This lesson addressed the importance of considering the audience towards which a policy is directed when designing and implementing public policies. Were you surprised by this issue? As you think about your own policy analysis projects, do you see a significant client/audience gap? How do you anticipate that this gap might impact your policy? What steps might be taken to incorporate the audience as active partners in the implementation of your policy?
As we begin to wrap up the course, I'd like your thoughts on the course as a whole. What can you take away from this course that has value to you? How do you connect what you have learned with your personal experience or what you have already knew? How would you apply your new knowledge?
How did the exercise of explicitly identifying and applying goals to your chosen policy impact your view of this policy? How will you express those goals in your policy analysis?
Read the case studies presented in Chapters 1 and 9 and analyze their components and structure: construct an annotated outline for each case study. In each case, note the major sections, how the problem was developed and framed, elements of the ICM used, presentation of alternatives, criteria for recommendations.
After completing the table of supply-side and demand-side mechanisms, pick one mechanism and associated example and post a short description of each.
With this lesson, we complete our exploration of the Idealized Competitive Model. I'm interested to hear how the techniques presented in this model as well as its philosophical orientation towards individual behavior may be of use to you. What, in these last 3 lessons, has value to you, both personally, and for the completion of your project? How does the ICM connect with your personal or professional experiences? How might you apply the ICM to your policy analysis?
This lesson presents a number of hurdles to democratic participation, including failures on the part of our democratic systems, in the operation of our bureaucracies and political systems, and of government's ability to function efficiently. However, the ICM is quite optimistic that we can, and do, work together very well. What was you impression of the development of social welfare from individual self-interest? Do you see the ICM, and our system of government, as inherently optimistic and successful, or continually challenging and requiring close oversight?
Especially for those of you who don't have a background in economics, working with the ICM can be quite challenging. What about the ICM do you find most useful so far? What do you find most challenging? Why do you think that this paradigm has become such a powerful means of considering people's behavior?
Please share your thoughts on the following questions: