Course Overview

This course aims at familiarizing you with the public policy process, including how the process of making policy affects and is affected by the substance of policy. The class is structured around three components: theories and concepts (week 1-6), the policy system (week 7-14), and policy evaluation and reform (week 15-16). Student Learning Goals and Objectives By the end of the course, students should be able to: • Understand different frameworks and theories that have been used to describe the policy process and its component parts; • Describe important structures and interactions that are situated at different levels in the policy system (policy field, organization and frontlines); • Be familiar with diverse sources of authority in a policy system, including formal rules and regulations as well as more informal sources of authority stemming from culture and public values; and • Identify and analyze areas for potential improvement during policy implementation. Course Description Regardless of where one sits in the policy system, there are opportunities to create change— intentionally and unintentionally. This course aims to familiarize students with the public policy process, equipping students with analytical frameworks and practical tools to improve their engagement with the process through their work as elected public officials, public agency managers, nonprofit executives, policy analysts, street-level service providers and/or participatory citizens. The first component of the course (weeks 1-6) will equip students with terminology and frameworks to help make sense of the complex moving parts that make up the policy and implementation system. Like a natural ecosystem, the policy system is made up differen