Public Policy in the Priv Sect

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

In this course, we’ll examine the increasingly tricky intersection of corporations and public policy. Societal changes – cultural, technological, informational and economic – have upended the traditional corporate playbook for influencing public policy and engaging in political debate. No longer can companies rely simply on direct lobbying and donations to influence Washington and state governments, which are passing laws and approving rules that can have an enormous impact on companies, costing or saving them billions of dollars while adding or eliminating barriers to doing business in the U.S. The fallout of public policy change – either positive or negative – is real, and companies, which always want to mitigate risk and crave long-term certainty, must know very quickly where they stand on an issue, figure out how to influence the process and prepare to adapt quickly in any scenario. Today, businesses large and small are being forced to confront a different reality, with shareholders, consumers, the public and increasingly their own employees demanding they take positions on policy issues that sometimes at first glance seem to have little to do with the bottom line – but really have everything to do with it. At the same time, new societal challenges have emerged, and corporations are both providing solutions for these issues and seeking to profit by influencing public policy. In this course, we’ll examine how corporations determine where they stand on policy issues and advocate for them to achieve their business objectives – and protect their reputations. We’ll review how they balance a desire to help solve some of the world’s thorniest issues with a need to deliver value for shareholders and investors. Throughout the course, we’ll explore how different leadership in Washington sets different parameters for corporations engaging in public policy based on the political philosophy of the party in power as well as on current events – and the nation’s general mood. We’ll look at the immense change companies have been facing for the past decade, a period filled with uncertainty and upheaval that has reordered how business in Washington is done. And we’ll examine factors that companies have had to consider: a polarizing news media; faith in institutions at bottom-barrel levels; extreme partisanship; globalization under attack; income inequality driving populism; shareholder revolts and consumer boycotts common place; an unprecedented access to information; and disruption in both the technology and media industries, where anyone can instantaneously publish information, whether true or false.