words, find an issue that seems to be best explained by the elite model, then one that is best explained by the group or pluralist model, and finally, one that is best explained by the incremental model (three different issues, one that applies to each model).

Since our authors felt these three models were particularly useful for women’s issues, we’ll stick to women’s policy areas. You decide which ones are applicable!

State where you found the information about this issue (web site, daily newspaper, magazine, etc, and the date, page, etc) and why the particular model seems to be useful to explain how policy is/was made in this area. A paragraph for each should be adequate.

I’ll give you an example, using another model that Conway et al did not discuss here and an issue that is of general interest rather than a woman’s issue per se. Let’s suppose I found a story about the Obama administration’s proposals to send more troops into Afghanistan (at this writing, before the inauguration, that had been floated – to end the war in Iraq and shift troops there instead). I might use game theory (a fairly abstract model that is actually a form of rationalism) to explain how policy has been and is being made in this area. Please note that I mentioned a specific policy issue rather than the broader area of defense policy as a whole. I want you to find something specific. In other words, don’t cite education policy or health care policy, but rather a specific policy issue within that context, something that you see as a women’s issue.

You can use a daily (paper or web) newspaper or magazine to get something fairly current (in the news within the past two weeks) or go to a website that has policy links to select a current issue or one that is in its archives. I’ll give you another website to help you if you decide to do a web search for a policy issue.

Stateline.org (state policy issues)