How Public Policy Works

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

How is public policy made? Who makes it? And how does it shape the world around us? This engaging course will expose students to real world problems, exploring key themes, questions, and tensions within the world of public policy through varied disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. The typical class meeting will feature an expert guest speaker in the field who will present a public policy question or example, followed by class discussion and activities. Students will see public policy from the range of disciplinary perspectives on the McCourt School faculty, including economics, political science, sociology, public management, and ethics. Topics may include a range of issues such as those around climate change and energy; artificial intelligence technology and related ethical questions; public assistance and the social safety net; housing policy and racial segregation; education; criminal justice and the carceral state; social movements such as Black Lives Matter or the Oath Keepers; urban policy and land use; political strategy, governance, and public opinion; public health and policy related to health disparities; international development; and more. The course will address how policy is made, focusing on issues of power, with an effort to understand how political institutions, stakeholders and interest groups, and social movements come together to create public policy and shape the policy process. We will highlight issues of equity, learning about how policy affects groups differently and how various actors have differential access to the policy process. Throughout the course students will be exposed to a range of evidence-based methodological approaches, including quantitative methods, ethnography and qualitative methods, case studies, spatial analysis, and data science approaches. Students will learn how to assess claims, with attention to values, distinguishing causation from correlation, and examining both intended and unintended effects with attention to their impact on equity. They will also learn to understand the range of contexts (city, state, federal, and international contexts incorporating varying political systems and income levels) in which policy matters, and how policy differs across them. Not only will students learn how to interpret policy research, they will learn practical skills to communicate effectively about public policy and engage in the policy process.