210133 SE M7 b: State Activity, Policy and Governance Analyses (2012S)

This course examines the basic political dynamics of the public policymaking process, with an emphasis on policy analysis and expert advice. Toward this end, the course lectures and readings comparatively examine the politics of each phase of the policy-making process, from the politics of agenda setting (emphasizing the role of the media and movements), policy formulation (including epistemic policy communities), policy decision-making and adoption (elitists versus pluralist models), implementation (and bureaucratic politics), and policy evaluation (technocratic versus constructivist approaches). In the process, the course gives special attention to the kinds of knowledge and inquiry appropriate to each phase of the policy process. Along the way, the role of theoretical models and the methods appropriate to the various theoretical orientations are examined, including the advocacy coalition model, rational choice theory, the liberal-institutional perspective, and the discourse approach. The contemporary debates between neo-positivist and postpositivist approaches to policy inquiry are also compared. With regard to the postpositivist/constructivist orientation, particular emphasis will be given to discourse and the “argumentative turn” in policy analysis.