United States Nuclear Energy

Assignment: Read the U.S. Senate hearing addressing THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE NUCLEAR ENERGY SECTOR, WITH A FOCUS ON WAYS TO MAINTAIN AND EXPAND THE USE OF NUCLEAR ENERGYIN THE UNITED STATES AND ABROAD and use Stone’s framework addressing the construction of problems, goals, and solutions to write a 5 page (minimum) paper analyzing the positions constructed by the hearing’s participants. The main goal of the paper is to demonstrate that you understand Stone’s ideas and how they operate in a policy making context.

Instructions:

1. Please organize the paper into the following six sections: Introduction, Definitions, Goals, Problems, Solutions, and Conclusions.
2. Remember to write an introductory paragraph.

The structure of your introductory paragraph should look very similar to the following:

Society’s growing need for low-carbon sources of electricity is a major issue. The following paper uses a recent US Senate hearing entitled (hearing title) to analyze different policy positions addressing this topic. Using Stone’s policy analysis categories, the paper analyzes how hearing witnesses define goals, construct problems, and promote solutions. The paper is organized into five sections to understand the issue. The first section defines the main concepts from Stone that are used in the analysis; the second section addresses how the discussion of goals associated with plastics recycling are shaped by the policy goals of (insert Stone goal) and (insert Stone goal). The third section explains how the problems of (insert Stone problem) and (insert Stone problem) shape the discussion of addressing plastics recycling. The fourth section illustrates how the solutions of (insert Stone solution) and (insert Stone solution) relate to the problems and goals discussed in the hearing. In the final section, the previous examples are used to explain how Stone’s, Polis model fits the policymaking process associated with the hearing better than the marketplace model.

3. After the introductory paragraph please provide a second paragraph that defines all the important terms that you use in the rest of the paper. You can then refer to these throughout the discussion.
4. In the section on goals use the testimony from the hearing participants to find examples of at two of the policy goals discussed by Stone. The section should identify the goal, give an example, and explain how the example illustrates Stone’s ideas.
5. Using Stone’s example of tradeoff arguments find one example of how the hearing participants refer to tradeoffs and explain how it illustrates Stone’s ideas. Remember that tradeoffs do not always exist but are constructed to pursue argumentative goals
6. In the section on problems, use the testimony from the witnesses to find examples of two types of problem definition strategies discussed by Stone. The section should identify the problem, give an example of how the witness uses the strategy to define the problem, and explain how the example illustrates Stone’s ideas.
7. In the section on solutions use the testimony from the hearing to find examples of two types of solutions discussed by Stone. The section should identify the solutions, give an example of how witnesses construct the solution, and explain how the example illustrates Stone’s ideas.
8. In the conclusion, you need to explain how the examples from the sections support Stone’s idea of policymaking in the Polis. This would probably be a good place to define the differences between the polis and marketplace models provided by Stone.
9. Please provide references in your paper by giving me Stone’s name and page number in parentheses or the hearing page number at the end of the section in which you used the reference (eg. Stone, 92) . If you use outside materials please include a reference page with bibliographical information (author, year, title, publishing information, and page numbers).
10. Remember that the main goals of the paper are to demonstrate that you understand Stone. This means that you need to use Stone’s language when you are explaining the strengths and weaknesses of the positions provided in the reading.
11. If you have any questions please contact me.

Checklist:

1. Introductory paragraph
2. Paragraph of definitions
3. Sections addressing the following: a) two of Stone’s goals and one tradeoff argument, b) two of Stones problems, c) two of Stone’s Solutions, and) conclusion discussing Polis.
4. References (when in doubt quote it and reference it)

Example of an analytical paragraph for Stone Paper (This is from a different hearing):

A policy goal frequently mentioned by hearing participants is efficiency. Stone argues that efficiency is based on the relationship between inputs and outputs in any given situation. In general, Stone argues that efficiency is when you get the most output for the least input. The following quote provides an example of how the logic of efficiency is used by a hearing participant to support their argument. “The CBO did have the opportunity at that time to put out a score. That score indicated that if you looked at the balance between spending and revenues, it would over 10 years increase deficits by about $18 billion (Holtz-Eakin, pg. 11).” In this case, the hearing participant suggests that past analysis shows that new immigration policies have a potential negative effect on US spending, making the past policies inefficient from a budgetary perspective. The hearing participant uses the efficiency logic to support his argument that new immigration policy unlike old immigration policy should take into account economic goals as a major factor in setting up the policy. These more efficient policies would diminish the potentially negative impact on the US budget. The efficiency logic then provides a way for the witness to strengthen their argument for reprioritizing economic growth as a major consideration for immigration policy.