This is a core course restricted to Ford School students only. Registration is by permission only.
The primary objective of this core course in the MPP curriculum is to equip students with the knowledge and skills needed for effective political analysis of public policy issues and decisions. The course covers conceptual and analytic frameworks for understanding political processes, institutions, stakeholders, contexts and policy decision making. In addition, the course builds written and verbal communication skills, emphasizing the ability to convey clear and concise political analyses in a variety of formats, including policy memos.
This section of 510 aims to help students better understand policy analysis and the political environment within a context of American domestic politics at the national level. By the end of the course, students will understand the political environment in which policy specialists operate: the participants who shape policy within particular domains; the ways in which they perceive problems and solutions; the information, interests, and ideologies likely to govern their actions; the strategies they use; and the institutional arrangements and processes that shape their behavior and constrain their decisions. A final but important purpose of the course is to build written and oral communication skills.
