“We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote.”
–Alice Paul
Policy analysis is the study of public policy concern and the development of a solution to the public policy concern. Public policy analysis borrows from rational decision making. According to Michael Kraft, in rational decision making, “one defines a problem, indicates the goals and objectives to be sought, considers a range of alternative solutions, evaluates each of the alternatives to clarify their consequences, and then recommends or chooses the alternative with the greatest potential for solving the problem” (Kraft, 2018). According to Kraft, Public policy analysis contains five steps:
Step 1: Define and analyze the problem.
Who, what, when, where, and why is there a public policy problem?
Step 2: Construct policy alternatives.
What are the possible, public policy options?
Step 3: Choose evaluative criteria.
How do we evaluate the possible, public policy options?
Step 4: Assess the alternatives.
Which alternatives are better?
Step 5: Draw conclusions.
Which public policy option will you choose?
The Centers for Disease Control has an excellent resource on how the institution practices policy analysis.
A key component of public policy analysis is proposing solutions for the public policy concern. Once one identifies the problem then one can offer possible public policy solutions.
Alice Paul’s suffragist activism is an example of proposing solutions for the public policy concern.
The Quaker Alice Paul (influenced by her time with the British suffragettes) was more aggressive than the more demure advocates of women’s suffrage in America. Her group, the Congressional Union and National Woman’s Party, often came into conflict with women who were frightened by the bolder tactics of Paul and her supporters. Paul argued for a constitutional amendment (as opposed to the approach focusing on state action) to guarantee women the right to vote. Paul and her supporters utilized civil disobedience by protesting outside the White House, imploring President Woodrow Wilson to support suffrage for American women. She was arrested and while in jail Alice Paul started a hunger strike, but prison officials forcibly fed her. Even with that, Alice Paul would not back down, and she continued to agitate for what eventually became the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution (Kraditor, 1965).
For more information on Alice Pauls’s impact on political, public policy, please watch PBS’s documentary, “Alice Paul: The Suffragist”.
Directions: Using the required, academic readings, and supplemental academic research, please address the following while adhering to the Discussion Board Rubric:
- Select a specific example of public policy from one of the following fields:
- Economic policy
- An example of economic policy is U.S. budget deficit spending.
- Education policy
- An example of education policy are the implementation of charter schools.
- Environmental policy
- An example of environmental policy is the Clean Air Act.
- Foreign policy
- An example of foreign policy is the interplay between civil liberties and the Patriot Act.
- Healthcare policy
- An example of healthcare policy is the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
- Welfare policy
- An example of welfare policy is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
- Economic policy
- What public policy solution(s) may alleviate the public policy concerning issue?
- What could your local, state, the federal government do?
- What could individuals or groups do?
- Assess the cost-benefits for either taking action or not taking action.
- How feasible are your public policy solutions?
- How might society react to your public policy solutions?
- What are the ethical implications of the public policy solution?
- How can one better ‘frame’ the public policy solutions?
Reference:
Kraditor, A. (1965). The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890–1920. New York: W. W. Norton.
