PA 715

POLITICS OF POLICY MAKING AND IMPLEMENTATION

Public administrators – both in the public and non-profit sectors – carry out public policies. This begs several questions. What is public policy? How are they made? Who has the real power to make them? Can you influence policies? Once they’re made, how are they implemented? Do they ever meet their goals? Do they ever go away?

At the core of these questions is the study of the processes of policy development. This course is designed to provide you an overview of the life of policies, from idea and development through implementation and, sometimes, termination. It will introduce you to frameworks for thinking about public policies and how they’re made. It also introduces you to sub-fields in public policy that you may choose to study further in the future: policy analysis, decision science, program evaluation, policy implementation, public participation, etc. By understanding the policy process and the players in it, you will be better able to participate in it more effectively in your professional and personal lives. This is the underlying goal of the course.