Graduate Programs—NEW COURSE PROPOSAL
DEPARTMENT NAME:
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
COLLEGE OF:
College of Architecture, Urban and Public Affairs
EFFECTIVE DATE
RECOMMENDED COURSE IDENTIFICATION:
PREFIX PAD
UGPC APPROVAL ________________
UFS APPROVAL __________________
SCNS SUBMITTAL ________________
CONFIRMED ____________________
BANNER POSTED _________________
ONLINE ________________________
MISC _________________________
COURSE NUMBER 6314
LAB CODE (L or C) None
(first term course will be offered)
(TO OBTAIN A COURSE NUMBER, CONTACT ERUDOLPH@FAU.EDU)
COMPLETE COURSE TITLE: PUBLIC POLICY PROCESS
CREDITS: 3
_____________________________
Textbook Information:
Several required textbooks may be selected for this course.
The Textbook list is available in the course proposal.
GRADING (SELECT ONLY ONE GRADING OPTION): REGULAR
X
PASS/FAIL
SATISFACTORY/UNSATISFACTORY ______
COURSE DESCRIPTION, NO MORE THAN 3 LINES: This graduate course covers the public policy process including policy formation and
adoption, policy implementation, and evaluation. The course aims to add to the student's knowledge and understanding of policy
theory, substantive policy areas, and the role of administrators in the policy process.
PREREQUISITES W /MINIMUM GRADE:*
COREQUISITES: NONE
B GRADE OR BETTER IN PAD 6036
OTHER REGISTRATION CONTROLS (MAJOR, COLLEGE, LEVEL):
NONE
PREREQUISITES, COREQUISITES & REGISTRATION CONTROLS SHOWN ABOVE WILL BE ENFORCED FOR ALL COURSE SECTIONS.
*DEFAULT MINIMUM GRADE IS D-.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED TO TEACH THIS COURSE: PH.D. DEGREE
Other departments, colleges that might be affected by the new course must be consulted. List entities that have been consulted and
attach written comments from each. Department of Political Science
Efraim Ben-Zadok, benzadok@fau.edu, 954-762-5678
Alka Sapat, asapat@fau.edu, 561-297-0443
_________________________________________________
Faculty Contact, Email, Complete Phone Number
SIGNATURES
SUPPORTING MATERIALS
Approved by:
Date:
Syllabus—must include all details as shown
in the UGPC Guidelines.
Department Chair: _____________________________________
____________________
College Curriculum Chair: _______________________________
____________________
Written Consent—required from all
departments affected.
College Dean: _________________________________________
____________________
UGPC Chair: __________________________________________
____________________
Dean of the Graduate College: _____________________________
____________________
Go to: http://graduate.fau.edu/gpc/ to
download this form and guidelines to fill
out the form.
Email this form and syllabus to sfulks@fau.edu and eqirjo@fau.edu one week before the University Graduate
Programs Committee meeting so that materials may be viewed on the UGPC website by committee members prior to
the meeting.
New Course Proposal: Public Policy Process
1. Course name, number, pre-requisites and co-requisites, if any.
PAD 6341
PUBLIC POLICY PROCESS
3 CREDITS
PRE-REQUISITE: B GRADE OR BETTER IN
PAD 6036 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC POLICY
2. Required text and bibliography, along with any extra materials and/or supplementary texts.
SEVERAL REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS MAY BE SELECTED OUT OF THE LIST BELOW:
Anderson, James E. 2006. Public Policymaking. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Birkland, Thomas A. 2005. An Introduction to the Policy Process. New York: M. E. Sharpe.
CQ Press. 2008. Issues for Debate in American Public Policy. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.
Howlett, Michael and Ramesh, M. 2003. Studying Public Policy: Policy Cycles and Policy Subsystems.
Ontario: Oxford University Press.
Kingdon, John W. 2003. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. New York: Longman.
Miller, Hugh T. 2007. Postmodern Public Policy. New York: M. E. Sharpe.
Mintrom, Michael. 2003. People Skills for Policy Analysts.
Washington, D. C.: Georgetown University Press.
Sabatier, Paul A. Ed. 2007. Theories of the Policy Process. Boulder: Westview Press.
Shafritz, Jay M., Layne, Karen S., and Borick, Christopher P. Eds. 2005. Classics of Public Policy.
New York: Pearson.
Stone, Deborah. 2001. Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making.
New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Zahariadis, Nikolaos. 2003. Ambiguity & Choice in Public Policy: Political Decision Making in Modern
Democracies. Washington, D. C.: Georgetown University Press.
SELECTED JOURNAL ARTICLES:
Bowling, Cynthia J. and Wright, Deil S. 1998. “Change and Continuity in State Administration:
Administrative Leadership across Four Decades." Public Administration Review. 58, 5: 429-444.
Boyne, George A., Gould-Williams, Julian S., Law, Jennifer, and Walker, Richard M. 2004. “Toward the
Self-Evaluating Organization? An Empirical Test of the Wildavsky Model." Public Administration
Review. 64, 4: 463-473.
Brown, Mary M. and Brudney, Jeffrey L. 2003. “Learning Organizations in the Public Sector? A Study of
Police Agencies Employing Information and Technology to Advance Knowledge." Public Administration
Review. 63, 1: 30-43.
Eshbaugh-Soha, Matthew. 2006. "The Conditioning Effects of Policy Salience and Complexity on
American Political Institutions." Policy Studies Journal. 34, 2: 223-243.
John, Peter. 2003. "Is There Life After Policy Streams, Advocacy Coalitions, and Punctuations: Using
Evolutionary Theory to Explain Policy Change?." Policy Studies Journal. 31, 4: 481-498.
Keast, Robyn, Mandell, Myrna P., Brown, Kerry, and Woolcock, Geoffrey. 2004. “Networks Structures:
Working Differently and Changing Expectations." Public Administration Review. 64, 3: 363-371.
Saetren, Harald. 2005. "Facts and Myths about Research on Public Policy Implementation: Out-ofFashion, Allegedly Dead, But Still Very Much Alive and Relevant." Policy Studies Journal. 33, 4: 559582.
Sobeck, Joanne. 2003. "Comparing Policy Process Frameworks: What Do They Tell Us About Group
Membership and Participation for Policy Development?" Administration and Society. 35, 3: 350-374.
Thomson, Ann Marie and Perry, James. 2006. “Collaboration Processes: Inside the Black Box." Public
Administration Review. 66, December Special Issue: 20-32.
Thurmaier, Kurt and Wood, Curtis. 2002. “Interlocal Agreements as Overlapping Social Networks:
Picket-Fence Regionalism in Metropolitan Kansas City." Public Administration Review. 62, 5: 585-598.
Walters, Lawrence C., Aydelotte, James and Miller, Jessica. 2000. "Putting More Public in Policy
Analysis." Public Administration Review. 60, 4: 349-359.
Weimer, David L. 2005. "Institutionalizing Neutrally Competent Policy Analysis: Resources for
Promoting Objectivity and Balance in Consolidating Democracies .” Policy Studies Journal. 33, 2: 131146.
Zahariadis, Nikolaos. 1998. "Comparing Three Lenses of Policy Choice." Policy Studies Journal. 26, 3:
434-448.
3. List of course description and instructional objectives.
This graduate course covers the public policy process and its critiques. The process includes policy
formation and adoption, policy implementation, and evaluation. The course aims to add to the student's
knowledge and understanding of policy theory and substantive policy areas. It also emphasizes the role of
administrators in the policy process. The student learns to apply policy process theories to
federal/state/local case studies that are brought from the media, government agencies, or other sources.
The student should be able to analyze the different phases of the policy process including the policy
problem, agenda setting, legislation, regulation, and enforcement. The student should be able to produce a
good quality research paper on the application of policy process theory to a specific case study.
4. Schedule including topics covered.
Topic 1. Discipline, Process, and Communication: The discipline of public policy; public policy
definition; complexity and subjectivity of social problems; classic policy process; integrating policy
environments; politics and administration.
Topic 2. Policy Making: Identifying policy issues; public opinion; agenda setting; problem definition;
non-decision: official and unofficial policy actors; legislature control over the bureaucracy; policy maker
and policy analyst (advice); public participation in policy analysis; policy design.
Topic 3. Policy Implementation: Interaction of policy making and policy implementation
environments; bureaucratic leadership; bureaucratic rule-making; regulation and enforcement; ethics in
implementation.
Topic 4. Policy Evaluation: Goals; outputs, outcomes, impacts; evaluation criteria, goal attainment,
efficiency, constituency satisfaction, clientele responsiveness, equity; tangible/symbolic values; politics of
evaluation; organization and evaluation; policy termination.
Topic 5. Intergovernmental Policies: Federal and unitary systems; federalism, definition, advantages
and disadvantages; periods in American federalism; fiscal federalism (grants); categorical grants; revenue
sharing; block grants; individual-based grants; judicial federalism.
5. Method of instruction.
Lecture; discussion; case study analysis; case study team (students); reading progresses according to
topical sequence; student raises and answers questions; student receives individual guidance in producing
a solid and coherent research paper on application of the policy process to a federal/state/local case study.
6. Assessment procedures including tests, quizzes, and projects.
Participation (10% of the final grade); presentation and submission of cases (20% of the final grade); midterm exam (20% of the final grade); final exam (20% of the final grade); research paper (30% of the final
grade).
7. Grading criteria.
This course follows the plus/minus grading system in FAU Catalog (see Academic Policies and
Regulations, the Grading System). To be more specific: A=4.0=91-100%; B=3.0=81-90%;
C=2.0=71-80%; D=1.0=61-70%; F=0.0=60% or lower.
8. Students with Disabilities
All reasonable accommodations will be provided for students with disabilities. However, in compliance
with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), students who require special accommodations due to a
disability to properly execute coursework must register with the Office for Students with Disabilities
(OSD) located in Boca Raton -SU 133 (561-297-3880).
9. Academic Honesty
Students at Florida Atlantic University are expected to maintain the highest ethical standards. Academic
dishonesty, including cheating and plagiarism, is considered a serious breach of these ethical standards,
because it interferes with the University mission to provide a high quality education in which no student
enjoys an unfair advantage over any other. Academic dishonesty is also destructive of the University
community, which is grounded in a system of mutual trust and places high value on personal integrity and
individual responsibility. Harsh Penalties are associated with academic dishonesty. For more information,
see: http://www.fau.edu/regulations/chapter4/4.001_Honor Code. pdf