Taxes, retirement, and financial policies are some of the most controversial areas of policy development. There are a variety of opinions, data sources, and expert reports out there on each of these areas. Therefore, along with all proposed policy, it is important that we can evaluate each policy. In this week’s lesson, we discussed the three primary and five ancillary evaluative criteria that Kraft considers essential in analyzing policies. So let’s put this information into practice.

Let’s take a look at some articles or resources on policy. Please go to the APUS Library Guide for Public Administration linked on the front page of the course website (https://apus.libguides.com/pubadmin/thinktanks). Go to Think Tanks and Interest Groups Tab. Choose one from the list given there and tell us which one you chose. Then find an article or resource that discusses a policy.

For your response to this question request:

(1) Summarize the key points made within the article.

(2) Now, select at least three evaluative criteria to analyze the points made in the article, which are:

• Effectiveness, or a measurement of how well a policy achieves its goal;
• Efficiency, a measurement of the cost of a policy in relation to its expected benefits; and
• Equity, a measurement of the level of fairness in the distribution of costs and benefits in society.

In addition, there are five other additional criteria that might be used:

• Ethics, or a measurement of the impact of the policy on cultural norms;
• Political feasibility, a measurement of the level of acceptance of a proposed policy by elected officials;
• Social acceptability, a measurement of the level of public acceptance and support of a proposed policy;
• Administrative feasibility, a measurement of the ability to implement a proposed policy; and
• Technical feasibility, a measurement of the availability and reliability of the technology needed to implement a proposed policy.

For example, did the author address the equity of the policy and if so, what did they say? If they didn’t address it, what do you think the author would have said about the missing evaluative criteria?

(3) Analyze the policy alternatives for your selected policy topic/article.