Public Affairs 6000: Public Policy Formulation and Implementation

During this course, students will have the opportunity to:

1. Explore different frameworks and theories that have been used to describe the policy process and its component parts;
2. Discover important structures and interactions that are situated at different levels in the policy system/subsystem (policy field, organization and frontlines);
3. Become familiar with diverse sources of authority in a policy system/subsystem, including formal rules and regulations as well as more informal sources of authority stemming from culture and public values;
4. Develop skills that help them identify and analyze areas for potential improvement during policy implementation; and
5. Engage in and develop skills that facilitate the practice of active self-reflection in practice.

Students have the ability to participate in and contribute to the policy process.

• Apply knowledge of the foundations of public affairs (law, policy, administration, and management) in appropriate contexts (Serves as introduction and overview of the curriculum)
• Describe the environmental context of public problem solving
• Identify the basic elements of the public policy process
• Know how to use the policy process to advance the public interest
• Understand the connections between public problems, policy content, policy systems and public programs
• Evaluate how differences in policy content and systems contribute to policy outputs and outcomes
• Know and apply basic policy analysis tools

Requirements and Expectations 

This is a hybrid course. This translates, roughly, to two hours of in person class in addition to assigned readings and assignments which will be another three to four hours outside of class. Students are required to carefully complete these out-of-class activities prior to the in-class activities. The interactions in the in-class sessions will depend heavily on students’ engagement with class readings and preparation materials. Each week’s detailed course contents are available in Carmen (click “Modules” for each week’s materials).

Course Textbooks

A textbook may be required. Please consult your instructor's syllabus for information.

Grading and Evaluation

• Online Group Discussion (10), 100 points, 20%, Independent work and collaboration
• Policy Identification Brief, 100 points, 20%, Independent Work
• Policy Field Map, 100 points, 20%, Independent Work
• Policy Implementation Analysis, 150 points, 40%, Independent Work

A critical practice of public administration is learning to summarize, synthesize, and analyze new information. To practice this, you will be assigned to a discussion group for the semester where you will be given regarding the materials we will discuss in class.  This gives you and your group an opportunity to learn together.  Policy development and implementation is a team sport – rarely would you be making policy decisions without the input of stakeholders, other policy players, and staff members.

The purpose of these assignments is not for me to “check that you did the reading” (that will become obvious during class discussions!). Rather, it is an opportunity for you to get input on and practice the skill of synthesizing complex information. 

Three central course assignments are cumulative deliverables that focus on a selected public policy of your choosing. These include a (1) policy identification brief, (2) policy field map, and policy implementation analysis (each described in detail below). These assignments provide an opportunity to apply concepts, frameworks, and materials from the class to an issue that is of interest to you.

Policy Identification Brief
Each student will identify one policy at the federal, state, or local level that is of interest to them that will serve as their “unit of analysis” for the remainder of the semester. The policy needs to have a clear “target population” (we’ll talk about what this means and why). Students will submit a “policy identification brief” related to their selected policy. The policy identification brief will clearly outline a particular public policy, including:

• the public problem that the specific policy is intended to address (including the magnitude of the problem and trends, a brief description of the target population, and the geographic scope),
• an identification of the policy type and policy tools in use to govern the implementation of the particular policy; and
• a brief description of the development of the policy (e.g., where and how it originated), as well as current challenges or proposed changes. In your description, include an application of one (or more) of the following policy process model(s) covered in class that can help make sense of how the policy developed and has been implemented over time.

The policy identification brief should be about 2-3 pages (no more than 3 pages), single spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 point Times New Roman font. You need to use APA style for in-text citations and the final reference list. A final reference list will not count towards the 3-page limit for this assignment.

Policy Field Map
Building from their policy identification brief, students will create a policy field map for their selected policy. As defined by Sandfort and Moulton (pp.133-134 and Appendix B), a policy field map is a visual illustration of the institutions and relationships in a policy field. As you can expect, most policy areas and challenges involve multiple levels of government and multiple actors in the public, nonprofit and private sectors. The policy field map will include an identification of institutions involved with your particular policy as well as their relationship to the policy. This assignment will include the following components:

• an identification of the appropriate institutions related to the policy, including level of government as well as organizational type, and their relationship to the policy area (e.g., funding, legal accountability, service linkages, purveyor, etc.); 
• a visual representation of the institutions and their relationships that illustrates the items in (a), above; and
• a written summary of the forces in the policy field (refer back to Table 3.1 in Sandfort and Moulton) that structure the public service intervention, including your own assessment of the most powerful actors and influences, and how these institutions constrain and enable change over time.

The policy field map should be about 2-3 pages (no more than 3 pages), single spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font. This includes a one page visual diagram, and about two pages of text description.

Policy Implementation Analysis
The final deliverable is a culminating assignment building on the student’s prior deliverables. For this assignment, students will analyze the implementation and outcomes of the policy (see Sandfort and Moulton, Appendix G), and propose recommended strategies for future improvement. Specifically, the assignment should include the following components:

• identification of the indicators of implementation effectiveness for the policy, including process results as well as outcomes;
• assessment of the points of variation in the implementation of the policy at the level of the policy field, organization and frontlines (e.g., do different organizations implementing the policy or program have different outcomes? do outcomes vary based on the individuals or processes at the frontline?);
• analysis of the possible reasons for the observed variation in implementation, linking back to the policy field map; and
• recommendations for improvement, including strategies that target both technical and adaptive challenges. 

The policy implementation analysis should be about 5 pages (no more than 7 pages) single spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font. If you include prior deliverables, such as the policy field map, they should be placed in an Appendix, and will not count towards the page limit. You must use APA style for in-text citations and the final reference list. A final reference list will not count towards the 7-page limit for this assignment.

Peer-review
For each of these three key assignments, you will also give and receive feedback on a draft of each assignment before submitting the final version. You will pair off with a member of your discussion group for this exercise. Prior to doing peer-reviews, we will work together as a class to brainstorm a list topics/issues for peer- reviewers to focus on during the review process (essentially, we will co-construct a reviewing rubric based on your initial experiences with the assignment).  The purpose of peer-review is to give you experience with giving effective feedback and checking your ability to clearly communicate complicated issues to an audience who may have decision making authority.
 

Course lectures and class discussion will be supplemented with a variety of in-class activities during the semester. The purpose of the in-class activities is to provide a direct application of class materials to real-world scenarios through case studies, exercises, and discussions. Oftentimes, students will be broken into groups for the activities, and sometimes will be asked to turn-in a group deliverable, or report-out their experiences at the end of class. Unless you have a conflict, I expect you to be in class.

Meaningful class contribution entails providing good answers to questions. Effective and meaningful comments add to our understanding of the underlying conceptual material, challenge and clarify the ideas expressed by others, integrate material from past classes or other courses, and show evidence of analysis rather than mere opinion or “gut feeling”. Effective and meaningful responses demonstrate that you have thought deeply about the material and can develop creative and innovative insights through this analytic effort. At the outset of the semester, we will work together to develop ground rules and a code of conduct for in-class discussions and participation.