POLITICS & POLICY II (PO5031)

This course covers three topics: 1. The process of policy formation – Students will gain an understanding of the process by which policy decisions are made in societies with democratic governmental institutions. They will be able to utilize alternative models of the policy process to make judgments about the likely participants in and outcomes of policy debates. 2. The nature of policy analysis and its role in policy formation – Students will know the tasks involved in professional policy analysis and how they are typically completed. They will develop an ability to assess policy analysis as consumers of analytic reports and will gain a foundation for further work in developing the skills used in conducting policy analysis. They will also understand the limits of policy analysis and how it relates to political considerations in the policy formation process. 3. The nature of program evaluation and its role in public management and policy making – Students will understand the purposes of evaluations, the alternative methods available for evaluation including their strengths and weakness, and the ways manger can use evaluations to improve program performance. Particular attention will be paid to considerations in the design of evaluations and the use of logic models in the design.

Code: 
PO5031
Name: 
POLITICS & POLICY II
Discipline: 
PO (Politics)
Type: 
Regular
Level: 
Graduate
Credits: 
4
Can be taken twice for credit?: 
No
Pre-requisites: 
GV5030 OR PO5030
Co-requisites: 
None