MLD-326: Decision Making and Leadership in the Public Sector

Semester: Fall

Credit: 1.0

Faculty: Philip Heymann

Schedule

Day Time Location
First Day 9/4
Meet Day M/T 10:20 AM - 11:50 AM HLS WASS 3007
Review

Description

Lawyers are as deeply involved in political decision making as they are in judicial decision making, whether the occasion is legislation or administrative regulation or deciding on a discrete action by a governmental or other organizational unit. They also are called upon to manage public organizations. Most people learn these additional skills, if at all, through experience. There is, however, a logic that can help almost as much in understanding political choices as learning the basics of legal argument do in understanding judicial choices. The course teaches the thought process of policy choice and of management. At the same time, it provides vicarious experience in a variety of political/managerial settings through detailed case studies produced at the Harvard Kennedy School. Most classes involve adopting a particular role in a specific situation and thinking through what you might want to accomplish in that role and how to go about it in that setting. The examples are from domestic and foreign policy areas and almost always involve the political structures of the United States.

Also offered by the Law School as HLS 2267.