Policy seminars are open only to undergraduates enrolled in the Ford School. These small, interdisciplinary courses will focus on particular public policy issues as reflected in the title of the...
As Chief of the New York City Police Department, William Bratton was fond of saying that the crime rate has the same meaning for a police department as profits have for a business--that the crime rate is the bottom line of...
Although the American research university serves as a key source of basic research, advanced education, and infrastructure critical to the nation’s welfare, it faces many challenges such as shifting public policies, changing demographics,...
This course explores various approaches to civil rights policy, including efforts to prevent discrimination, to "level the playing field," to create equality, and to provide...
This course seeks to make students sensitive to and articulate about the ways in which moral and political values come into play in the American policy process, particularly as they affect non-elected public officials who work in a world shaped...
Democracy and Education --- When Americans write about democracy and education, they typically write about the constructive effects that education can have for democracy by improving future citizens' knowledge, political judgment, capacity for...
This course examines the extent, causes, and consequences of poverty in the U.S. and current and proposed strategies to address non-elderly poverty. We review the evolution of social welfare policy in the...
This seminar examines environmental and energy policies. We discuss the sources of environmental problems and what regulations are available to remedy these...
The Senior Colloquium will follow the debate that ensues from the release of the Report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on December...
In the first part of the course you will be introduced to some of the analytic frameworks and conceptual theories used to study American public policy making and you will learn how these models were applied to a classic public policy...
What goes on in city government is in many ways more important to our lives than what happens in Washington. This course goes beyond the structure and theory of municipal government to look at how things really happen at the local...
This course will explore the global issues of illegal drugs, crime and terrorism. Course content emphasizes policy options, formulation and implementation, and the tools and skills needed to produce effective recommendations for decision...
This course is designed to immerse students in a major research project of their own design. By the end of the two-semester course, students will be required to produce a polished paper, which can later be incorporated into their...
“Utopia” in Greek means both “good place” and “no place”—a paradise existing only in our imaginations. But no matter how theoretical or fanciful utopias may be, people still try to implement them, often with tragic...
This course is designed to introduce the students to what public managers do and to help provide the students with perspectives and opportunities for practice that will help them become effective public...
The purpose of this course is to expose students to various perspectives on state and local policy in the U.S. through the lens of one especially topical policy area: development...
During the twentieth century, the U.S. both saw the development of a social welfare system to serve nonelderly families and a subsequent dramatic overhaul of the cash welfare part of that...
The main idea that we want to get across is implicit in the title: Systematic thinking - largely from the social sciences, but with the application of scientific methods and knowledge more generally - can make a significant difference in the way...
Is Congress too partisan? Can Congress fulfill its legislative and oversight functions? Do the executive and judicial branches effectively control public policy formulation? Have the State Legislatures become the true "laboratories of...
In this course, and largely borrowing on the experience of the professor as Trade Minister in a small, middle-income country, we will discuss the practical links between trade policy and the variety of issues that challenge poor societies in...
Detroit was the nation’s most important city in the Twentieth Century because of the the auto industry, the emergence of the blue collar middle class and development of the New Deal. Now it is the most negatively stereotyped city in the...
This course examines a number of popular approaches to education reform, using an economic lens to understand the theoretical rationale and potential impact of...
