Case Study 9 

 Purpose 

This assignment is intended to help you learn to do the following: 

 • Evaluate how key government and non-government actors influence policy at the federal, state, and local level. 

• Estimate the political feasibility of a policy. 

Overview 

Case 9 examines the difficult and often neglected step of assessing political feasibility. A successful policy analyst must understand the authorizing environment, the key political actors, and how the varied inputs into the political process are likely to interact. 

Answer the following questions in a 2-3 page Word document. Be sure to support all answers with evidence: 

1. In their report, Hsiao, Kappel, and Gruber identify some limitations of their stakeholder analysis. What are they? What changes would you suggest to their methodology? 

2. Apply Dror’s 4 variables for thinking about political feasibility to this case, and describe how they shifted over time. 

3. What would a map of Governor Shumlin’s authorizing environment for single-payer health insurance look like? 

4. What would a force field analysis for Green Mountain Care look like? 

Action Items 

1. Review Case 9 in McLaughlin and McLaughlin (2019). 

2. Answer the questions as directed in the overview.