Ethics, Policy, and the Power of Ideas

4 credits · Graduate

This seminar brings together two related frames for policy thinking: the ethics of policy, that is, what does it mean to do the right thing? and the intervention of policy, that is, how do new policy paradigms emerge? <Ethics:> Those who seek to govern well inescapably confront questions of value in their political, professional, and personal choices. the discussion of ethical dilemmas, which will take up the first half of the semester, is designed to provoke analytic reflection on the moral challenges and responsibilities of public policymaking in a democracy. The focus is on the many and often competing obligations, commitments and values that should guide public actors, as well as on the public principles that guide the design of good public policy. <Big Ideas:> Politics and conventional analytics dominate policy in the short run. But over the longer term, conceptualizations as varied as exit/voice/loyalty, satisficing, the tipping point, memes, winner-take-all, strong democracy, broken windows, and the prisoners dilemma profoundly influence the policy conservation.