Political Science 6040
AMERICAN PUBLIC POLICY PROCESS
Spring, 2007
Professor: Susan Hoffmann
Office: 3414 Friedmann
Phone: 387-5692
email: susan.hoffmann@wmich.edu; web page: http://homepages.wmich.edu/~shoffman/
Office Hours: Tuesday: 4:00-6:00 pm and Thursday: 2:00-4:30 pm and by appointment
CLASS MEETINGS:
Thursday, 6:30–9:00 pm. Poli Sci conference room.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This is a seminar in empirical theories of the policy process. We will explore, evaluate, compare and
apply prominent theories in American political science. Readings include classic pieces and current
work.
REQUIREMENTS:
1) Weekly preparation: Please come to class prepared to discuss the assigned reading each week. As you
read, I suggest that you write out a couple of questions about the material and perhaps note some of your
reactions so that you can raise these matters during class discussion – participation figures into the course
grade. You may want to write a 1-2 page summary of each reading for yourself – this is not required and
summaries will not be collected. A useful approach may be to write a summary before class as you read
the work, then revise it after class; this would make a valuable aid in reviewing for this seminar and for
comprehensive exams.
2) Subgovernment paper: To get a feel for framing empirical work in theoretical terms, please prepare a
brief paper (about six pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, 1" margins) that discusses various models of a
subgovernment, identifies the subgovernment in a policy domain of your choice, and frames your
empirical discussion theoretically. Each class member will also present findings to the class. Due
February 15.
3) Presentation: To get a feel for current work in policy studies and the journals in which it is reported,
please prepare a presentation of about fifteen minutes in length that summarizes a journal piece (its
question, method, and findings) and gives us a feel for the journal in which it appeared. Some aspects of
the journal to cover include, based on looking through issues over the last year or so and the web site if it
has one: What kind of questions are being asked in the pieces? What methodologies are in evidence?
Who are the editors and where are they? Presentations on April 12.
4) Final exam: There will be a take-home, open-book, open-notes final exam. It will consist of
answering one or two questions in a 4-6 page essay (for each question). Due by 6:30 pm on April 26.
Components of course grade:
10% Weekly preparation and class participation
30% Subgovernment paper
20% Journal article presentation
40% Final exam
In evaluating written work, quality of the writing always counts, in addition to content. Kim Ballard,
Director of the Writing Center (kim.ballard@wmich.edu) Does some one-on-one work with masters
students.
READINGS:
Books: available at WMU bookstore:
Sabatier, Paul A. Theories of the Policy Process. Westview Press. 1999.
Baumgartner , Frank D. and Bryan D. Jones. Agendas and Instability in American Politics. University of
Chicago Press, 1993.
Kingdon, John W. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 2003.
Electronic databases: Many of the articles are available in JSTOR or other on-line data bases through
Waldo library.
Email: Some pieces will be available as .pdf files.
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SCHEDULE
Jan 11
Course introduction
What is public policy? What is the policy process? Expectations.
Discuss: choosing a substantive policy area, subgovernment paper
Jan 18
Subgovernments [policy domains, actors in the policy process]
Freeman, J. Lieper. “Analyzing Federal Legislative-Executive Relations,” Ch. 1 and
“The Setting and the Participants in Bureau-Committee Relations, Ch. 2 in The Political
Process: Executive Bureau–Legislative Committee Relations. Rev. Ed. New York:
Random House, 1965. [On reserve in Waldo, JK 616 .F7 1955*]
Lowi, Theodore J. “American Business, Public Policy, Case-Studies, and
Political Theory,” World Politics 16 (July 1964): 677-715. [JSTOR]
Heclo, Hugh. “Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment.” In Samuel H. Beer
et.al. The New American Political System. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise
Institute, 1978. [On reserve in Waldo, JK1717 .N48*]
Ripley, Randall B. and Grace A. Franklin. Ch 1 and Ch 8 in Congress, the Bureaucracy,
and Public Policy. 5th ed. Pacific Grove, CA, 1991. [JK 1067 .R53 1991b*]
Wilson, James Q. and Robert DiIulio, Jr. “The Policy Making Process.” Chapter 15 in
American Government. 9th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 2004. [*]
Jan 25
Steps in the policy process
Brewer, Garry D. “The Policy Sciences Emerge: To Nurture and Structure a Discipline.”
Policy Sciences 5 (3) (September 1974): 239–244. [*]
Sabatier, Paul A. “The Need for Better Theories.” Ch. 1 in Paul A. Sabatier, ed.
Theories of the Policy Process. Westview Press, 1999.
DeLeon, Peter. “The Stages Approach to the Policy Process: What Has it Done? Where
is it Going?” Ch. 2 in Sabatier, Theories of the Policy Process.
Anderson, James E. Public Policymaking. 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
2003. [3rd ed. is on library reserve. Just look this over for its structure. JK 271 .A65
1984] Peters, B. Guy, American Public Policy: Promise and Performance. Washington,
D.C.: CQ Press, 2006. [1999 edition is available as an E-book through Waldo library
website; please just look this over for structure.]
Discuss: teaching policy process to undergrads
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Feb 1
Utilitarianism and cost-benefit analysis
Haveman, Robert H. and Burton A. Weisbrod. “Defining Benefits of Public Programs:
Some Guidance for Policy Analysts.” Policy Analysis 1 (1975). [*]
Meier, Kenneth J. “Political Economy and Cost-Benefit Analysis: Problems of Bias.” In
Alan Stone and Edward Harpham. The Political Economy of Public Policy. Beverly
Hills: Sage, 1982. [*]
Feb 8
Incrementalism: the original debate [Bounded rationality]
Lindblom, Charles. “The Science of Muddling Through.” Public Administration
Review, Volume 19, No. 2 (Spring, 1959), pp. 79-88. [JSTOR]
Etzioni, Amitai. “Mixed Scanning: A ‘Third’ Approach to Decision-Making.” Public
Administration Review, Vol. 27, No. 5. (Dec., 1967), pp. 385-392. [JSTOR]
Lindblom, Charles. “Still Muddling, Not Yet Through.” Public Administration Review,
Vol. 39, No. 6. (Nov. - Dec., 1979), pp. 517-526. [JSTOR]
Braybrooke, David and Charles E. Lindblom. A Strategy of Decision: Policy Evaluation
as a Social Process. Free Press, 1970. pp. 37-143. [On reserve in Waldo library,
optional reading. H61 .B64]
Hoffmann, Susan. “Social Security Policy Making.” [*]
Feb 15
Subgovernment presentations
Feb 22
Subgovernment presentations
Mar 1
What is a public problem?
Lasswell, Harold D. “The Policy Orientation.” Ch. 1 in Lerner, Daniel and Harold D.
Lasswell, eds. The Policy Sciences. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1951. [*]
Stokey, Edith and Richard Zeckhauser. “Achieving Desirable Outcomes.” Ch. 14 in A
Primer for Policy Analysis. New York: W.W. Norton, 1978. [*]
Theodoulou, Stella Z. and Chris Kofinis. “Problem Identification: Recognition of
problems and issues.” Ch. 6 in Theodoulou and Kofinis, The Art of the Game:
Understanding American Public Policy Making. Wadsworth, 2004. [*]
Rochefort, David A. and Roger W. Cobb, “Problem definition: An emerging
perspective.” Ch. 1 in Rochefort and Cobb, eds. The Politics of Problem Definition.
University Press of Kansas, 1994 [*]
Bosso, Christopher J. “The contextual bases of problem definition.” Ch. 9 in Rochefort
and Cobb, The Politics of Problem Definition. [*]
Mar 8
Spring break, no class
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March 15
Multiple streams [Chance versus rationality]
Zahariadis, Nikolaos. “Ambiguity, Time, and Multiples Streams.” Ch 4 in Sabatier,
Theories of the Policy Process.
Michael D. Cohen; James G. March; Johan P. Olsen. “A Garbage Can Model of
Organizational Choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 1. (Mar., 1972),
pp. 1-25. [JSTOR]
Kingdon, John W. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. 2nd ed. New York:
Longman, 2003.
Mar 22
Punctuated equilibria [Bounded rationality with jolts]
True, Jones and Baumgartner. “Punctuated Equilibrium Theory.” Ch. 5 in Sabatier,
Theories.
Baumgartner , Frank D. and Bryan D. Jones. Agendas and Instability in American
Politics. University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Mar 29
Attendance required at the 2007 Samuel I. Clark Lecture: David Rohde, “The 2006 Midterm Elections and their Consequences,” Fetzer Center, 7:30 pm.
April 5
Ideas in the policy process
Sabatier, Paul A. and Hank C. Jenkins-Smith, “The Advocacy Coalition Framework: An
Assessment.” Ch 6 in Sabatier, Theories.
Sabatier, Paul A. “An advocacy coalition framework of policy change and the role of
policy-oriented learning therein.” Policy Sciences 21 (1988), 129–168. [*]
Hoffmann, Susan. Politics and Banking. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2001. Chs 1, 6, 7
April 12
Recovering bounded rationality
Jones, Bryan D., “Bounded Rationality and Political Science: Lessons from Public
Administration and Public Policy,” Journal of Public Administration Research and
Theory 13, no. 4, (2003), 395-412. [Available at
http://www.policyagendas.org/publications/agendasproject.html *]
Journal presentations
April 19
Journal presentations
Aug 26
Final exams due, hard copy to Dr. Hoffmann by 6:30 pm
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For further reading
Steps/Policy Sciences
Brewer, Gary D. and Peter DeLeon. The Foundations of Policy Analysis. Monterey, Calif.: Brooks/Cole,
1983. (Waldo library - H97 .B732 1983)
Lasswell, Harold D. “The emerging conception of the policy sciences.” Policy sciences, 1:1 (1970), 330.
Utilitarianism
Tribe, Laurence H. “Policy Science: Analysis or Ideology?” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2 (1)
(Autumn 1972), 66-110. [JSTOR]
Stokey, Edith and Richard Zeckhauser. A Primer for Policy Analysis. New York: W.W. Norton, 1978.
Public Problems
Dery, David. Problem Definition in Policy Analysis. University Press of Kansas, 1984.
Rittel, Horst W. J. and Melvin M. Webber. “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning,” Policy
Sciences 4 (1973), 155–169. (“wicked problems”)
Gusfield, Joseph P. The Culture of Public Problems: Drinking-Driving and the Symbolic Order.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Rochefort, David A. and Roger W. Cobb. The Politics of Problem Definition: Shaping the Policy
Agenda. Lawrence, Kan.: University of Kansas Press, 1994.
Historical institutionalism
King, Desmond S. “The Establishment of Work–Welfare Programs in the United States and Britain:
Politics, ideas and institutions.” In Steinmo, Sven, Thelen, Kathleen and Frank Lonstreth, eds.
Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis. Cambridge University Press,
1992.
Advocacy Coalition Framework
Sabatier, Paul A. “An advocacy coalition framework of policy change and the role of policy-oriented
learning therein,” Policy Sciences 21 (1988), 129–168.
Sabatier, Paul A. and Hank C. Jenkins-Smith. Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition
Approach. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993.
Ideas in the policy process
DeHaven-Smith, Lance. Philosophical Critiques of Policy Analysis: Lindbom, Habermas, and the Great
Society. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1988. [HC106.6 .D44 1988]
Reich, Robert B. The Power of Public Ideas. Cambridge, Ma: Ballinger, 1988.
Hays, R. Allen. The Federal Government and Urban Housing: Ideology and Change in Public Policy.
2nd ed. State University of New York Press, 1995.
Rom, Mark Carl. Public Spirit in the Thrift Tragedy. Pittsburgh: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1996. [On
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reserve in Waldo.
Hoffmann, Susan. Politics and Banking: Ideas, Public Policy and the Creation of Financial Institutions.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Derthick, Martha and Paul J. Quirk. The Politics of Deregulation. Washington, D.C.: Brookings
Institution, 1985.
Particular policy areas
Meier, Kenneth J. The Politics of Sin: Drugs, Alcohol and Public Policy. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe,
1994.
Mooney, Christopher Z., ed. The Public Clash of Private Values. New York: Chatham House, 2001.
Derthick, Martha A. Up in Smoke: From Legislation to Litigation in Tobacco Politics. Washington,
D.C.: CQ Press, 2002.
Pinello, Daniel R. America’s Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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