Public Policy Analysis

Catalog description

Section information text: Public administrators today work in a hyper-charged, partisan environment with unprecedented access to public policy data. This challenging environment affords public administrators both extraordinary opportunities and severe constraints. This course examines, in detail, the key stakeholders and actors in the public policy process with particular attention devoted to understanding the functions, impacts, and constraints of these stakeholders upon policy development and the policy-making process. In addition, the course explores professional ethics related to the role of the policy analyst and considers the significant social outcomes of public policy. It provides an introduction to the theories and strategies used by policy-makers and policy analysts to develop, implement, execute, evaluate, and promulgate public policy. Students explore the impact and consequences of public policy and consider and evaluate policy in a social justice framework. Students craft a policy memorandum to a decision-maker of their choosing regarding a current public policy problem that examines and evaluates competing policy alternatives.