In the second half of semester students will practice their skills in a simulation of real-life policy making. The exercise is based on intensive team work and consists of in-class debate over a policy issue and submission of written policy proposal jointly written by all team members.

Three groups, each consisting of 4-6 students, will be formed. Each group will work on one topic and the group will be further divided into two teams. One team will write a policy proposal using the perspective of Western European countries. The other team will write a proposal using the perspective of Central European countries. 

Students will be assigned to topics and form teams in the first week of semester. Debates will take place in weeks 9, 10 and 11. Each team will have about 30 minutes for the proposal presentation. The role of moderator will be to introduce the topic and lead the debate.  

Context 

Your teams have been hired by the European Commission to inform policymakers about the best practices to address the issue. Your recommendations should be based on available evidence.

Project topics  (these are tentative questions that you could reflect in your policy proposal) 

Topic 1: Tackling undeclared work

Topic 2: Work-life balance and family-friendly policies

• How does everyday employment impact workers’ personal life and well-being?
• How do societal expectations around gender roles impact perceptions of work-life balance?
• How does achieving a balance between work and personal life contribute to overall well-being? 
• What specific policies do you believe would benefit employees with family responsibilities?

Topic 3: New policy plans concerned with platform work

Assignment of groups: 

P1 Moderator: Martin Guzi

P1 Undeclared work - East: Anastasiya, Lara

P1 Undeclared work - West:  Paulina, Avi

P2 Moderator:  Martin Guzi

P2  Work-life balance - East:  Jinjing, Monika

P2  Work-life balance - West:  Safa, Marek

P2 Work-life balance - Africa: Jeremiah

P3 Moderator:  Martin Guzi

P3 Platform work - East: Borek, Tomáš V.

P3 Platform work - West: Tomáš B.

Policy proposal presentation

To ensure that your presentations are effective, I recommend a structure based on several rounds.

*Round 1* should provide an overview of the issue, including current trends, public opinion, and explain why this topic is policy relevant in the country (also explain who is the target group of the policy).

The moderator will introduce the topic, provide general context and explain the terminology, and argue why policymakers should care about it.

Then, each team will provide a regional perspective, highlighting country or sector-specific trends, affected groups, and how the issue is perceived in the society and media. You may consider consulting Eurobarometer or ESS data, or other relevant media/data sources.

Source: https://eupinions.eu/de/home

*Round 2* should provide different policy approaches, that the EU has undertaken to address the problem. 

Each student will present the evidence for a specific policy that have been implemented. Be specific about the implementation, the success of the policy, and whether it has been adopted in more countries or it is unique (depends on what information you can find).

*Round 3* should focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the discussed issue and the new/recent policy initiatives that are aimed at improving the situation. Each student will present the situation in their selected countries.

Lastly, in *Round 4*, each student from the audience (not presenting) should prepare a few sentences on a related policy that has been implemented (or not) in their country or current policy debates they’ve come across.

Policy proposal summary

To finalize the project, each team will elaborate a short policy oriented proposal (the length of proposal is approximately 1 page per person). You should argue for the need of policy or policy improvement in specific areas. You can refer to theory or evidence that you presented in the class. Use statistics in text but do not include tables/graphs. Briefly describe what are policy gaps and what policy instruments do you propose (e.g. you can remove/introduce sanctions, suggest policies to strengthen institutions).

Submit the policy proposal no later than one week after the presentation when topic is fresh in your minds. I may ask you to edit the proposal after submission when necessary.