Public Policy

A flexible, rigorous, multidisciplinary curriculum that prepares students to engage in policy development, analysis, and evaluation in global, national, state, and local settings.

The Public Policy department offers:

Public Policy

Courses focus on the nature of public policy, including the process of problem recognition and articulation, policy development, ethical and legal deliberation and methods of policy impact assessment.

Featured courses

PP 221 Introduction to Public Policy

This course examines public policy and the policy process in the United States. Beginning with an exploration of the processes and institutions through which public policy is developed in the United States, we will pay special attention to how ideas get turned into policies and the central players in those processes. The course will then take an introductory tour of policy analysis: the assessment of policy alternatives to solve public policy problems. Finally, the balance of the course will be spent applying what we have learned to several policy areas. Although the course primarily explores policymaking in the American setting, we will make some cross-national comparisons when doing so helps to illuminate the American case. Prerequisite: POL 101 or 104.

PP 305 Advanced Public Policy Analysis

Interactive course combining study of fundamental texts with student-led research projects. Students learn how public policy problems are defined and policy responses are developed, evaluated, and implemented. Students work intensively with the professor to apply these principles to an issue that interests them. The final output is a comprehensive white paper on the issue and recommended policy response.

PP 401 Advanced Topics in Public Policy

Topics differ each year. Students read a common core of literature in the field of Public Policy as well as specific readings on the seminar topic. Students also produce a major research project. Prerequisite: POL 221.