POLICY AND PROCESS
One of the primary purposes of government is to serve the public good by developing and executing policies that benefit society as a whole. However, the process of determining what is best for society often generates debates and controversy. This course is concerned with the give and take, bargaining, competition and compromise that arise from the politics of policy development. This course introduces students to theories that seek to explain the mechanics of policy change through the stages of agenda setting, policy adoption, policy design, policy feedback, and policy implementation. Together these theories help establish why some policy reforms will be successfully adopted and implemented, while others will fail.
With this theoretical foundation, students will gain tangible professional skills by writing beautifully crafted and rhetorically effective policy reports on public policy issues they are passionate about. In this process, students will critically analyze a social, political, or economic problem and utilize the theories we cover in the course to develop a plan of action to solve that policy problem.