Style Sheet for Policy Paper

PA 700

Fall 2007

San Francisco Campus

Style Sheet for Paper on Climate Change Policy

Due November 26

The purpose of this assignment is to engage your thinking about the challenges public administrators face in dealing with significant public policy problems. In this case, the specific issue will be climate change, and your paper will be based on Statehouse and Greenhouse by Barry G. Rabe (Brookings Institution, 2004).

A secondary purpose is to give you experience working in a team to complete an assignment. At the end of this page is the team assignments. Ability to work in a team is an essential skill in today's workplace and one that we emphasize in this program. The team will be responsible for collectively producing one final paper complying with the requirements stated below. Each member of the team will receive the grade given to the team, but it may be adjusted up or down based on your team's responses to the team member evaluation sheet.

For this assignment you should assume the role of a team of policy analysts for a hypothetical U.S. State. That State will have the characteristics of California in terms of economy, geography, climate, etc. but will at present have no policies in place for addressing the issue of greenhouse gases. You have been asked to provide a recommendation to the governor as to what policy(ies) he or she should support for implementation in this State.

The paper should take the form of a memo addressed to the governor that addresses the following points:

	Why it is important for the State to develop a strategy for addressing climate change?
	How have some other states responded to to this issue?
	What policy(ies) would you recommend the State adopt and for what reasons?
	What would need to be done to implement your proposal? (For example, would new legislation be required to force compliance or would they be voluntary measures? How would you generate support for these initiatives?)
	What opposition might arise in response to any of the policy proposals you suggest and how can it be diffused, if at all?
	Should the State pursue relationships with any other jurisdictions (state, federal, outside the U.S)? If so, in what form?

Organization and Style

The paper should be no more than 5 pages, double-spaced. (I realize this is not a lot of space, but it is important to learn to write concisely and cogently!) It should begin with a brief introduction and conclude with a brief summary of your main points, and your recommendation for how the Governor should proceed. The paper is to be written in narrative, not question-answer, format. Please cite the pages from the Rabe book that you use. For example, you might say "Despite earlier criticism from environmental groups, then Governor Christine Todd Whitman's administration was responsible for many noteworthy climate change policies (Rabe p. 110-111)."

Your grade for the paper will be based on:

the extent to which you clearly address each of the above bullets, with references to the Rabe book

the extent to which your analysis reflects an understanding of the complexity of policymaking at the federal and state government levels.

the overall logic and persuasiveness of your argument

whether your argument is concise, well written and well organized

Teams

A	B	C	D
Julian	Katie	Kevin	Keely
Adafo	Suzanne	Florence	Todd
Mitsuyasu	Nichole	Ozge	Douglas
Anna Gywn	Tynisa	Yingying	Na Jeong
Leah	Alejandra	Robert	Carmen
Trish	Leslie