Policy Proposal & Contentions

Systematic Review

Policy proposals should be conceptually simple, unambiguous, and directed to the federal government.

Bad

•Congress should provide greater incentives for states to preserve lands from development.

•Welfare reform should emphasize child care.

•Campaign spending should be restricted.

•An educational initiative should be conducted.

Good

•Congress should prohibit any taxation by states of Indian casinos on reservation lands.

•Congress should abolish the death penalty for federal crimes.

•The United States should pay the back dues it owes the United Nations.

The language of your Policy Proposal should be direct and concise.

Bad

• Congress should enact legislation to make it a crime against federal law to discriminate on account of race in who you rent hotel and motel rooms to.

Good

•Congress should prohibit racial discrimination in the rental of hotel and motel rooms.

Make sure your “contentions” are actual contentions.

•Is each a complete sentence?

•Does each assert that something is true?

•Does the truth asserted strengthen the case for your policy recommendation?

Good

•The plan would reduce the rate of illegitimate births.

•The policy would be easily enforced.

•My policy is consistent with the First Amendment.

•The spotted owls will all die anyway.

•There is no record of wolves eating children in the United States.

•43% of the benefits will go to the wealthiest 1% of the population.

•Opponents are wrong to argue that the benefits of Head Start can't be measured past second grade.

Convert your list of contentions into a hierarchical outline. Visually your hierarchy is a pyramid.

•At the top of the pyramid. is your policy recommendation.

•Your policy recommendation is supported directly by a number of primary supporting contentions.

•Those, in turn, are supported by secondary supporting contentions.

•The structure of the pyramid. is up to you. Only you can decide how many primary arguments there are for your policy. Only you can decide how many secondary arguments are required for each primary argument.

•At the base of your pyramid. you must supply the empirical evidence upon which the whole edifice is built.

Convert your list of contentions into a hierarchical outline. Policy Recommendation (Central Contention; Thesis) – “All children convicted of violating federal

drugs laws should be executed.”

• Contention #1 – “My policy is constitutional.”

• Contention #1a – “My policy is consistent with the intent of the framers.”

• Evidence for Contention #1a

• Contention #1b – “My policy is consistent with current Supreme Court interpretation.”

• Evidence for Contention #1b

• Contention #2 – “My policy provides major social benefits.”

• Contention #2a – “It prevents recidivism.”

• Evidence for Contention #2a [dead children don’t do drugs]

• Contention #2b – “It deters juvenile drug use.”

• Evidence for Contention #2b

• Contention #2c -- “It reduces the need for juvenile detention.”

• Evidence for Contention #2c

• Contention #3 – “My policy is just.”

• Evidence for Supporting Contention #3. [children who use drugs illegally should be given lethal injections of drugs by law]

Group your contentions into logical categories. For example:

•economic efficiency — the economic benefits of my policy outweigh the economic costs;

•social efficiency — the social benefits of my policy outweigh the social costs;

•equity or justice — my policy treats people equally; my policy gives people what they've got coming; my policy is fair to all concerned;

•legality — my policy is consistent with the constitution and laws of the United States;

•political culture — my policy is consistent with values which are widely shared in the United States;

•my critics – their arguments are incorrect, unpersuasive, or outweighed by my own.

Remember. . .

A contention is a statement of fact for or against a proposal. Your contentions are statements of fact for (on behalf of) your policy recommendation.

Since a sentence is the smallest grammatical unit that is capable of making a statement, it follows that your contentions must be sentences.

Without supporting empirical evidence your contention is just an assertion.

•The passion with which you believe something to be true is not evidence for its truth.

•Show me the evidence, and document the source! [but not this weekend]

An Excellent Example

See DiClerico & Hammock, p. 221.

Congress

The Most Powerful Democratic Assembly in the World

– or – the Sapless Branch

“There are really two Congresses, not just one.”

--Roger Davidson & Walter Oleszek, Congress & Its Members

“It is both a lawmaking institution for the country and a representative assembly for states and districts.”

--Thomas E. Patterson

Congress Has a Split Personality

Which Personality Dominates?

• How popular is the institution of Congress with the American people?

• How popular are individual members of Congress in their local districts?

• How often are members defeated when they run for reelection?

• Has President Bush ever had a veto overridden?• These facts should provide some pretty strong

clues to the original question: “which personality dominates,” lawmaking or representation?

Motivation of Members

• Why would anyone want to be a member of Congress?

• What's the first step to accomplishing this goal?

• Once you're elected, what are your priorities?• What kinds of behaviors do you have from

which to choose? [Let’s borrow three terms popularized by political scientist Morris Fiorina.]

Fiorina’s Typology of Congressional Behaviors

• Lawmaking, Pork Barreling, & Casework

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of each to the reelection of members?

• How would you want the Congress organized in order to maximize your ability to engage in these electorally useful activities with maximum effect?

How would the members organize Congress if all they cared about were reelection?

• Strong parties or weak parties?

• Unified legislative process or lots of committees and subcommittees?

• Staff devoted to individual members or to legislative functions?

How would the members organize Congress if all they cared about were reelection?

• weak parties so you can say and do whatever your reelection demands;

• lots of committees and subcommittees to give each member a bit of the lime light and make it easier to claim credit for things;

• lots of personal staff for constituent service, and committee staff to do the legislative work so your personal staff can do more important things like send a personal letter of congratulation to every high school graduate in the district.

How is Congress actually organized?

• weak parties so you can say and do whatever your reelection demands;

• lots of committees and subcommittees to give each member a bit of the lime light and make it easier to claim credit for things;

• lots of personal staff for constituent service, and committee staff to do the legislative work so your personal staff can do more important things like send a personal letter of congratulation to every high school graduate in the district.

How would Congress organize the government if all they cared about were reelection?

• lots of distributive programs: government services, pork-barrel projects

• low taxes• lots of bureaucratic decisions to provide

opportunities for casework• a system that allows individual members of

Congress to intervene on behalf of private parties

How is the government organized?

• lots of distributive programs: government services, pork-barrel projects

• low taxes• lots of bureaucratic decisions to provide

opportunities for casework• a system that allows individual members of

Congress to intervene on behalf of private parties

How would you organize Congress if your purpose were to create an institution that

could efficiently enact the laws that the nation needs?

• Hold national elections dominated by strong political parties with clear agendas

• Create strong party leaders in Congress with the power to direct the work of the committees

• Exercise strong party discipline in voting so that the party platform of the winning party could be transformed into public policy

Results

• "Great individual responsiveness, equally great collective irresponsibility." – Gary Jacobson

• "A system of surpassing excellence for representing the people and grossly deficient in the means for governing the people." -- James Young

In short . . .

• Congress is organized to facilitate member representation of diverse and conflicting constituencies, at the expense of efficient legislation in service of national majorities.

• But that is exactly what the framers had in mind: remember James Madison’s argument for a large republic as a check against the vice of majority faction.

System Bias of the American Congress

• “Advantage to the defense”

• “Subsystem dominance”

• “Iron Triangles, Policy Subsystems & Interest Group Liberalism”

• Can you think of more?

Term Limits

• The call for Term Limits is a policy proposal.• What do we have to do to reach a reasoned

judgment about the wisdom of a policy proposal?– We must anticipate the consequences of adopting the

policy and evaluate the relative costs and benefits of each. After all, a good policy is a policy where the benefits outweigh the costs.

Term Limits

• The call for Term Limits is a policy proposal.• What do we have to do to reach a reasoned

judgment about the wisdom of a policy proposal?– We must anticipate the consequences of adopting the

policy and evaluate the relative costs and benefits of each. After all, a good policy is a policy where the benefits outweigh the costs.

Consequences of Term Limits

• What are the likely effects on voters?

• What are the likely effects on elections?– Would it favor one political party over another?– Would it affect the quality of candidates?

Consequences of Term Limits

• What are the likely effects on who serves in Congress?– Would term limits increase the turnover in Congress?

– Would term limits make Congress more or less responsive to national moods?

– Would term limits advance or retard the election of women and minorities?

– Would term limits increase or decrease the the specialized knowledge and experience of members?

Consequences of Term Limits

• What are the likely effects on power balance in Congress?– Will power be more or less equally distributed among

members? – Will members be more or less dependent on staff?– Will members be more or less dependent on lobbyists?– Will members be more or less subservient to special

interests?– How will the career motivations of members be

affected?

Consequences of Term Limits

• What are the likely effects on the power balance between Congress and the President?

• What are the likely effects on the power balance between Congress and the bureaucracy?

• What are the likely effects on the power balance between Congress and the courts?

Research:If you can answer all these questions

– and support your answers with good evidence – then you can write one great

policy paper on term limits.

Argument:Questions to be investigated in the research phase become contentions to be supported

in the argument phase.

Consequences of Term Limits

• What are the likely effects on voters?

• What are the likely effects on elections?– Would it favor one political party over another?– Would it affect the quality of candidates?

Consequences of Term Limits

• What are the likely effects on who serves in Congress?– Would term limits increase the turnover in Congress?

– Would term limits make Congress more or less responsive to national moods?

– Would term limits advance or retard the election of women and minorities?

– Would term limits increase or decrease the specialized knowledge and experience of members?

Consequences of Term Limits

• What are the likely effects on power balance in Congress?– Will power be more or less equally distributed among

members? – Will members be more or less dependent on staff?– Will members be more or less dependent on lobbyists?– Will members be more or less subservient to special

interests?– How will the career motivations of members be

affected?

Consequences of Term Limits

• What are the likely effects on the power balance between Congress and the President?

• What are the likely effects on the power balance between Congress and the bureaucracy?

• What are the likely effects on the power balance between Congress and the courts?

Research:If you can answer all these questions

– and support your answers with good evidence – then you can write one great

policy paper on term limits.

Argument:Questions to be investigated in the research phase become contentions to be supported

in the argument phase.

Have you:Been turned down for a new job?

Been turned down for a job promotion?Been "locked out" of the pay range you deserve?

Been consistently overlooked in your career?

Has this been a result of not having the "credentials" that someone says you need?

YOUR SOLUTION? a university degree degree in 30 days!Call 1-206-309-7258 to inquire about our degree programs.

Weather you are seeking a Bachelors, Masters, Ph.D. or MBAWe can provide you with the fully verifiable credentials to get

your career  BACK ON TRACKNo testing or coursework required Call: 1-206-309-7258

Social Welfare Policy

Social Welfare Policy

• It reflects our political culture: individual self-reliance trumps equality.

• It reflects our political parties: the policies of each party reflect the interests of the core constituencies they represent.

• It reflects the strength of business interest groups: most welfare programs pay private businesses to service the poor rather than giving money to the poor or having government provide the services directly.

• It reflects the general distribution of power in society: more welfare dollars actually flow to the non-poor than to the poor.