Week 3 Discussion 1Birkland describes a “Systems Model of Politics and Policy” (p. 27). Summarize what Birkland means by “the environment” (i.e., the structural, social, political, and economic factors influencing policy making). Week 3 Discussion 2Using a specific minimum wage policy (e.g., Fair Labor Standard Act, Executive Order 13658, or other), discuss it as a systems model. What are the inputs and outputs? What happens inside the political “black box”? Can you suggest any improvements to the system model? Week 3 Assignment 1Assignment 1: Historical PerspectiveDue Week 3 and worth 150 pointsThe purpose of this assignment is to introduce students to a particular policy issue that has been discussed on two (2) presidential administrations; when the policy began, its impact over various sectors, and his effectiveness over time.Pick one (1) similar federal policy that was discussed over a span of two (2) different administrations. For example, President Clinton’s and Obama’s healthcare policies or President’s George H.W. Bush’s and George W. Bush’s foreign policy.Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:Discuss the historical perspective of the time when the policy was discussed or implemented. Indicate the context or the problem of the day and the urgency for the policy.Analyze the social, economic, and political environments for the times the policy was discussed or implemented.Critique the policy for its effectiveness of the time.Include at least four (4) peer-reviewed references (no more than five [5] years old) from material outside the textbook. Note: Appropriate peer-reviewed references include scholarly articles and governmental Websites. Wikipedia, other wikis, and any other Websites ending in anything other than “.gov” do not qualify as peer-reviewed.Your assignment must:Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.Include a cover page containing the tile of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
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OVERVIEW The term “policy process” suggests that there is some sort of system that translates policy
ideas into actual policies that are implemented and have positive effects. Traditionally, public policy
textbooks have presented what is known as the “textbook model” or “stages model” of the policy
process. The process is shown in Figure 2.1. This figure serves both as an overview of the process, and,
to some extent, the organization for this book. In this model, public problems emerge in a society
through various means, including sudden events such as disasters or through the advocacy activities of
concerned citizens and interest groups. If the issue gains sufficient attention, it is said to have reached
the agenda, a process described in Chapter 6. Given the size and complexity of governance in the United
States and the number of governments—over 80,000, from the federal government to the smallest local
water district—there are lots of problems and lots of ideas on many agendas. Once an issue moves up
on an agenda, it moves to the development of alternative policy responses—some might call them
solutions—to public problems. From there, we move to alternative policy selection; that is, the choice of
policy tools we will use to address the problem, whereupon policies are enacted. Enactment means that
a law is passed, a regulation is issued, or some other formal decision is reached to take a particular
action to solve a problem. After that decision is reached, the policy is implemented, a process described
in Chapter 10. The policy is then evaluated and the results of evaluation provide feedback to the
process, where it begins anew. FIGURE 2.1 The Stages Model of the Policy Process This model has been
subject to considerable critique. A main critique of the stages, or textbook model of policy making, is
that it implies that policy making proceeds step by step, starting at the beginning and ending at the end
(Nakamura 1987). Critics point out that a policy idea may not reach every stage. For example, policy
ideas often reach the agenda, but move no further than that. Others argue that one cannot separate the
implementation of a policy from its evaluation, because evaluation happens continuously as a policy is
implemented. These critics suggest that the stages model does not constitute a workable theory of how
the policy process works. (These critiques are taken up when we delve into advanced theories of the
policy process, including a discussion of what a theory means, in Chapter 10.) But I used the stages
model to organize this book because it remains a remarkably helpful way to structure our thinking about
the policy process. As political scientist Peter deLeon notes, many scholars have written extensive
studies that describe each stage of the process (deLeon 1999). Thinking of policy making in stages is a
way of organizing our thinking and of isolating and understanding the most important elements of the
process. THE POLICY PROCESS AS A SYSTEM The stages model of the policy process owes a great deal to
systems thinking, a way of thinking about all manner of things—from social to biological to mechanical
systems—that became much more prominent after World War II. The simplest model of the policy
process is an input-output model. The inputs are the various issues, pressures, information, and the like
to which the actors in the system react. The outputs are, in simplest terms, public policy decisions to do
or not do something. David Easton’s book A Systems Analysis of Political Life was among the first works
to describe politics in this way (Easton 1965; Greenberg et al. 1977; Gunnell 2013). A simplified
depiction of this system is shown in Figure 2.2. systems thinking A way of thinking about natural or
social phenomena as a system, in which various inputs into a system are handled, processed, and
interact with each other to create a set of discernible outputs. input-output model A model of the policy
process that assumes a set of policy demands or inputs, which are then processed by the political
system into laws, programs, and the goods and services government provides. The challenge in thinking
about policy as the product of a system lies in understanding how policy makers translate sets of inputs
into outputs. The major criticism of Easton’s systems model is that most depictions of this model treat
the political system as a black box (that is, a system in which the internal workings are unexplained),
rather than opening the box to understand the processes that occur within it. A black box in a systems
model is something that performs a translating or processing function, but where the actual workings of
that system are unclear. The stages model of the policy process is one way of opening up that black box
to more thorough analysis. black box The part of any system model or theory that just assumes its
operation without explaining how that part of the system translates inputs into outputs. Easton and the
systems modelers argue that we can think of the public policy process as the product of a system that is
influenced by and influences the environment in which it operates. This chapter focuses on this policymaking environment and describes the social, political, and economic system in which public policy
making takes place. The political process relates to its environment much as a plant or animal does: it is
both influenced by and influences its environment. One must be careful with this analogy, however; the
boundary between the political system and its environment is blurry, as the system and the
environment overlap. The strength of the systems approach is its value in helping us isolate important
things worthy of study. For example, within this general notion of the policy environment, we can isolate
four “environments” that influence policy making: the structural environment, the social environment,
the economic environment, and the political environment.

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