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Citizens, legislators, and lobbyists seek the most current and information available when attempting to discern if current policies are effective and efficient or if the benefits merit the cost of the programs. One source of information about current or proposed policy is scholars who conduct policy analysis research. Some scholars are housed together in organizations called "think tanks." Think tanks may be affiliated with a political party or with a political ideology, like conservative, liberal, radical, neo-liberal, and neo-conservative. Other scholars work for universities, or for the government who may also have biases that are apparent in their scholarship. Policy analyses may be published electronically or printed as a report, part of a book, a journal article or a monograph. Analyses identify strengths and flaws in current policies and sometimes suggest alternatives that the scholars think would have a higher ratio of social benefits to social costs.
Authors of policy analyses are not required to identify their political, social or economic values for the reader. Each reader must reflect thoughtfully upon the values reflected in a policy analysis as he or she critiques the evidence and the argument that an individual scholar presents.
Instructions
Below, you'll find a list of think tanks reflecting different social, political and economic values. Choose a social policy currently under debate in American society. Using the list of resources below, find policy analyses on the same topic that reflect conflicting viewpoints.
Governmental and Public Policy Institutes
UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies
http://igs.berkeley.edu
Institute for the Study of Civic Values
http://www.libertynet.org/~edcivic/
Institute for Policy Analysis
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/ipa
John F. Kennedy School of Government Home Page
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu
LBJ School of Public Affairs: Public Policy
http://www.utexas.edu/lbj
The Carter Center
http://www.cartercenter.org
The US Institute for Peace:
http://www.usip.org
Legislative Analysts Office (CA):
http://www.lao.ca.gov/
Think Tanks
American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
http://www.aei.org
Brookings Institution
http://brook.edu
Cascade Policy Institute
http://CascadePolicy.org/
Center for Policy Research
http://www-cpr.maxwell.syr.edu/
Claremont Institute
http://www.claremont.org
Democratic Leadership Council: Progressive Policy Institute
http://www.dicppi.org
Employee Benefit Research Institute
http://www.ebri.org
Families USA Home Page
http://www.familiesusa.org
Hudson Institute
http://www.hudson.org
RAND Home Page
http://www/rand.org
Reason Foundation
http://reason.org
The Progress and Freedom Foundation
http://www.pff.org/
The Aspen Institute Home Plate
http://www.aspeninst.org/
The Heartland Institute
http:www.heartland.org
The Heritage Foundation
http://www.heartland.org
The Official CATO Institute Homepage
http://www.cato.org
The Urban Institute Home Page
http://www.urban.org
The Center for Voting and Democracy
http://www.igc.org/cvd/
The Independent Institute:
http://www.Independent.org
The Jerome Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
http://www.levy.org
Twentieth Century Fund
http://www.tcf.org
Welcome to NCPA
http://www.public-policy.org/~ncpa/
List the evidence used by each author. Summarize the main points in the author's argument. Finally, write a 3-5 page paper, comparing the two analyses. In your short paper, answer these questions:
- Which analysis reflects values closest to your own?
- Which analysis makes the best use of evidence?
- Which analysis makes the most compelling argument?
- Having read both analyses, what do you believe about the policy under consideration? How did you come to this conclusion?
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