This is a core course restricted to Ford School students only. Registration is by permission only. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.
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.
Around the world, policy professionals must often work within, work with, or work to counter authoritarian practices, structures, and regimes. This section of 510 will help students identify a wide range of authoritarian institutions, in contexts with and without meaningful electoral competition, and assess their ability to produce and implement competent policy. In particular we examine the use of tools that can both strengthen and weaken autocratic rule, such as rent-seeking, merit-based standards, consultation, responsiveness, and broad public goods distribution. We also consider how governmental and non-governmental policy actors can both resist authoritarian governance and function ethically within it. The course will include both historical and current cases,with special attention to the United States and the People's Republic of China. Students will have the opportunity to apply the lessons in the course to a country of their choosing.
