Policy Analysis POL 530 Introduction to the Course Spring, 2018 About the Course Course Goals: To understand the difference between policy and politics. Although the process of policy creation and change is political, its analysis is impartial and scientific. Political science, sociology, political economy, anthropology, education and economics scholars have all studied the policy process in America and have created voluminous bodies of literature that empirically examine the factors that drive the policy process. The overall goal of this class is to expose MPP students to the core findings in the policy analysis literature and their methodology. Course Objectives: Complete weekly writing assignments and engage in discussion with classmates on the contributive aspects of the readings; Understand the policy creation, implementation, and evaluation environment in America; Evaluate a major piece of policy that constituted a significant change in a main federal policy and identify the policy entrepreneurs that spearheaded the change process, the social forces behind their quest, and the legislative actors that created and enacted the policy; Offer an assessment of the impact of that policy in the Legislative Memo Expected Student Learning Outcomes: By the end of the course students should have developed an understanding of the seminal scholarly works in the field. They should demonstrate knowledge of the leading frameworks, theories and models as well as the authors who have gained fame for developing the methodological constructs of measuring policy change. Students should be able to evaluate the policy creating process and track its historical developments in order to be able to make policy recommendations that are applicable, contributive and most importantly, feasible.
Required Texts Sabatier, Paul. 2007. Theories of the Policy Process. West View Press (uploaded on Blackboard) The below readings are available for download through the university electronic library system unless otherwise specified. PDFs of selected readings are will be uploaded in the appropriate weekly module in Blackboard in the folders titled weekly readings. The syllabus indicates which readings are uploaded. Unless so specified, students are responsible for locating the articles and downloading and reading them. If there are problems, please contact our reference librarian Zachary Painter at zpainter@umassd.edu Week 1 The Policy Process 1/28 Schedule and Calendar Chapter 1 from Lester Salamon s book The Tools of Government is posted on Blackboard. Sabatier, CHAPTERS 1 through 4 Week 2 The Bureaucracy the Third Branch of Government 2/4 Nelson, Michael. 1982. A Short, Ironic History of American National Bureaucracy. Journal of Politics 44. Robichau, Robbie Waters & Laurence E. Lynn Jr. 2009. The Implementation of Public Policy: Still The Missing Link. The Policy Studies Journal 37 (1) Wilson, Woodrow. 1941 The Study of Administration. Political Science Quarterly 56 (4): 481-506 Furlong, Scott R. 1998. Political Influence on the Bureaucracy: The Bureaucracy Speaks. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 8 (1): 39-65 Week 3 The Power of the Executive to Influence Policy 2/11 Aberbach, Joel D., and Bert A. Rockman. 1976. "Clashing Beliefs within the Executive Branch." The American Political Science Review 70: 456-467
Aberbach, Joel D. and Bert A. Rockman. 1995. The Political View of U. S. Senior Federal Executives, 1970-1992. Journal of Politics 57: 838-852 Cole Richard L., and David A. Caputo. 1979. Presidential Control of the Senior Civil Service: Assessing Strategies for the Nixon Years. American Political Science Review 73: 399-413 Moe, Terry M. and Scott A. Wilson. 1994. Presidents and the Politics of Structure. Law and Contemporary Problems 57: 1-44 Eshbaugh-Soha, Matthew and Jeffrey Peake. 2005. "Presidents and the Economic Agenda" Political Research Quarterly 58 (1) Week 4 Policy Process Change and Participation Who Gets to Play 2/18 Lowi, Theodore. 1969. The End of Liberalism. New York: W.W. Norton Chapter 3 (posted on Blackboard) Piven, Frances Fox and Richard Cloward. 1977. Poor People s Movements. Pantheon Books, New York. Chapter 1 (posted on Blackboard) Stone, Diane. 2008. Global Public Policy, Transnational Policy Communities, and Their Networks. The Policy Studies Journal 36 (1) Sabatier CHAPTER 5 Week 5 Public Opinion, Parties and Development of Policy 2/25 Brown, Robert. 1995. Party Cleavages and Welfare Effort in the American States. American Political Science Review March. Radcliff, Benjamin and Saiz, Martin. 1998. Labor Organizations and Public Policy in the American States. Journal of Politics 60 Februrary: 113-125 Hays, Alan R. 2001. Who Speaks for the Poor. Routledge. New York & London. Chapter 3 (posted on Blackboard) Sabatier CHAPTER 7
Week 6 Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations 3/4 Wood, Dan B. 1991. Federalism and Policy Responsiveness: The Clean Air Act. Journal of Politics 53 August: 851-859 Rodden, Jonathan. 2002. The Dilemma of Fiscal Federalism: Grants and Fiscal Performance Around the World. American Journal of Political Science 46 July: 670 687 Scholz, John and Wei, Geng Heng. 1986. Regulatory Enforcement in a Federal System. American Political Science Review 80 December: 1249-1270 Allard, Scott and Danziger, Sheldon. 2000. Welfare Magnets: Myth or Reality. The Journal of Politics 62 May: 350 368 Week 7 The Policy Process of Providing Public Goods 3/18 (No posts on 3/11 in observation of Spring Break) Kotchen, Michael. (2012). Public Goods definition prepared for the Yale University s Environment 360 Initiative (uploaded on Blackboard) Teske, Paul, Schneider, Mark, Minstrom, Michael and Best, Samuel. 1993. Establishing the Micro Foundations of a Macro Theory: Information, Movers and the Competitive Local Market for Public Goods. American Political Science Review 87 September: 702 713 Lowery, David and Lyons, William E. 1989. The Impact of Jurisdictional Boundaries: An Individual Level Test of the Tiebout Model. Journal of Politics February Dietz, Thomas, Ostrom, Elinor and Stern, Paul. 2003. The Struggle to Govern the Commons, Science 302 (5652) December12: 1907 1912 Habyarimana, James, et al. (2007). " Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision?" American Political Science Review 101 (04): 709-725. Week 8 Measuring Policy Change Frameworks 3/25 Baumgartner, Frank and Jones, Bryan. 1991. Agenda Dynamics and Policy Subsystems. The Journal of Politics 53 (4): 1044 1074 Ostrom, Elinor. 1991. Rational Choice Theory and Institutional Analysis: Toward Complementarity. American Political Science Review 85 (1)
Sabatier, Paul. 1988. An Advocacy Coalition Framework of Policy Change and the Role of Policy-Oriented Learning Therein. Policy Science 21 Numbers 2-3: 129-168 Sabatier CHAPTER 8 Week 9 Theories 4/8 (No posts on 4/1 in observation of Easter Weekend) John, Peter. 2003. Is there Life After Policy Streams, Advocacy Coalitions and Punctuations: Using Evolutionary Theory to Explain Policy Chance. Policy Studies Journal 31 (4) November: 481 498 Sabatier, Paul. 1991. Toward Better Theories of the Policy Process. Political Science and Politics 24 (2) June: 147-156 Sabatier, CHAPTER 10 Week 10 Models 4/15 Conybeare, John A. 1984. Bureaucracy, Monopoly, and Competition: A Critical Analysis of the Budget Maximizing Model of Bureaucracy. American Journal of Political Science. 28: 479-502 Jordan, Grant A. 1981. Iron Triangles, Woolly Corporatism, and Elastic Nets: Images of the Policy Process. Journal of Public Policy 1: 95 123 Travis, Rick and Zahariadis, Nikolaos. 2002. A Multiple Streams Model of U.S. Foreign Aid Policy. Policy Studies Journal 30 (4) November: 495 514 Waterman, Richard W. and Kenneth J. Meier. 1998. "Principal-Agent Models: An Expansion?" Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 8 April: 173-202. Week 11 Policy Outcomes 4/22 Balla, Steven J. and John R. Wright. 2001. Interest Groups, Advisory Committees, and Congressional Control of the Bureaucracy. American Journal of Political Science. 45: 799-812 Huber, John and Charles R. Shipan. 2000. The Costs of Control: Legislators, Agencies, and Transaction Costs. Legislative Studies Quarterly 25: 25-52
Wellner, Jennifer. 2008. Legitimacy and Public Policy: Seeing Beyond Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Performance. The Policy Studies Journal 36 (3) Week 12 Evaluating Outcomes 4/29 Berry and Berry. 1990. State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations: An Event History Analysis. American Political Science Review June Moe, Terry M. 1985. Control and Feedback in Economic Regulation: The Case of the NLRB. American Political Science Review. 85: 1094-1116 Rinquist, Evan J. 1993. Does Regulation Matter: Evaluating the Effects of State Air Pollution Control Programs. Journal of Politics November Romzek, Barbara and Dubnick, Melvin. 1987. Accountability in the Public Sector: Lessons from the Challenger Tragedy. Public Administration Review May/June Weeks 13 and 14: LEGISLATIVE MEMO and FINAL EXAM You can submit your Legislative Memo at any time during the semester, the official deadline is 5/3 the official beginning of Exam Week On 5/3, I will e-mail you the FINAL EXAM. You have a week to complete it. Please e-mail it to me no later than 5/10. Legislative Memo: You should choose a particular piece of legislation that is in committee. On Thomas.gov the official website of the US Congress identify a piece of legislation that is closely aligned with your professional subject area. Prepare a 5 to 10 page memo explaining: The scope of the legislation Its sponsor Its target constituency The change of policy that it is proposing The reasons for the proposed change Your professional assessment of its merits Likelihood of it being signed into law The memo should demonstrate that you understand the nuances of the legislative process. Additional sources may be used. Sequence of Assignments:
Two weekly blackboard posts are required. Every Sunday, by midnight (dates are in the syllabus), students should have posted a summary of the assigned readings. Write-up requirements are below. Every following Tuesday, by midnight, students should have posted a response to two of their classmates posts from Sunday. The point of the response post is to develop a collaborative atmosphere of idea exchange. Posts should be analytical and contributive, as well as professional and constructive. I am not looking for a critical nit-picking nor a congratulatory accolade. Always agreeing with everything your classmates write is not constructive. Nor is disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing. An intelligent response post should add to a point by either identifying a weakness in the argument, and if so, providing the bases for alternative reasoning, or by offering extra evidence to strengthen an already valid and logical point. Including and correctly citing additional sources to back up your assessments would be most helpful and will be positively reflected in your grade. You will receive a weekly grade that is a composite of BOTH your posts. The maximum points given are 5. Write-up Requirements: Please complete the reading assignments and prepare a brief summary of the major ideas discussed. For journal articles, make sure you identify: 1 - the research question or issue analyzed; 2 - the data set used in the methodology (IF APPLICABLE) 3 - the conclusion and contribution of the work. For multiple readings, please include the title and author for each summary. Only one post is required, but within it several headings, depending on the number of readings assigned, will be necessary. All write-ups should be brief, clear and analytical. Length is unimportant, style and content are. Basis for Assigning the Course Grade: Completing the write-ups on time will be 5% of your final grade. Discussion participation and alacrity will also count for 5% of your grade. In short, 10% of your grade depends on meeting a deadline and participating in class. Each week you will be assigned a grade on your writeups. The cumulative average of those 12 grades will count for 50% of your overall grade. Actual grades on write-ups will reflect your weekly progress. That way you can track your performance weekly. The legislative memo will count for the last 15% of your final grade. The final exam will account for the last 25% of your grade. Other Resources
Attendance Policy I have no official attendance policy. In graduate school it is up to you to maximize your investment. However, your diligence and alacrity will be duly noted. Incomplete Policy According to the university catalogue, an incomplete may be given only in exceptional circumstances at the instructor's discretion. The student must be passing at the time of the request or be sufficiently close to passing. If the work is not completed within one year of the recording of the incomplete grade, the grade will become an F(I). The incomplete policy for this course is that at least 70% of the course must be already completed and an exceptional circumstance (i.e. medical issue) must exist. If you feel you require an incomplete for an exceptional reason, you need to email me and state your reasons for the incomplete in writing. We will then decide on a course of action. http://www.umassd.edu/nfi/teachingandadvising/coursesyllabus/sampleincompletestatem ent/ Student Academic Integrity Policy All UMass Dartmouth students are expected to maintain high standards of academic integrity and scholarly practice. The University does not tolerate academic dishonesty of any variety, whether as a result of a failure to understand required academic and scholarly procedure or as an act of intentional dishonesty. A student found responsible of academic dishonesty is subject to severe disciplinary action which may include dismissal from the University. The procedure for responding to incidents of academic dishonesty may be found in Section III of this document. You may also refer to the Student Handbook for information about the judicial process. A high standard of academic integrity promotes the pursuit of truth and learning and respect for the intellectual accomplishments of others. These are values that are fundamental to the mission of this University. Such values are undermined by academic dishonesty. Academic freedom is a fundamental right in any institution of higher learning. Honesty and integrity are necessary preconditions of this freedom. Academic integrity requires that all academic work be wholly the product of an identified individual or individuals. Joint efforts are legitimate only when the assistance of others is explicitly acknowledged and deemed appropriate by the instructor of the course. Ethical conduct is the obligation of every member of the University community, and breaches of academic integrity constitute serious offenses. Maintenance of the standards of academic integrity and the successful administration of this policy depend on the mutual cooperation of faculty and students. Faculty cooperation is essential for successful application of the procedures defined by this Academic Integrity Policy. Faculty members promote academic integrity by making clear on their syllabi their expectations concerning homework
assignments, collaborative student efforts, research papers, examinations, computer-based infractions, and the like. Efforts should be made to detect and to prevent cheating and plagiarism in all academic assignments. If faculty members have evidence of academic dishonesty, they are expected to report such evidence promptly. Students must assume responsibility for maintaining honesty in all work submitted for credit and in any other work designated by the instructor of the course. Students are also expected to report incidents of academic dishonesty to the instructor or dean of the instructional unit. The intent of this policy is to make clear the standards of academic integrity at UMass Dartmouth. *For additional information on violations, infractions, and consequences visit the UMass Dartmouth Student Academic Integrity Policy at the link below. http://www.umassd.edu/studentaffairs/studenthandbookintroduction/studentconductpolici es/academicintegritypolicy/ Center for Access and Success In accordance with University policy, if you have a documented disability and require accommodations to obtain equal access in this course, please meet with the instructor at the beginning of the semester and provide the appropriate paperwork from the Center for Access and Success. The necessary paperwork is obtained when you bring proper documentation to the Center, which is located in Liberal Arts, Room 016; phone: 508.999.8711. http://www.umassd.edu/dss/ Resources Tutoring If you are having difficulty with the class please: Post a message on the Discussion Board be sure to use your classmates for troubleshooting and problem solving. Make an appointment to come in and meet with me during my office hours. Contact the Academic Resource Center (ARC) for support: Academic Resource Center, Liberal Arts Room7 Phone: 508.999.8708, Fax: 508.910.6404 Technical Help If you are in need of technical assistance the IT Service Desk is available to students. Claire T. Carney Library, lower level 508.999.8884 (x8884) or Email Sunday: 12:00pm-2am Monday thru Thursday: 7:30am-2am Friday: 7:30am- 11pm Saturday: 9:30am-1pm Students living in the Residence Halls may also contact the Residential Technology (ResTech) Support Center: Visit ResTech in Elmwood Hall, lower level
Call the ResTech Help Line at 508.999.8040 (x8040)