Public Policies (2225.YR.007964.1)

General information

Type:	BAS	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	6 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 1	Laia Maynou Pujolràs	Sociedad, Política y Sostenibilidad	ENG

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This course is an introduction to public policy and policy analysis. It offers an overview of the role of the government, the actors involved in public policy (e.g. political parties, interest groups, public administrations), the steps of the policy process (e.g. agenda setting, problem definition, policy formulation, decision-making, implementation, evaluation) and the main issues and controversies in public policy (e.g. economic and budgetary, labour, health care, gender, education and environmental).

The objectives in Public Policies regarding what students will learn are:

1) Understanding the role of government

2) Learning the basic features of the main actors of public policy, the components of the policy-making cycle; and the broad characteristics of the main debates in key public policy areas.

3) Learning how to assess and apply criteria for selecting policy options and policy evaluation.

1. Introduction (2 weeks): 1.1. What is Public Policy? 1.2. Government intervention 1.3. Market Failures

2. Institutions and Policy actors (1.5 weeks) 2.1. Institutions 2.2. Policy actors 2.3. Political Ideologies

3. The policy process (3 weeks) 3.1. Public Decision 3.2. The policy process: agenda setting and problem definition, 3.3. The policy process: path dependency and policy formulation 3.4. The policy process: decision-making and implementation 3.5. The policy process: evaluation - Cost-Benefit Analysis

4. Policy analysis (3 weeks) 4.1. Economic and budgetary policy 4.2. Labour market policy 4.3. Health care policy 4.4. Gender policy 4.5. Education policy 4.6. Environmental policy

5. Citizens participation and policy challenges (1 week) 5.1. Ethics and public policy 5.2. Citizens participation 5.3. Public opinion 5.4. Challenges

The methodology used in class includes:

1) Lectures. In the lectures, the professor will introduce new concepts. Students will often be required to read the material in advance. Lectures are aimed at being dynamic, with participation from students.

2) Seminars. Students will work, individually and in groups, on exercises and controversial issues regarding public policies.

The reading material for the course will be uploaded on ECampus. In addition, there are many handbooks and introductory books to Public Policy:

-Fischer, Frank, and Gerald J. Miller, eds. Handbook of public policy analysis: theory, politics, and methods. Routledge, 2017.

- Peters, B. Guy, and Jon Pierre, eds. Handbook of public policy. Sage, 2006.

-Kraft, Michael E., and Scott R. Furlong. Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives. Cq Press, 2012.

- Gruber, J. Public Finance and Public Policy. 5th ed. Worth Publishers, 2013.
- Stiglitz, J. E. Economics of the Public Sector. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000.

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 1	Laia Maynou Pujolràs	Sociedad, Política y Sostenibilidad