Political Science 3700: Public Administration and Policy
Directions: Please selection two (2) of the questions below and provide a thoughtful essay for each that answers the questions posed. Your answer for each question should draw upon the readings and class discussions and lectures. You should make explicit reference to readings and sources as appropriate.
- The American political scene is crowded with many pressing issues. With each election of a new president and Congress there will be demands that they address many different problems, yet only some of them will gather their attention. Discuss those factors which influence the issues get on the political agenda. In your answer, you should describe the different theories of agenda setting and problem definition as well as the background factors and theories of political behavior affecting or constraining both. Overall, is there a systematic bias affecting what issues are taken up by policy makers?
- Sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan once remarked: “The role of social science lies not inthe formulation of social policy, but in the measurement of its results.” Evaluate this comment, discussing the role that social science research and evidence should have and has had on the making of environmental policy in the United States. Overall, do you think that the policy process is capable of being fact or evidence-based? Should it be?
- Love Canal, DDT pollution, the burning of the Cuyahoga River, and Deepwater Horizon arejust four of many examples of environmental disasters that the United States has faced. Each of them offers lessons in terms of the causes of environmental problems as well as about how policy is formulated or not in response. Select any two of these examples and explain what exactly these environmental problems were, their causes, and how and why the policy process responded. In your answer please be sure to address how the tragedy of the commons factors into the making of environmental policy.
