BRIEF GUIDELINES FOR WRITING POLICY PAPER

(POLICY ALTERNATIVES-SECOND PART)

POLICY PROBLEM: Should the municipalities (local governments) develop

local economic development strategy?

1. Construct the Alternatives

By alternative I mean something like “policy options”, or “alternative courses of

action”, or “alternative strategies of intervention to solve the problem, which is
defined as should the local decision makers develop local economic development
strategy (read more on Bardach’s book-A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis and
Module 4 and 5; both materials can be find at Angel and copy shop).

2. Select the Criteria

It helps to think of any policy story (see Step Eight) as having two interconnected but
separable plot lines, the analytical and the evaluative. The first is all about facts and
disinterested projections of consequences, while the second is all about value
judgments. Ideally, all analytically sophisticated and open-minded persons should be
able to agree, more or less, on the rights and wrongs in the analytical plot and on the
nature of its residual uncertainties. But this is not true with regard to the evaluative
plot -- where we expect subjectivity and social philosophy to cavort more freely. The
analytical plot will reason about whether X, Y, or Z is likely to happen, but it is in the
evaluative plot that we learn whether we think X or Y or Z good or bad for the world.

Things to remember when selecting criteria:

- Applying evaluative criteria to judging outcomes not alternatives; evaluative

criteria commonly used in policy analysis
- Criteria used to choose policies: Adequacy, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Equity
Responsiveness, Appropriateness
(read more on Bradach’s book and Module 4)

SECOND PART OF ASSIGNMENT (Due on Tuesday, April 10, IN CLASS)