MPA-718 The Policy Making Process

Course Overview

This graduate course is an introduction to the policy making process, primarily as it is practiced in the United States by various actors and institutions. We will examine the processes through which public policies are formulated, adopted and implemented, and the political and organizational contexts which condition these processes. The first part of the course will examine public policy through the ”stages heuristic,” viewing the policy making processes as a series of stages or steps. The stages usually include agenda setting, policy design, policy adoption, implementation, evaluation and termination/modification. We will then review the background, key concerns and controversies for a number of policy issues using the stages approach to frame discussion. At the end of the course, students will share their own analyses of specific policy issues.