The idea for citizen Policy Work Groups is the result of a term paper assignment in my Economics and Public Finance class. My name is Krystyn Hartman and I’m a first year graduate student (at the time of this post) at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs with a concentration in policy entrepreneurship and advocacy.

The assignment, a policy brief, was to state a policy problem, use economic analysis to investigate the problem, then come up with two “off the wall, but plausible” solution proposals for the problem as a way to demonstrate our understanding of the economic concepts learned over the course.

One of my biggest frustrations as a citizen is the lack of relevance our individual voices, concerns and insights have when it comes to policies that impact us — sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. So, for my policy brief, I decided to take on the problem of “lawmakers care too little about messages from affected citizens in proportion to special interest groups when it comes to public policy.”

Interestingly, as a result of applying the economic tools learned, I discovered that there is an underlying socially maximizing efficiency basis when it comes to special interest groups over individual citizens. Okay, so rather than attempt to suppress or lesson the special interest groups marginal benefits, for my two “off the wall” solutions, I flipped it around and asked, “how can we increase the marginal benefit and value of individual citizen voices relative to the value and efficiency of special interest groups?”

And that’s when the idea of citizen Policy Work Groups or POLIWOGS as I refer to it in the final Policy Brief hit me as one of the solutions. Regional policy work groups of affected citizens addressing the grassroots impacts in specific policy areas can provide additional insights, data, and considerations, including alerts of potential intended and unintended consequences, for lawmakers. By concentrating the inputs and resources of groups of affected citizens of specific policy areas, the value of the individual affected citizen increases substantially as shown, using economic analysis, in my policy brief.

When I got an A on the brief after turning it in (December 16, 2023), along with encouraging feedback, it was enough encouragement to motivate me to want to test this one. When the idea was met with an openness to consider its inputs by a local government commission, I decided it was worth at least a small test, so yesterday (December 22), I spent most of the day creating this website as a starting point.

If you enjoy reading economic analysis and want to read the policy brief that launched this citizen Policy Work Groups idea, you can read it by clicking the link or download the PDF.

Thank you for your interest!

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Post Author: Krystyn Hartman is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs. This site is a test research project.

Policy Work Groups Reports are an extension of citizen PolicyWorkGroups.com.