2013 Public Policy Handbook

When considering careers in public policy, many students (especially law students) think primarily of the role of the legislature and/or courts in shaping law.  However, shaping public policy is a broad and multifaceted process in which many actors and entities participate.

1. Agenda Setting:  During the initial stages, a wide range of individuals, organizations, and governmental entities, take action to advance their aims, educate supporters and opponents about their issue, and build support for their policy agendas.  Actors during this stage include the Executive Branch, Federal agencies, lobbyists, private sector, nonprofit organizations and special interest groups.
2. Policy Formulation:  The Legislature gets involved in the next stage, where policy is formulated.
3. Implementation:  Federal agencies, bureaucratic entities, nongovernmental organizations, state and local government may all be involved in one or more activities directed towards implementing policy and legislation.
4. Evaluation:  Analysis and evaluation takes place throughout the cycle and can involve all of the actors.  Litigation frequently plays a role in this process, too.
5. Reformulation:  Policies are modified or may even be eliminated, based on problems identified during the evaluation – and the cycle begins again.

The University of Arizona College of Law publishes an annual Public Policy Handbook that contains listings for opportunities in public policy.  The OPD subscribes to the Handbook, which you can access by logging in to Symplicity to find the username and password.  Also, we have placed in the Symplicity Resource Library a guide to using the Handbook.

The Handbook contains various tables, each of which indicates who can apply and if opportunity is paid or unpaid, as well as links that take readers directly to the desired entry. 

• Table of Contents, organized alphabetically by city/state.

• Table 1, an A-Z index, with deadlines.

• Table 2, internship programs, in order of deadline.

• Table 3, post-graduate fellowships, in order of deadline.

• Table 4, an alphabetized list of 47 different subject areas, each of which links to Handbook entries offering opportunities in that specific area.

• Table 5, a new alphabetized table with links to job postings for several hundred policy-related organizations, along with brief descriptions of each organization’s mission, as well as subjects of focus.  We developed this table as a resource for Fellows, who are faced with conducting a job search at the end of their limited-term, post-graduate fellowships.