Final Project

Outcomes

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following outcomes:

• Evaluate the constitutional system of checks and balances in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government as a framework for the division of power.
• Determine appropriate models of federalism for addressing policy formation in systems of democratic governance.
• Assess fiscal federalism models for their impact on policy funding strategies.
• Develop policy funding models through assessment of vertical and horizontal agency competition for scarce resources.
• Assess policy implementation challenges and opportunities for informing ethical and efficient delivery of quality public services.

Overview

Throughout this course, you engaged with public policy theory and discussed the struggle for power and resources between and among levels of government. You examined specific cases and policies to determine their impacts on government agencies vertically (at the local, state, and national levels) and horizontally (between groups such as schools, the police, public health agencies, environmental agencies, and the like).

Your final project is an opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned by crafting a public policy analysis paper. In the milestone assignments, you selected a public policy of interest to you and conducted research to support your analysis. You analyzed your selected policy along the following four dimensions:

1. Constitutional framework
2. Federalism
3. The practice of intergovernmental relations
4. Public policy and practice

Directions

For your final project, incorporate the instructor feedback you gathered in your milestone submissions to produce a final, polished version of your public policy analysis paper. The paper must demonstrate that your ideas are well-founded in credible evidence. Be sure to cite multiple reputable sources in your paper using APA style formatting.

Specifically, the following rubric criteria must be addressed:

1. Constitutional Framework
   1. Introduction: Provide a concise description of your selected policy, including the constitutional context in which your policy is grounded.
   2. Explicit and Implied Powers: Analyze the explicit and implied powers of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government in relation to your selected policy. For example, which branch has the power to implement your policy?
   3. Division of Power: Assess how the division of power creates tension between the branches of government. How has this tension impacted your policy?
   4. Checks and Balances: Evaluate the relationship between the division of power and the system of checks and balances. In other words, how does the system of checks and balances act as a framework for the division of power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government? In your response, focus specifically on your policy and how the system of checks and balances has impacted it.
2. Federalism
   1. Models of Federalism: Differentiate between the models of federalism as a form of democratic governance. Provide examples of how these models are manifested in current policies and, specifically, the policy you selected.
   2. Process of Governing: Assess how collaboration, cooperation, and conflict impact the process of governing at the federal, state, and local levels, focusing on your policy.
   3. Federalism Model: Determine the federalism model that best explains your policy. Justify why this is the appropriate model for your policy.
   4. Budget Process: Describe how the budget process works across different levels of the United States government, focusing on how your policy is funded.
   5. Regulatory Schemes: Compare the regulatory schemes for funding programs. What are the benefits and consequences of the different funding programs in relation to your policy.
   6. Fiscal Federalism: Assess the implications of fiscal federalism on your policy. Integrate the results of your research to explain how the funding strategy has impacted your policy.
3. The Practice of Intergovernmental Relations
   1. Competition for Funding: Assess how agencies compete vertically with other levels of government and horizontally with other agencies for funding. What benefits and trade-offs must be made to ensure adequate program funding? Support your response with your policy research.
   2. Governance Structure: How does the governance structure of the policy impact the effective and efficient implementation of programs?
   3. Policy Funding Model: Develop a model for lines of authority and lines of funding for the policy. What are the gates and barriers of the programs? Who are the supporters, and who are the critics?
4. Public Policy and Practice
   1. Challenges: Assess the challenges (fiscal, resource, or bureaucratic) state and local public administrators face in implementing the policy. Support your response with your policy research.
   2. Opportunities: Assess the opportunities (fiscal, resource, or bureaucratic) faced by state and local public administrators for implementing the policy. Support your response with your policy research.
   3. Public Services Delivery: Explain how the policy implementation challenges and opportunities inform the ethical and efficient delivery of quality public services. In other words, in what ways are these challenges an impediment to the ethical and efficient delivery of quality public services? In what ways do these opportunities provide a pathway to an ethical and efficient delivery of quality public services? Support your response with your policy research.

What to Submit

To complete this project, you must submit a public policy analysis paper. Your submission should be a 15- to 20-page Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Sources should be cited according to APA style.