The Public Policy Minor requirements include a research methods prerequisite and six courses: the policymaking course, two courses in public policy methods, two courses in a policy track of a student’s design, and one public policy seminar relating to the student’s policy track. Students who wish to pursue the minor must officially sign up for it no later than the third term prior to graduation and are encouraged to enroll during their sophomore or junior year. The six courses required for the minor may not count toward a student’s major or another minor.
Complete the Course Selection Worksheet [Pdf.].Prepare a one-page proposal, outlining the courses you have selected and how they form a coherent program of study.
Submit these materials along with three completed minor cards to Professor Ronald Shaiko.
One course conveying quantitative or qualitative research methods. Options include: Economics 10, Government 10, Mathematics 10, Psychology 10, Sociology 10, Mathematics and Social Sciences 15, Geography 11, Geography 58, Sociology 11, or Education 11.
This course is designed as the gateway offering for students beginning to pursue a minor in public policy through the Rockefeller Center. The term will be divided into four main components:
The Nature of Public Policy: What is Public Policy, Who Makes It, and Why Study It?
Making Public Policy: The Process, Structure, and Context of Policymaking
The Policy Players: Institutional and Non-Institutional Actors
The Policy Game: Rules, Strategies, Culture, and Resources
In the concluding section of the course, we will be pursuing specific policy domains—environmental policy, education policy, health care policy, welfare policy, immigration policy, and defense policy.
Select two courses from the following list.
The course will use the basic tools of economics to analyze the most significant current public policy issues in the United States. Given the time constraints of the course, we will focus on the issues that are most salient in the current political environment. The goal is to understand both the substance and politics of each issue. We will examine the effects of recent policy changes and analyze the likely effects of prospective reforms, particularly those that are likely to be embraced by the current political leaders in Washington, DC.
This course is designed for students who want to improve their writing skills to effect real change. Students will read and write in various areas of public policy, develop arguments, editorials, position papers, briefing memos, as well as op ed pieces and “letters to the editor” to be submitted to the local newspapers. Students will strengthen their understanding and practice of argument, critique testimony, and develop and present their own oral testimony to the class. Prerequisite: Public Policy 5.
This course examines the nature and validity of arguments about vexing moral issues in public policy. Students examine a number of basic moral controversies in public life, focusing on different frameworks for thinking about justice and the ends of politics. The primary aim of the course is to provide each student with an opportunity to develop his/her ability to think in sophisticated ways about morally difficult policy issues. Among the questions students address will be the following: Are policies that permit torture justifiable under any circumstances? Do people have basic moral claims to unequal economic holdings and rewards, or should economic distribution be patterned for the sake of social justice? Should people be permitted to move freely between countries? Is abortion wrong in theory or in practice, and in what ways should it be restricted?
This course focuses on strategies for, and actual practice of, conducting research relevant to public policy discussions. Though open to all students satisfying the prerequisite, this course is designed to be a core element of the Public Policy Minor and will also serve as a training ground for prospective applicants wishing to serve in the Rockefeller Public Policy Research Shop during the winter and spring terms. Prerequisite: A course employing mathematical reasoning or statistical methods (e.g., Economics 10 or Government 10).
This course analyzes the public policy challenges faced by local communities. Particular emphasis will be placed on the problems of urban areas, including education, crime, poverty, economic development, housing, and transportation. Throughout the course, students will use their home towns (or another area of their choosing) as a case study of how specific communities have attempted to address these challenges. The course examines the roles of various actors – citizens, non-profits, and government agencies at all levels – in effecting positive change in local public policy outcomes. Prerequisite: Public Policy 5.
This course will focus on those aspects of leadership that are directly applicable to the accumulation and utilization of social capital through the various organizational manifestations of civil society. Students will explore the broad literature on nonprofit leadership as well as the more targeted literatures that address grassroots mobilization, religious (lay/servant) leadership, interest group influence, organizational maintenance and political representation, and the leadership problems associated with collective action. In addition, the course will focus on the roles of political parties as aggregators of societal interests and as intermediaries between citizens and the state. The various roles of the news media in civil society will also be critically analyzed in order to evaluate the leadership capacity of news organizations in providing the information necessary to participate in American society as informed citizens.
Econometrics is the statistical analysis of economic data. This course focuses on regression analysis (specification, estimation, and hypothesis testing) and problems and pitfalls in its application in economics. The course involves extensive use of the statistical program STATA and will enable students to implement their own empirical research projects in preparation for the culminating experience in the economics major. Prerequisites: Economics 10 and Mathematics 3.
Using historical, sociological, political, and legal sources, this seminar explores the role of lawyers in the creation of public policy in the United States. Lawyers have a professional obligation to zealously advocate the interests of their individual clients, yet also to pursue justice and the public good. How have American lawyers resolved the tension between these two obligations? What strategies have interest group lawyers used to achieve change in public policy and with what consequences? How have legal organizations (e.g., the American Bar Association, the American Trial Lawyers Association) sought to preserve or change American public policies? Readings will include studies of lawyers in the New Deal, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Right to Life lawyers, AFL-CIO lawyers, and others. Enrollment limited to 16. Also listed as Public Policy 81. Prerequisite: at least one course on law or public policy.
This course examines how and why cities attempt to address the problems that face them. It investigates who makes public policy in cities and why. The course then considers how and why these actors make policy. The final part of this class analyzes the effects of these policies. The class focuses upon urban education, housing, public safety, economic development, and other policy areas of significance to urban governments, with focused attention on post-Katrina New Orleans.
The most obvious solution to the problem of poverty is to give someone a job. More than four decades of employment programs have shown, however, that this is not as easy as it sounds. Recent changes in the economy (downsizing, globalization, and technological change) make this situation even more challenging. This course examines the past and future of employment policies as poverty alleviation strategies. It brings together theories of poverty and employment, an analysis of current trends in the economy, and an overview of past and current employment programs.
Claims to secret knowledge—in families, organizations, and states—is a form of authority over those who do not possess it. This seminar explores how claims to secret knowledge and lying relate to the institutional and cultural frameworks in which knowledge is produced, the use of “leaks” to challenge hierarchical controls and sometimes sustain them, and the ways in which secrecy, deception, and lying form a necessary and often desirable part of social, political, and economic life.
The seminar will examine state and federal roles in educational policy and familiarize students with key policy options at the local levels. The major section throughout the term examines education in America, its history, periods of reform, problems, practices and policies. A second section focuses upon generating an understanding and appreciation of how a suburban community works and how policy is formulated and implemented. A third section requires actual time and engagement in the schools including attendance at school board meetings; interviews with school officials; conversations with teachers, parents and students focusing on school policies. The concluding section requires research and analysis by three groups or teams of students who will identify a significant policy suggested by their earlier study in the course.
Someone once said, there is a place for the market, and the market must be kept in its place. In this course, we explore the policy debates in the U.S. over the proper role of government in promoting market efficiency and protecting citizens from the adverse consequences of market competition. We begin with an effort to define the scope of the private and public sectors. We then consider an array of policy instruments to correct market failures and redistribute income. Finally, we examine the use of market-oriented approaches to policy problems, such as cost-benefit analysis, vouchers, and pollution rights.
This course will examine the theory and policy of criminal justice and punishment from philosophical, legal, and criminological perspectives. It will take up, among others, the following questions: What is the moral basis for taking the liberty or life of another human been as punishment? Must the punishment be deserved? How is desert determined? Must the offender receive the deserved penalty even if that penalty would make no contribution to the control of crime? Is it sufficient justification for a given sentence that the defendant knew or could easily have known the approximate penalty before deciding to commit the offense? Has the Eighth Amendment limitation on the severity of punishments been properly interpreted? Does justice require further limitations? Does justice require that there be lower limits on the severity of punishment for certain serious offenses?
Political efforts to cope with today’s financial crisis have drawn the world’s attention to the importance of new and innovative ideas in public policymaking. But where do these ideas come from? What do they look like? Why do some ideas affect policymaking and others do not? How does this vary across countries? This course explores these issues and others related to how and why ideas matter in politics particularly during times of crisis. It investigates the rise since the 1970s of neoliberalism–a conservative set of ideas, which calls for lower taxes, less welfare spending and less business regulation, among other things. It also explores the fate of neoliberalism in the wake of the current financial crisis. This is an upper division course that includes a major research paper requirement.
Although many view the relationship between organizations and public policy as fairly static, it is dynamic and complex. Organizations may take an active role in forming public policy and in shaping the definition of compliance to public policy. By focusing on topics ranging from anti-trust regulation, civil rights employment legislation, incorporation laws, and more, emphasis is placed on understanding the joint influence of organizations and governmental authorities on the public policy process.
This course addresses the growing complexity between biotechnology policy and international law in world affairs. We examine several contemporary global controversies surrounding the recent advancements in biotechnology to demonstrate how this area of science impacts food security, public health, economic development, and weapons proliferation. These various dimensions of biotechnology policy are analyzed through the lens of different bodies of international law, such as intellectual property, human rights, and arms control. Our primary objective questions whether biotechnology and international law will promote cooperation and peace or spur conflict and war in the 21st century.
This course explores the role of economics and security in international relations theory. Special attention will be devoted to exploring how changes in the international economy are likely to influence the security behavior of states. Prerequisites: Govt. 5 and at least one mid-level IR course
Students will analyze current American health-policy reform proposals, judging their substance and devising variations and replacements. The histories of modern issues will be reviewed and a health-policy problem list created, its entries distributed for analysis to individual students. Projects will proceed in parallel, with lessons learned shared at each meeting, while readings and discussions will explicate factors shaping policy and constraining innovation. A closing exercise will assess student proposals for complementarity and reconcilability.
The course will provide an analysis of science and technology policy in the United States. Institutionalized in what are known as “R&D budgets,” science and technology policies have become means of confronting the fundamental challenges to our quality of life (e.g., security, environment, health). Federal agencies are entrusted with translating scientific research into policy solutions that benefit society. This course examines that process of translation – the interplay of interests through the apparatus of government to produce “public policy.”
