P.S. 741, Winter, 1997



Politics and Public Policy

PSc 8229 Prof. H. Wolman

Fall, 2011 615 MPA Building

Wednesdays 6:10-8:00 PM. Phone: 202-994-5713

Room: Duques-Business School 361 Email: hwolman@gwu.edu

August 29, 2011

Course Description: This Ph.D. level course explores the processes and institutions through which public policy is made and implemented in the United States, although the basic concepts in the course are applicable to other political systems as well. It is concerned with patterns across policy areas rather than with intensive analyses of specific policies. The course is designed to give students an understanding of the main theories and conceptual frameworks related to explaining the way in which political systems produce public policy and familiarity with the theoretical and empirical literature on that topic. Substantively, it is concerned with the interests of various stakeholders and groups involved in the policy process, the institutional and legal structure of the American political system and the way in which these shape political behavior, the motivations of policymakers and other participants in the policy process, the mechanisms through which “principals” in the policy making process (voters, legislators, bureaucrats) attempt to control their “agents” (elected officials, bureaucrats, street-level bureaucrats), the role of rationality and of policy analysis in the politics of policy making, and the processes through which policy decisions are made.

Course Materials:

Required Books

Substantial reading has been assigned in the following books which may be purchased at the University book store

1. Anderson, James, Public Policymaking, Houghton Mifflin, most recent edition (not required for those with substantial political science background in American Politics).

2. McCool, Daniel (ed.), Public Policy Theories, Models and Concepts: An Anthology, Prentice Hall, 1995.

3. Sabatier, Paul, Theories of the Policy Process (2nd ed.), Westview Press, 2007.

4. Kingdon, John, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, Harper Collins, 2nd edition, 1995.

Additional Materials: Other required reading can be accessed through Blackboard. (Readings with an * are required only for those without previous courses in American Politics/Government.) Supplementary reading is not required reading, except for the student for whom it is assigned for each session. Some supplementary reading is available on Blackboard, but most is not. Students responsible for supplementary reading must obtain it from the library, inter-library loan, or the internet (for journal articles, if available).

Requirements:

The course is designed as a seminar. Each student is expected to read the required materials, attend class, and constructively participate in seminar discussion. The success of the seminar depends critically on the engaged and thoughtful participation of the class members, and such participation will constitute a portion of the class grade. Each student will write a 3-4 page single-spaced “reaction paper” and lead a discussion on that paper. Each student will also act as a discussant on a reaction paper twice. Assignments for these papers will be made at the second class session.

The “reaction papers” will be based on both the required readings, and supplementary readings for a session, and should respond to some or all of the questions listed under the topic heading and covered by the readings. While the papers should describe the main ideas being presented, they should not be annotative bibliographies that summarize what each author presents; they should be organized around ideas and as much as possible relate to theoretical and/or conceptual concerns, not simply description. The “reaction papers” prepared by students who are assigned them are required reading for the entire class and must be sent to class members (and me) via Blackboard by the Monday evening prior to the class at the latest. The student who prepares the “reaction paper” will serve as discussion leader for the class session and will lead the class in consideration of the question. One or two other students will be asked to serve as “respondents” or “discussants” to comment on, critique, and react to the reaction paper. All class members will be expected to participate in the ensuing discussion.

Each student will also write a paper of 20-30 pages that will consist of one of the following:

• an integrative essay that will survey the literature on a topic of your choosing related to politics and public policy.

• a research proposal consisting of a design for a study of a research question of interest you and which would advance our understanding of the topic.

• a research paper reporting on research you have conducted.

In all cases you should submit a proposal to me (no longer than one page in length) by the beginning of the third class session at the latest, setting forth the option you wish to choose and the topic it will be on. The completed paper will be due the last day of class.

Learning Objectives:

As a result of completing this course, students will:

1. Have a substantive understanding of the processes and institutions through which public policy is made and implemented in the United States,

2. Have a familiarity with the major theories, conceptual frameworks, and methods that have been used to study the politics of public policy;

3. Be able to apply these theories, conceptual frameworks, and methods to understand and explain how political systems produce and implement public policy

4. Be able to produce a research design and carry out research on important topics in how political systems produce and implement public policy.

Grading:

Reaction Paper 30%

Discussant Role 15%

Class Participation 10%

Class Paper 45%

Other:

CLASS POLICIES

University Policy on Religious Holidays:

1. Students should notify faculty during the first week of the semester of their intention to be absent from class on their day(s) of religious observance;

2. Faculty should extend to these students the courtesy of absence without penalty on such occasions, including permission to make up examinations;

3. Faculty who intend to observe a religious holiday should arrange at the beginning of the semester to reschedule missed classes or to make other provisions for their course-related activities

[NOTE: for other university policies on teaching, see ]

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

I personally support the GW Code of Academic Integrity. It states:: “Academic dishonesty is defined as cheating of any kind, including misrepresenting one's own work, taking credit for the work of others without crediting them and without appropriate authorization, and the fabrication of information.” For the remainder of the code, see:

SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES (DSS)

Any student who may need an accommodation based on the potential impact of a disability should contact the Disability Support Services office at 202-994-8250 in the Marvin Center, Suite 242, to establish eligibility and to coordinate reasonable accommodations. For additional information please refer to:

UNIVERSITY COUNSELING CENTER (UCC)  202-994-5300

The University Counseling Center (UCC) offers 24/7 assistance and referral to address students' personal, social, career, and study skills problems. Services for students include:

- crisis and emergency mental health consultations

- confidential assessment, counseling services (individual and small group), and referrals



SECURITY

In the case of an emergency, if at all possible, the class should shelter in place. If the building that the class is in is affected, follow the evacuation procedures for the building. After evacuation, seek shelter at a predetermined rendezvous location.

1. Introduction to Course

Topics: Defining terms and clarifying concepts: government, political system, politics, public policy, and policy analysis. How do political scientists think about and study public policy? What do Americans think about government?

2. Government, Politics, and Public Policy

Topics: Public policy models, frameworks, and theories. American government and the public: Do people trust government? Why or why not and does it matter? What do Americans expect from government?

Required Readings

McCool, “The Theoretical Foundations of Policy Studies,” in McCool, pp. 1-21.

Nye, Zelikov and King, Why People Don’t Trust government, Harvard University Press, 1997, Introduction, Ch. 8 and Conclusion.

Hibbing and Theiss-Morris, “Process Preference and American Politics: What People Want Government to Be,” American Political Science Review, March, 2001, pp. 145-153.

Dalton, Russell, Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies, ch. 1

Supplementary Reading

Dalton, Russell, Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies (entire)

3. Types of Public Policy

Topics: Why is it important to classify public policy and what do we learn from the effort? What are the different kinds of public policy? In what ways does the type of policy determine the characteristics of the politics associated with it? What existing public policy typology is the most convincing and what are its strengths and shortcomings

Required Readings

*Anderson, pp. 9-17.

Lowi, Theodore, "American Business, Public Policy, Case-Studies, and Political Theory," in McCool, pp. 176-181.

Greenberg, et. al.,"Developing Public Policy Theory: Perspectives from Empirical Research," in McCool, pp. 201-220.

Wilson, James Q., Political Organizations, pp. 327-336.

Ingram, Helen; Schneider, Anne; and deLeon, Peter, “Social Construction and Policy Design,” in Sabatier (ed.), ch. 4.

Ripley and Franklin, Congress, the Bureaucracy, and Public Policy, pp. 72-82, 103-107, 121-150.

Supplementary Reading

Steinberger, Peter, "Typologies of Public Policy: Meaning, Construction and the Policy Process," in McCool, pp. 220-232

Spitzer, Robert, “Promoting Policy Theory: Revising the Arenas of Power,” in McCool, pp. 233-244.

Kellow, “Promoting Elegance in Policy Theory,” Policy Studies Journal, Summer, 1988, pp. 713-724.

Hayes, Michael, “Policy Characteristics, Patterns of Politics and the Minimum Wage: Toward a Typology of Redistributive Policies,” Policy Studies Journal, Aug., 2007, pp. 465-478.

Schneider, Anne and Ingram, Helen, “Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy,” American Political Science Review, 87 (June, 1993), pp. 334-347.

Gormley, William, “Regulatory Issue Networks in a Federal System,’ Polity, Summer, 1986.

4a. Decision Making and Rationality.

Topics: What are the cognitive processes through which policymakers (and individuals) make decisions about policy? Are these processes “rational,” and, if so, in what sense? If they are not “rational,” what are they and should we be concerned? How do decision-makers cope with uncertainty and what are the implications for rationality?

Required Reading

Lindblom, Charles, “The Science of Muddling Through,” in McCool, pp. 132-156.

.

Jones, Bryan, “Bounded Rationality,” Annual Review of Political Science 2: 297-321.

Tversky, Amos and Kahneman, “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases,” in Daniel Hahneman, Paul Slovic, and Amos Tversky (eds.), Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Cambridge University Press, 1982.

4b Motivations and Incentives for political action and public policymaking.

Topics: What motivates political actors to behave as they do? What is the “rational choice” approach? Do political actors and public policy makers attempt to maximize their own self-interest? Do they pursue the “public interest?” Does assuming that they pursue their own self-interest, as the rational choice approach does, help us to better understand public policy decisions? What are the incentives that face political actors? Can incentives be structured so that the self-interest of policy makers and the public interest co-incide?

Required Reading

Green, Donald and Shapiro, Ian, Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science, pp. chs. 2-3.

Jones, Bryan, Reconceiving Decision-Making in American Politics, ch. 2.

Kellman, Stephen, “Public Choice and Public Spirit,” The Public Interest, Spring, 1987, pp. 80-94.

Brennan, Geoffrey and Buchanan, James, “Is Public Choice Immoral? The Case for the ‘Nobel’ Lie,” Virginia Law Review, March, 1988, pp. 179-189.

Miller, Gary. 2005. “The Political Evolution of Principal-Agent Models,” Annual Review of Political Science 8: 203-225

Supplemenatry Reading

Braybrooke, David and Lindblom, Charles, A Strategy of Decision, The Free Press, 1963, chs. 3, 5.

Simon, Herbert, “Human Nature in Politics: The Dialogue of Psychology with Political Science,” APSR, Vol. 79, pp. 293-304.

Friedman, Jeffrey (ed.), The Rational Choice Controversy, pp. 85-106, 213-221.

Gerber, Elisabeth and Jackson, John, “Endogenous Preferences and the Study of Institutions, APSR, Vol. 87 (3) 639-656.

Burden, Barry, “Everything but Death and Taxes: Uncertainty and American Politics,” in Barry Burden (ed.), Uncertainty in American Politics.

5. Institutions and the Structuring of Policy Making in the United States

Topics: What are the important features of institutional structure that characterize the U.S. political system? What kinds of incentives do these institutions provide as motivations for policy makers and how do they structure policy making? In what ways does U.S. institutional structure differ from that of other countries? How do institutions affect public policy?

Required Reading

Rhodes, Binder, and Rockman, The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions, preface.

March and Olsen, “Elaborating the “New Institutionalism,” in Rhodes, Binder, and Rockman, The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions.

Weaver and Rockman, “Assessing the Effect of Institutions,” in Weaver and

Rockman, Do Institutions Matter, pp. 1-41, The Brookings Institution, 1993.

Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy, pp. 1-20, 31-41, 48-61, 243-257.

Ostrom, Elinor, “Institutional Rational Choice,” in Sabatier (ed.), ch. 2.

Thelen, Kathleen and Steinmo, Sven, Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in comparative Politics, pp. 1-10.

Supplementary Reading

Lane, Jan-Eric, The Public Sector: Concepts, Models and Approaches, Sage Publications, ch. 10.

Cox and McCubbins, “The Institutional Determinants of Economic Policy Outcomes,” ch. 2 in Haggard and McCubbins (eds.), Presidents, Parliaments and Policy, Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Moe, Terry. 1984. “The New Economics of Organization.” American Journal of Political Science, 28:739-777.

Shepsle, “Studying Institutions: Some Lessons from the Public Choice Approach,” Journal of Theoretical Politics, Vol. 1 (2), 1989.

6-8 A. National Institutions and Public Policy

Topics (these apply to each of the subtopics below): Who are the actors in the various institutions, what are their characteristics, and how do they get there? What are their motivations and incentives for behavior? What are the resources available to them to affect policy? How do principal-agent relations within and between institutions help to explain institutional behavior? How do the various institutions of U.S. government affect public policy?

Required Readings.

*Anderson, pp. 46-67, 147-150, 211-227. .

Congress

Subtopics: How does the structure of Congress affect the policy making process and policy outcomes? What are the motivations and incentives driving congressional behavior? In what ways does legislative organization affect policies and outcomes? To what extent and how do “voters” control congressional behavior and public policy?

Required Readings

Mayhew, David, Congress: the Electoral Connection, Yale University Press, 1975, pp. 13-20, 36-73.

Arnold, The Logic of Congressional Action, ch. 1, “Explaining Congressional Action,” Yale University Press, 1990.

Krehbiel, Information and Legislative Organization, pp. 15-39.

Weaver, R. Kent, “The Politics of Blame Avoidance,” in Journal of Public Policy, 6 (Oct.-Nov., 1986), pp. 43-70.

Lee, Frances, “Geographic Politics in the US House of Representatives,” American Journal of Political Science, Oct., 2003.

Supplementary Reading

Ansolabehere and Jones, “Constituents’ Responses to Congressional Roll-Call Voting,” AJPS, July, 2010.

Sinclair, Barbara, Unorthodox Lawmaking, CQ Press, ch. 6.

Maltzman, Forrest, Competing Principals: Committees, Parties, and the Organization of Congress, Ch. 2

McCubbins and Schwartz, “Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police Patrols Versus Fire Alarms,” American Journal of Political Science, Feb., 1984, pp.165-179.

Weingast and Marshall, “The Industrial Organization of Congress; or, Why Legislatures, Like Firms, Are Not Organized asd Markets,” Journal of Political Economy, Feb., 1988, Vol. 96 (1), pp.132-163.

B. The Executive Branch: The Presidency and The Bureaucracy.

The Presidency.

Subtopics: How does policy making occur within the institutionalized presidency? What are the motivations and incentives for presidential policy making? To what extent and through what means can the President affect public policy? Does the President lead public opinion or does he follow?

Required Readings

Neustadt , Richard E., Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan, ch. 3

Canes-Wrone, Brandice. 2001. “The President’s Legislative Influence from Public Appeals,” American Journal of Political Science 45: 313-329.

Moe, Terry, and William Howell. 1999. “The Presidential Power of Unilateral Action,” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 15: 132-179.

Supplementary Reading

Cohen, Jeffrey, Presidential Responsiveness and Public Policy Making, ch. 1-3, 9.

Krause, George and Cohen, Jeffrey, “Opportunity, Constraints, and the Development of the Institutional Presidency: The Issuance of Executive Orders, 1939-96, Journal of Politics, Feb., 2000, pp. 88-114.

Moe, Terry, “Presidents, Institutions, and Theory,” in George Edwards et al. (eds.), Researching the Presidency.

Canes-Wrone, Who Leads Whom?: Presidents, Policies, and the Public. Chs. 1, 7, 8.

The Bureaucracy.

Subtopics: What are the motivations and incentives for bureaucratic behavior? What resources do bureaucrats and bureaus have in the political contest? What are the strategies by which politicians attempt to control bureaucrats and through which bureaucrats try to avoid political control?

Required Reading

Dunleavy, Patrick, Democracy, Bureaucracy and Public Choice, Prentice-Hall, 1992, ch. 6, “Existing Public Choice Models of Bureaucracy.”

Wilson, James Q., Bureaucracy, chs. 5, 9

Weingast, “Caught in the Middle: The President, Congress, and the Political-Bureaucratic System,” in Aberbach and Peterson (eds.), The Executive Branch, ch. 10.

Wood, Dan and Waterman, Richard, Bureaucratic Dynamics, ch. 6.

Supplementary Reading

McCubbins, Noll, and Weingast, “Administrative Procedures as Instruments of Political Control,” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Fall, 1987, v. 3, no. 2.

Moe, Terry. 1990. “Political Institutions: The Neglected Side of the Story,” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 6: 213-253.

Huber and Shipan, Deliberate Discretion: The Institutional Foundations of Bureaucratic Autonomy, Cambridge University Press, ch. 6.

Stoker and Wilson, “Verifying Compliance: Social Regulation and Welfare Reform,” Public Administration Review, 1998m Vol. 58 (5)

C. Producing Policy Across Institutions: Is the Result Effective Public Policy or Gridlock?

Topics: How do institutional incentives and motivations mesh across institutions? Does the American system produce political stalemate and policy gridlock? If so, what are the mechanisms through which it does so, and under what conditions can stalemate and gridlock be overcome? If not, why does so much of the popular literature presume that it does?

Required Reading

Thurber, “An Introduction to Presidential-Congressional rivalry,” pp. 1-13, in James Thurber (ed.), Rivals for Power, Congressional Quarterly Press, 1996.

Bond et al., “An Overview of Empirical Findings on Presidential-Congressional Relations, in James Thurber (ed.), Rivals for Power, ch. 6.

Mayhew, David, Divided We Govern, ch. 1, 3, 4.

Binder, Sarah, “Dynamics of Legislative Gridlock,” American Political Science Review, September, 1999.

Supplementary Reading

Howell, William et al., “Divided government and the Legislative Productivity of Congress, 1945-1994,” Legislative Studies Quarterly, May, 2000.

Coleman, “Unified Government, Divided Government, and Party Responsiveness,” American Political Science Review, December, 1999.

Mezey, Michael, Congress, the President and Public Policy, Westview Press, 1989, pp. 109-133.

9. The External Environment of Policy Making

Interest Groups

Topics: Why is it difficult for interests to organize into groups? Why and how do some do so anyway? What resources do interest groups bring to bear on the political process, and how does this vary by type of interest group? How do interest groups attempt to influence public policy? How successful are they?

Required Reading

Truman, David, “Interest Groups and the Nature of the State,” in McCool, pp. 32-41.

Olson, Mancur, The Logic of Collective Action, pp. 1-21, 33-65, 117-131.

Ostrom, Eleanor, “Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, v. 14, no. 3, pp. 137-158.

Loomis and Cigler, “The Changing Nature of Interest Group Politics,” in Cigler and Loomis (eds.), Interest Group Politics, Congressional Quarterly Press, 1998, fifth edition.

Leech, Beth and Baumgartner, Frank, “Lobbying Friends and Foe in Washington,” in Cigler and Loomis (eds.), Interest Group Politics, 5th edition.

Golden, “Interest Groups in the Rule-Making Process: Who Participates: Whose Voice Gets Heard?” Journal of Public Administration, Research, and Theory, 1998, Vol. 8 (2), pp. 245-270.

Supplementary Reading

Ostrom, E., Governing the Commons, chs. 1, 2

Wright, Jack, Interest Groups and Congress, chs. 1, 6.

Austen-Smith and Wright, “Counter-Active Lobbying,” AJPS, 1994, Vol. 38 (1), pp. 25-44.

Stone, Clarence, “Systematic Power in Community Decision Making,” American Political Science Review, Dec., 1980.

A. Public Opinion, Parties, and Citizen Participation.

Topics: What role does public opinion play in policy making? Is public policy responsive to public opinion or does it shape public opinion? How does policy feedback affect public opinion?

Required Reading

*Anderson, pp. 133-135.

Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, pp. 6-53, 310-332.

Jacobs, Lawrence, and Shapiro, Robert, Politicians Don’t Pander, chs. 1,2.

Canes-Wrone and Shotts, “The Conditional Nature of Presidential Responsiveness to Public Opinion, AJPS, 2004, Vol. 48 (4), pp. 690-706.

Pierson, Paul, “When Effect Becomes Cause: Policy Feedback and Political Change,” World Politics, 1993, Vol. 45 (July), pp. 595-628.

Soss, Joe and Schram, Sanford, “A Public Transformed: Welfare Reform as Policy Feedback,” APSR, Feb., 2007.

.

Supplementary Reading

.

Cohen, Jeffrey, Presidential Responsiveness and Policy-Making, ch. 4, 5.

Manza and Cook, “The Impact of Public Opinion on Public Policy: The State of the Debate,” in Manza et al., Navigating Public Opinion, pp. 17-32

Manza et al., Navigating Public Opinion, chs. 2-4.

Soss, Joe, “Lessons of Welfare: Policy Design, Political Learning, and Political Action,” American Political Science Review, June, 1999

10. The Policy Cycle

A. Stages of the Policy Process

Required Reading

Ripley, Randall, "Stages of the Policy Processes," in McCool, pp.157-162.

B. Problem Definition, Framing, and Agenda Setting

Topics: How do “problems” and “issues” get defined and framed? How do issues reach the policy agenda? What determines whether issues on the policy agenda get acted upon? How does the Policy Agenda Change?

Required Reading

*Anderson, pp 82-103.

Kingdon, chs. 1, 4-10..

Baumgartner, Frank and Jones, Bryan, Agendas and Instability in American Politics, ch. 1-2.

Schattschneider, E. E., The Semi-sovereign People, Bolt, Rinehart, Winston, 1960, ch. 1

Supplementary Reading

Cobb, Roger and Elder, Charles, "Issues and Agendas," in Theodoulou and Cahn, Public Policy: The Essential Readings, pp. 96-104, Prentice Hall, 1995.

Jacoby, “ Issue Framing and Public Opinion on Government Spending,” AJPS, Oct., 2000.

Bachrach and Baratz, “Decisions and Nondecisions: an Analytical Framework,” APSR, 1963 Vol. 57 (3), pp. 632-642.

Robinson and Eller, “Participation in Policy Streams: Testing the Separation of Problems and Solutions in Subnational Policy Systems,” Policy Studies Journal, Vol. 38 (2), May, 2010, pp. 199-216.

C. Policy Formulation

Topics: Where do policy ideas come from? How are policy proposals formulated? What is the “policy stage approach?” What is the “multiple streams approach?” What are there strengths and shortcomings?

Required Reading

*Anderson, pp. 103-116.

Zahariadis, Nicholas, “The Multiple Streams Framework: Structure, Limitations, Prospects,” In Paul Sabatier (ed), ch. 3..

D. Policy Adoption

Topics: How do policy proposals get adopted: decision criteria in a political context.

Required Reading

*Anderson, pp. 127-156.

Lindblom, Charles, The Policy-Making Process (first edition), Prentice Hall, 1968, ch. 10-11.

E. Implementation

Topics: To what extent is – and should - implementation be considered in the policy design process? How can policy makers insure that policies are carried out to meet their objectives? How can appointed officials control bureaucratic behavior at the point of contact?

Required Reading

Pressman, Jeffrey and Wildavsky, Aaron, Implementation, pp. 87-110, 133-146

Supplementary Reading.

.

Lipsky, “Street-Level Bureaucrats as Policy Makers,” pp. 121-130.

Elmore, Richard, "Backward Mapping: Implementation Research and Policy Decisions," Political Science Quarterly, 94 (Winter, 1979-80), pp. 601- 616.

Huber, John and Shipan, Charles, “The Costs of Control: Legislators, Agencies, and Transaction Costs,” Legislative Studies Quarterly, 2000, Vol. XXV: pp. 25-52.

11. Patterns of Policymaking

Topics: What kinds of patterns characterize the policy process? Is policy making a closed process dominated by a small number of self-interested groups or is it open and democratic?

Required Reading.

*Anderson, pp. 67-74.

Freeman, J. Lieper, “The Subsystem in Perspective,” in McCool, pp. 256-261.

Heclo, Hugh, “Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment,” in McCool, pp. 262-287.

Adam, Silke and Kriesi, Hanspeter, “The Network Approach,“ in Paul Sabatier (ed), ch. 5.

McCool, “The Scope of Participation in Public Policy Making: Introduction,” in McCool, pp. 28-31.

McCool, “Discussion,” in McCool, pp. 96-103

Dahl, Robert, Pluralist Democracy in the United States, Rand McNally, 1967, pp. 22-24.

Putnam, Robert, “Introduction: The Comparative Study of Political Elites,” in McCool, pp. 63-79.

Walker, Jack, “A Critique of the Elitist Theory of Democracy,” in McCool, pp. 80-96.

Supplementary Reading

Ripley and Franklin, Congress, Bureaucracy and Public Policy, pp. 27-32, Brooks/Cole Publishing, 1991.

Thurber, James, “Dynamics of Policy Subsystems in American Politics,” in A. Cigler and B. Loomis (eds.), Interest Group Politics, 3rd ed., 1991., pp. 319-343.

Domhoff, William, “Who Rules America Now?” in Sheila Theodoulou and Matthew Cahn (eds.), Public policy: The Essential Readings, Prentice Hall, 1995,pp.393-402.

Cobb, Roger and Elder, Charles, "The Politics of Agenda Building: An Alternative Perspective for Modern Democratic Theory," Journal of Politics, 33 (Nov., 1971), pp. 892-915.

Verba, Sidney et al., “Citizen Activity: Who Participates and What Do They Say?” American Political Science Review, June, 1993.

Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, pp. 310-332.

12. Policy Change and Policy Theory.

Topics: How does policy change occur? Which theories best explain policy change?

Required Reading

Shulman, Paul, “Non-Incremental Policy-Making,” in Sheila Theodoulou and Matthew Kahn (eds.), Public Policy: The Essential Readings, pp. 128-137.

Sabatier, Paul, “The Advocacy Coalition Framework: Innovations and Clarifications,” in Sabatier (ed.), ch. 7.

Jones, Bryan, Reconceiving Decision-Making in Democratic Politics, University of Chicago Press, 1994, pp. 7-28.

Baumgartner, Frank, et al., Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why?, University of Chicago Press, 2009, chs. 1, 11, 12.

Supplementary Reading

Jean, Yongjoo and Haider-Markel, Donald, “Tracing Issue Definition and Policy Change,” Policy Studies Journal, v. 29, no. 2, 2001.

Sabatier, Paul, “An Advocacy Coalition Framework of Policy Change and the Role of Policy-Oriented Learning Therein,” in McCool, pp. 339-379.

True, James et al., “Punctuated Equilibrium Theory: Explaining Stability and Change in American Policymaking,” in Sabatier, ch. 6.

Patashnik, Eric, Reforms at Risk: What Happens After Major Policy Changes Are Enacted, Princeton University Press, 2008, chs. 2, 9.

Berry, Burden, and Howell, “After Enactment: The Lives and Deaths of Federal Programs,” AJPS, 2010, Vol. 54 (1), pp. 1-17.

13. Policy Innovation, Diffusion, and Transfer

Topics: How do governments innovate, and how do innovations diffuse across governments (state or national)? What determines whether policy innovations diffuse and the order in which they do so? To what extent does policy innovation occur through conscious copying of policies or programs of other governments?

Required Reading

Walker, Jack, “The Diffusion of Innovation Among American States,” American Political Science Review, vol. 63, 1969, pp. 880-899.

Berry, Frances and Berry, William, “Innovation and Diffusion Models in Policy Research,” in Sabatier (ed.), ch. 8.

.

Supplementary Reading.

Mintrom, Michael, “Policy Entrpreneurs and the Diffusion of Innovation,” American Journal of Political Science,” July, 1997, pp. 738-770.

Wolman, Harold and Page, Edward, “Policy Transfer Among Local Governments: An Information Theory Approach,” Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration, Oct., 2002.

Skocpol, Theda et al., “Women’s Associations and the Enactment of Mothers’ Pensions in the United States,” 1993. APSR, Vol. 27 (3) pp. 686-701

14. Knowledge Utilization: The Role of Policy Analysis in Public Policymaking.

Topics: Does politics drive out policy analysis in the policy making process? Should we be worried if it does? To what extent does policy analysis actually taken into account in the policy making process and affect the nature of public policy? Under what circumstances is it more and less likely to do so?

Required Reading

Mandell, Marvin and Greenberg, David, “Research Utilization in Policymaking,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1991, Vol. 10 (4): 633-656.

Weiss, Carol (1983) Ideology, Interests, and Information: The Basis of Policy Positions. In D.Callahan and B. Jennings (Eds.), Ethics, Social Science, and Policy Analysis (pp. 213-245).

Pindus, Wial, and Wolman, Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects, Vol. 3, The Brookings Institution Prss, 2010, pp. 13-21.

Supplementary Reading.

Henig, Jeffrey, Spin Cycle, Russell Sage, 2008, chs., 1, 2, 8.

Kim, James, “The Relative Influence of Research on Class-Size Policy,” in Loveless and Hess (eds.), Brookings Papers on Educational Policy 2006/07, Brookings Institution Press.

Esterling, “Buying Expertise: Campaign Contributions and Attention to Policy Analysis in Congressional Committees,” APSR, 2007, Vol. 101 (1), pp. 93-109.

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