For this portion of the Policy Paper project, you will need to provide some background information on the topic you have chosen.
Your paper should include:
- What public problem, or problems, the policy is addressing
- How the problem has been defined, and whether problem definition was a top-down or bottom-up process
- A brief history of the policy, including how the issue got placed on the policy agenda and the evolution of the policy
- Identification (and explanation why) of whether the policy you are studying is a Constituent policy, Distributive policy, Regulatory policy, Self-regulatory policy, or Redistributive policy
- Identification (and explanation why) of whether the policy you are studying is a material or symbolic policy
You will need to conduct some research and incorporate that research into the explanation of the points and ideas you present in your paper. The use of direct quotes should be kept to an absolute minimum — you should summarize the information found in your research and present the information in your own words. You do not have to write this information in the form of an essay; you can provide an outline of the information gathered for the issues enumerated above. If you decide to use an essay format, please be sure to include section headings to organize your work. Either way, your paper must provide sufficient information and explanation. [Also keep in mind that for your final paper, you will need to write this information in essay form.]
This paper should be approximately four or five pages in length (1” margins, double-spaced, 12-point font) and should include a listing of sources used in your research. Many of the resources for this and subsequent papers will be from Paper 2, the annotated bibliography, as well as additional research.