Master’s Level Short Paper

Through this assignment, we will explore trends concerning an individually selected area of policy and provide context on the public policy theory/theories at play.  You will answer the following question:

How has congressional agenda changed over time in regards to your selected policy topic?

To start, visit Comparative Agendas Project .  Once on the webpage, click on Trend Tools (on the top right).  Then, click select dataset types and policy topics on the upper left side. Then, Click on Budgets on the upper left side. Next, select United States.  Then, select the specific aspect of the US budget you want to analyze. Then, in the bottom right, select Line for Chart Type.

Next, for Dates, select Year. Once you create two charts, or at least have the data points for two periods, then use export to integrate them into your paper. Then,analyze the two charts (ie, compare and contrast) in your paper.

For the purposes of this project, you’ll need to pull data from at least two different time periods to show any shifts in trends/attention.

Next analyze your findings through a 3-5 page paper (excluding cover page and references).  You’ll want to cover the following questions:

• What is the history of this policy?
• What does the data say about the congressional focus of this issue?
• How and why are the charts different?
• What driving forces/actors would have had an impact on the congressional attention on this issue?
• Were there other events taking place that would explain a low in congressional attention on this issue?
• What theory/theories from our text could explain the history or trends of the issue?  What contexts are applicable here?

Please include your charts in your essay.  Note that the labels on the charts may be inaccurate, so focus on trends.  Be sure to draw from our course readings and to utilize at least 3 scholarly sources. A list of good online journals is available in our online library. Here is a sample paper with proper APA formatting and citations from Purdue OWL.