Assignment question

The assignment question that you will need to answer in this module is:

 In no more than 3000 words, and drawing on the themes covered in

the module, how might policy failure be explained?

Guidance

This is a broad question that requires a focused approach. You will need to look
over the material covered in the module and select one area of theory to focus on.

Focus

Choose an area of theory from one of the themes from the module, such as:

 Problem definition

 Policy decision-making and how actions and actors at this stage of the policy
cycle may impact upon or contribute to policy failure

 Policy networks

 Policy transfer

 Policy implementation

Each of these areas of theory is a valid choice so the key is to select one as your
focus, and ensure that you relate it to the issue of policy failure.

Structure

The overall structure of your assignment should look like this:

 Introduction (approximately 200 - 400 words)

 Literature Review (approximately 1000 - 1300 words)

 Case Study (approximately 1000 - 1300 words)

 Conclusion (approximately 200 – 400 words)

 Bibliography
The word limits provided are a guide only, but the whole assignment must not
exceed 3000 words from the start of your introduction to the end of your
conclusion.

Your assignment needs to contain the following five sections:

1. An introduction: This explains the purpose of the assignment and should

also leave the reader with a clear picture of how it will be structured overall
and what will be your main conclusions.

2. A literature review: Your literature review needs to do three main things:

1. It will first need to define the key concepts contained within the
assignment question. In the case of this assignment you will need to
define what is meant by policy failure.

2. It will then move on to a discussion of your chosen area of the

theoretical material (theories, models and frameworks). There are
three parts to this:

 You will first need to describe your chosen theory, however keep
this level of description to only what is needed for the reader to
be able to understand your subsequent discussion (no more
than a paragraph or two).

 The part of the literature that will gain you most marks is
the critical assessment of your chosen theory, model and
framework. This is where you move on to consider the debates
that surround this theory: what are the strengths or arguments
in favour of this particular model or framework? Consider also
the limitations and critiques. What arguments and evidence do
those on each side of the debate put forward to support their
case? How convincing is it (or not) and what has led you to this
view?

 Finally, you will need to explore how this particular theory,

model or framework relates to policy failure. How might this
aspect of the policy cycle go wrong? What does the academic
literature say about this?

The important parts of the literature review are 2 and 3, so focus your
attention on your critical assessment of your chosen model/framework, and
your exploration of how this might contribute to policy failure.

3. The case study: After your literature review, you will then move on to a
section that applies these concepts. This section will first outline a real-life
example or case study of policy failure, and then move on to consider how
 far this can be explained by your chosen theoretical material. You will need
to provide some background to your chosen case study, letting the reader
know how policy failed in this case. Include as much description as is needed
for your analysis to make sense to the reader (one or two paragraphs).
The most important part of this section of the assignment is your assessment
of the extent to which this real-life example of policy failure can be explained
by your chosen theory. So, for example, if you were focusing on policy
implementation, you would find a real-life example of policy failure and
consider how far the theory, such as Sabatier and Mazmanian's six
constraints, help to explain this example of failure.

4. Your assignment will then need a conclusion that draws together the main
points you have made in the assignment; shows how these points fit
together; and clearly sets out your answer to the assignment question. Avoid
introducing any new ideas, arguments or evidence in this section.

5. Finally, your assignment needs a bibliography at the end that provides full
references to all the sources used in the main body of the paper in
alphabetical order and adhering to the Harvard style.