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While this is a class in policy analysis, planning is a
closely related professional vocation and requires many of the same
analytical skills. Thus, it might be worth reading and giving some
thought to ideas presented in the
essay by Thomas Campanella titled "Jane Jacobs and the Death and Life of
American Planning". What observations appear relevant to the
field of policy analysis? How is policy analysis different from
planning? |
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What does a planner or policy analyst do?
See this cartoon. |
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Policy analysis involves generating information that
helps make tough decisions about important problems. See this
interesting article
from the NY Times titled "A City's Wrenching Budget Choices" July 4,
2011 that describes some of the tough policy choices facing
Wilmington. |
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Read this essay about
why science matters and why it is a way of life from the NY Times
(6/1/08). In many ways, a goal of this class is to get you to
employ more of a scientific perspective as a manager and policy analyst.
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At the
same time, you have to be a critical consumer of "science" and
information. See this interesting
commentary from the Washington Times about claims being made
during the health reform debate (2009. This set of
handouts also
provides useful insight on the importance of having the right
perspective when it comes to evaluating risk, data, and things
purported to be fact. |
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Policy debates often involve "experts". But what is
an expert? See this
interesting article from the USA Today (7/18/05). So how do
you know who to trust and what information to believe? Take
Dr. Dwight Lundell. He has been
arguing for years that fat and cholesterol are not the main cause of
heart disease and that it is inflammation in the artery wall
that is the main cause. More importantly, expensive statin
medications used to lower cholesterol may actually be exacerbating
problems with arterial disease. He is a heart surgeon with 25 years
of experience and 5,000 open heart surgeries. Is he an expert?
He certainly has sold a lot of books and a quick Google search
produces lots of instances where he is referred to as such. At
the same time, he
lost his medical license in 2008 and there are lots of
other reasons
to suggest he is a quack. |
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Policy analysis is a tough business because it often
involves making educated guesses and assumptions that turn out to be
wrong. For example, it is common to hear about adjustments being
made to unemployment, budget projections, and other financial forecasts.
For example, see this article from
article
from Bloomberg News (8/25/09) that describes a number of these types of
errors. |
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Being an effective policy analyst requires thinking about
policies and programs as well as their outputs and outcomes in a critical
manner, it also required being open to the sometimes counterintuitive
findings that present themselves. For example, see this
article in the
MailOnline that describes the results of a study on the importance
of eating more vegetables, something we all simply assume is
true. But is it? See this
rebuttal of the study's conclusions from January '11. Is it actually safer to be modestly overweight than
underweight? See this report in the
JAMA on Obesity
and Death (2005) and a related article about
CDC linking risk of
death to obesity (2005). |
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Policy analysis also involves making decisions. When
in doubt, trust your gut instincts. Sometimes it is the best
strategy for making decisions. See this interesting
article from the U.K. Mail Online (8/11) |
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Since we will be discussing health care reform this
semester, you might be interested in these
dueling
editorials written during health care reform debates (6/09)
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