DPI-130: Rethinking Policy Design

Semester: Spring

Credit: 1.0

Syllabus: Click here for syllabus

Faculty: Quinton Mayne

Schedule

Day Time Location
First Day 1/28
Meet Day M/W 2:40 PM - 4:00 PM 124MA/160
Review

Description

When designing public policies aimed at tackling society’s great challenges decision makers must choose from what can seem like a bewildering menu of tools.  Policymakers sometimes opt for tools that are highly structured and involve heavy-handed intervention; other times they use softer, looser, and less visible tools.  With some tools public officials remain firmly in control while others see them partnering with or handing over important tasks to civil society and profit-making organizations.  This course offers a systematic and critical examination of key policy tools.  As policy design is an art of the possible, you will learn about the substantive, organizational, structural, and ideational forces that constrain and animate the choice of policy tools.  Whether crafting policy with or from within government or advocating from without, by the end of this course you will be better able to understand the technical as well as political value and limits of improving on old tools and turning to new ones.  The course examines both historical and contemporary cases from the United States and Europe as well as middle-income and developing countries. These cover a range of policy fields and issue areas, including education, healthcare, and social services as well as policing, unemployment, and environmental protection.

DPI-130 fulfills SUP and DPI concentration requirements for MPP candidates.