Foundations for Public Policy Analysis

4 credits · Graduate

This is a course about how to identify public problems and craft policies to best address those problems. The course is designed to improve our abilities to think creatively and critically about public policy issues, whether as politically-engaged citizens, advocates for policy change, practicing policy analysts, or members of one of the many disciplines and professions shaped by public policy. This course focuses on the art and science of public policy analysis. We address the following fundamental questions: What kinds of problems are public problems? How do we know when government should get involved? What kinds of solutions are available to government? How do we confront the trade-offs between possible solutions?