INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC POLICY

(Revised 10/26/2000)

Political Science 500 Fall Semester 2000

Instructor: Dennis Judd Class Time: T, 6-8:30

Office: 1114B BSB Office Hours: by appt.

This course is assigned a place in the department's graduate curriculum as a survey of the scholarly literature on public policy. I will be placing emphasis on extensive reading of leading works in the field. The writing assignments are designed to require students to synthesize what they have read, rather than to undertake new research.

In years past, I introduced courses on public policy with the following preamble: “As you will soon learn, public policy is hardly a tidy discipline. There is no coherent, well-defined intellectual approach to the study of public policy. As a recent interdisciplinary field, it lacks the intellectual traditions (or the conventional wisdoms) of political science and the other social sciences. Indeed, it is not clear that anyone has even defined policy studies precisely. Nevertheless, almost everyone these days agrees that it is important to analyze policy processes and outcomes, as distinct from the political process.”

Happily, such an observation has become obsolete. A recent and rapidly expanding literature on narrative analysis, problem definition, and the “argumentative turn” has brought some theoretical coherence to the field. Further definition is has been introduced by the neo-institutionalist approach. I hope that you can arrive at your own approach to the study of public policy through your exposure to the various theoretical perspectives that have emerged. No matter how much I assign, however, in the space of one semester you can only get a substantial start towards understanding the literature of the field. Especially at the Ph.D. level, you will have to do much more reading on your own to achieve an adequate familiarity with the literature. To facilitate that reading, I will hand out a comprehensive bibliography of the public policy literature at the first class session You should take care to keep this bibliography available for easy and frequent reference, but also remember that such a bibliography must be constantly updated. This is your responsibility.

This course will be run in a rather straightforward seminar style, composed of a mixture of brief presentations by me, and a considerable amount of discussion involving every student in the class. No one will be allowed to sit silently for an entire semester, and I may call on anyone at any time to comment on the readings or even to assist in the presentation. Therefore, be prepared to participate at all times. To this end, I ask you to observe a few ground rules:

(l) You are required to read the course material before each week’s class, according to the schedule outlined in the syllabus. I really can't overstate the importance of this particular requirement. If you don't faithfully keep up with the reading, classes will be unproductive and frustrating, for me and for you.

(2) Assignments must be handed in on time, on the dates indicated in the syllabus.

(3) Class attendance and participation are required. If you must miss a class, I would appreciate a call or e-mail in advance.

Three brief take-home essays and one longer paper are required. The first accounts for 10% of the course grade, the next two for 20%, and the final paper for 25% of the grade. Class participation counts for a substantial 25% of the course grade (this grade is decided on the basis of attendance and the quality of class preparation and discussion). You will have a one-week minimum, and usually much more, to complete each of the essays. They will be graded according to clarity, thoughtfulness, comprehensiveness, and originality. It is my practice to allow all students one rewrite of each paper.

I ask you to pay meticulous attention to the writing and production of the papers (no first drafts, and use spell check). The essays should be treated as miniature research papers that synthesize the assigned readings, plus whatever additional materials you may feel you need to read to fully understand the material. At all costs avoid the appearance of plagiarism; place quotation marks around quoted material, and provide proper citations wherever appropriate. Intentional plagiarism on any assignment could be cause for failure in the entire course, and could possibly jeopardize your graduate student career.

The majority of the required readings for this course are included in the books available in the bookstore, and most of the books will be placed on reserve as well. I apologize, in advance, for the amount of money these books cost; to save money you should consider checking some of the books out at the reserve desk. Feel free to remind me to place books on reserve, if necessary. A few additional required and/or recommended readings will be added from time to time during the semester, and all of this material will be placed on reserve. All readings listed except those specifically designated as recommended must be read by the date indicated. Make every effort to read or at least look reading designated as “recommended;” this is your call. In deciding about whether to buy books, keep in mind that most or all of these books will be needed when, someday, you may teach a similar course or need them to study for comprehensive exams.

The books available in the bookstore are:

Required reading (and recommended for purchase):

Murray Edelman, Constructing the Political Spectacle

David Rochefort and Roger Cobb (ed.), The Politics of Problem Definition

Frank Fischer and John Forester (ed.), The Argumentative Turn in Public Policy

Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones, Agendas and Instability in American Politics

Martin J. Smith, Pressure, Power and Policy

John Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, & Public Policies

Theodore Lowi, The End of Liberalism

Deborah Stone, The Policy Paradox

Required reading, but book is on reserve:

David Brian Robertson and Dennis R. Judd, The Development of American Public Policy

SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNED READINGS

August 22. Introduction to the class.

I. CONSTRUCTING POLICY PROBLEMS AND NARRATIVES

August 29. Edelman, Constructing the Political Spectacle.

September 5. Rochefort and Cobb, The Politics of Problem Definition.

September 12. Fischer and Forester, The Argumentative Turn in Public Policy. Recommended: Maartin A. Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse (on reserve).

September 19. Stone, The Policy Paradox, Parts I & 2.

September 26. Stone, The Policy Paradox, Parts 3 & 4.

Monday, October 2. FIRST ESSAY DUE.

II. THE POLICY CRUCIBLE: AGENDAS, PROCESS, AND STRUCTURE

October 3. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, & Public Policies, second edition.

October 10. Baumgartner and Jones, Agendas & Instability in American Politics.

October 17. Smith, Pressure, Power and Policy.

October 24. Smith, Pressure, Power and Policy (cont.)

Monday, October 30. SECOND ESSAY DUE.

III. THE NEO-INSTITUTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE

October 31. David Brian Robertson, "The Return to History and the New Institutionalism in American Political Science," Social Science History (Spring 1993) (on reserve); Paul Pierson, “Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics,” pp. 251-267, American Political Science Review June 2000 (on reserve); John Aldrich, “Rational Choice Theory and the Study of American Politics,”ch. 9 and Clarence N. Stone, “Group Politics Reexamined: From Pluralism to Political Economy,” ch. 12, in Lawrence C. Dodd and Calvin Jilson (eds.), The Dynamics of American Politics: Approaches and Interpretations ( on reserve).

Recommended: “Robert Huckfeldt and Paul Allen Beck, “Contexts, Intermediaries, and Political Behavior,”ch. 11 in Dodd and Jilson.

November 7.Theda Skocpol, “Bringing the State Back In: Strategies of Analysis of Current Research,” pp. 3-37, Dietrich Rueschemeyer and Peter B. Evans, “The State and Economic Transformation: Toward an Analysis of the Conditions Underlying Effective Intervention,” pp. 44-77, Peter B. Evans, “Transnational Linkages and the Economic Role of the State: An Analysis of Developing and Industrialized Nations in the Post-World War II Period,”pp. 192-226, in Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer and Theda Skocpol (eds.), Bringing the State Back In (on reserve).

Recommended: Theda Skocpol, “Understanding the Origins of Modern Social Provision in the United States,” pp. 1-62 in Theda Skocpol, Protecting Mothers and Soldiers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (on reserve); Charles Tilly, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,” pp. 169-191 in Evans, Rueschemeyer, and Skocpol.

November 14. David Brian Robertson and Dennis R. Judd, The Development of American Public Policy: The Structure of Policy Restraint, chapters 1-5 (on reserve).

Monday, November 20. THIRD ESSAY DUE.

IV. AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

November 21. Theodore Lowi, The End of Liberalism; Parts I & II.

Recommended: James A. Morone, The Democratic Wish: Popular Participation and the Limits of American Government (Basic Books, 1990), chs. 1, 3-5 (on reserve).

November 28. . Lowi, Parts III & IV. The End of Liberalism, Parts III & IV. Sven H. Steinmo, “American Exceptionalism Reconsidered: Culture or Institutions,” ch. 5 in Lawrence C. Dodd and Calvin Jilsin (ed.), The Dynamics of American Politics (on reserve).

Recommended: Harmon Zeigler, Political Parties in Industrial Democracies chs. 4-9 (on reserve).

Monday, December 11. FOURTH ESSAY DUE.