POLICY PAPER (Deadlines May 20th, June 17th, August 15th)

Policy Paper (1500 - 2000 words; excl. references)

Policy paper is a type of document which:

• either evaluates implementation of a policy on a given actor, say a state, region or industry
• or alternatively calls for a policy to be adopted to resolve an existing problem

IMAGINE YOU'RE THE EU EXPERT GIVING A POLICY-MAKER INFORMED ADVICE

First, the paper needs to identify what is the issue/problem.

What is 'the issue' I am writing about? Try to be as specific as possible!

Also, policy papers are not strictly value neutral; someone (EU, state, company) always has an issue/problem, someone always bears the impacts, and you are advising that someone in his/her/its interest! 

     Example: The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is negatively affecting UK fishing business!

Second, what is the problem (or new policy) and what is its impact?

Now that you've identified an issue/problem: how does it manifest? How does it impact the entity you're advising? 

     Example: Based on comparison of January 2020 and January 2021 data – British fish export to EU has dropped by X percent. British fishermen export XY percent of catch to EU common market, specifically X% to France, Y% to Germany and Z% to Poland. The industry employs so and so many workers and generates 0.01% of British GDP. Fishing business is typically medium sized with only a small percentage of companies employing more than 200 workers… As a renegotiation of the TCA is not likely in the near future, the fishing industry will be impacted for the foreseeable future.

Third, what is the state of affairs/context?

What is the institutional context of this problem? What are the existing treaties/laws, rules - framework? What institutions are involved, and what powers do they have? What policies exist - what is the state of affairs?   

      Example: The Withdrawal Agreement (WA) effectively removed UK from the EU, and the TCA rejected both UK membership in the common market as well as in the customs union; while there are no trade tariffs imposed in the TCA, the UK fishermen and exporters are suddenly faced with a wall of “non-tariff barriers” to trade resulting from EU food health and safety regulations as part of the common agricultural and common fisheries policies. They have to document now, that they comply with the EU rules. The TCA however also involves a Specialised Committee on Fisheries - the EU-UK body dedicated to resolving frictions.

Fourth, what do you recommend to alleviate or resolve that problem? Pros and cons?

To offer realistic advice about how to solve the problem and mitigate the negative impacts, you need to be aware of the state of affairs/institutional context. Your recommendations should not be in a vacuum, but rather reflect and try to improve/reform existing processes, institutions, laws, scrutiny...

Remember the entity who you're writing the paper for (UK fishing business in example). Your recommendation how to improve one's situation, might be worsening others' situation!

      Example: State support for fishing industry (Can UK afford it? For how long?). Administrative help by the state (training for clerical workers? How feasible?). Expectations of fishermen moving to a different industry? Can UK help to create any new jobs? Would Conservative government even consider something like this? Can fishermen diversify markets (where? Trying to export fish to Norway is like bringing owls to Athens...). Or just do it and relocate company to EU (as advised by government).

Conclude.

A policy paper is a “practical” paper (not an academic paper) so it does not include theory. This however does not mean references are omitted – references are needed to point the reader to used data/statistics or legal documents.

Suggestions where to get inspired: https://politicalscienceguide.com/home/policy-paper/

…or in the many think tanks listed on page 2 of this syllabus

Cheating, copy pasting stuff without proper reference will not be tolerated, seriously! See section on plagiarism below.

Using AI without acknowledgement is not allowed!

Submitted papers will be processed via Turn It In originality check software.

To prevent any misunderstanding PLAGIARISM is defined as:

“the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.” - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd Edition, Random House, New York, 1993

Turnitin’s White Paper ‘The Plagiarism Spectrum’1 identifies 10 types of plagiarism ordered from most to least severe:

1. CLONE: An act of submitting another’s work, word-for-word, as one’s own.
2. CTRL-C: A written piece that contains significant portions of text from a single source without alterations.
3. FIND–REPLACE: The act of changing key words and phrases but retaining the essential content of the source in a paper.
4. REMIX: An act of paraphrasing from other sources and making the content fit together seamlessly.
5. RECYCLE: The act of borrowing generously from one’s own previous work without citation; to self-plagiarize.
6. HYBRID: The act of combining perfectly cited sources with copied passages—without citation—in one paper.
7. MASHUP: A paper that represents a mix of copied material from several different sources without proper citation.
8. 404 ERROR: A written piece that includes citations to non-existent or inaccurate information about sources
9. AGGREGATOR: The “Aggregator” includes proper citation, but the paper contains almost no original work.
10. RE-TWEET: This paper includes proper citation, but relies too closely on the text’s original wording and/or structure.

Useful text, Foltynek 2020: How to Avoid Plagiarism (A Student Handbook)