Political Science 603
Seminar in Theory and Method of Public Policy Analysis
Spring 2014
Instructor: Brian Adams
e-mail: badams@mail.sdsu.edu
Phone: 594-4289
Office: Nasatir Hall 122
Office Hours: Mondays 9-10, Wednesdays 10-11, Thursdays 2:30-4:30, and by appointment
Learning Outcomes:
1.) Learn how to conduct a policy analysis.
2.) Assess the current state of the literature in the public policy subfield.
3.) Identify the reasons for why we have been unable to address policy problems that we
agree need to be addressed.
4.) Explain why some issues make it on the public agenda and why some proposals are
adopted while others are not.
5.) Identify the problems inherent in implementation of public policy
6.) Assess the proper role of citizens in the policy making process
7.) Identify the different models of policy making process and assess the merits of each
Texts:
Briggs, Xavier de Souza, Susan J. Popkin and John Goering. 2010. Moving to Opportunity: The
Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty. Oxford University Press.
Bryk, Anthony S., Penny Bender Sebring, Elaine Allensworth, Stuart Luppescu, and John Q.
Easton. 2010. Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago. University of
Chicago Press.
Kingdon, John W. 2003. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. 2nd ed. Longman Classics.
Pressman, Jeffrey L., and Aaron Wildavsky. 1983. Implementation. 3rd ed. Berkeley: California.
Thompson, Frank J. 2012. Medicaid Politics: Federalism, Policy Durability, and Health Reform.
Georgetown University Press.
Williamson, Thad. 2010. Sprawl, Justice and Citizenship: the Civic Costs of the American Way
of Life. New York: Oxford University Press.
Journal articles and book chapters available through the course blackboard site.
Assignments:
1. Class participation. Students are expected to come to every class period, prepared to discuss
the assigned readings. Class attendance is mandatory. Students who miss class or consistently
come to class unprepared and/or late may be required to complete additional writing assignments.
(about 1/3 of course grade).
2. Policy analysis paper. See description at end of syllabus (about 1/3 of class grade).
3. Take-home final. On the last day of class students will be given a prompt for a take home final
due during finals week. (about 1/3 of course grade).
Course Outline
Week 1 (January 27th): Introduction
Week 2 (February 3rd): Policy tools
Readings:
1. Osborne, David and Ted Gaebler. 1993. Reinventing Government: How the
Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. Plume. Pages xv-xxi and 1-48.
2. Salamon, Lester M., ed. 2002. The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New
Governance. New York: Oxford University Press, chapter 1 (pp. 1-47).
3. Hood, Christopher. 2007. Intellectual Obsolescence and Intellectual Makeovers:
Reflections on the Tools of Government After Two Decades.” Governance: An
International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions 20 (1): 127-144
Week 3 (February 10th): Policy design and framing
Readings:
1. Schneider, Anne and Helen Ingram 1993. “Social Constructions and Target
Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy.” American Political Science Review 87:
334-47.
2. Mettler, Suzanne. 2005. Soldiers to Citizens: The GI Bill and the Making of the
Greatest Generation. Oxford University Press. E-book available through SDSU Library.
Read the introduction, chapters 1-8 and 10.
Week 4 (February 17th): How to do a policy analysis
Readings:
1. Weimer, David L. and Aidan R. Vining. 2005. Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice
(4th ed.). Pearson: Pages 324-379.
2. Background readings on a sample policy TBA
Week 5 (February 24th): Education Policy
Reading: Bryk et al, Organizing Schools for Improvement, all
Week 6 (March 3rd): Problem definition and agenda setting
Reading: Kingdon, all (but you can skim chapters 2, 3 and 7)
Week 7 (March 10th): Implementation
Reading: Pressman and Wildavsky, preface, chapters 1-7
Week 8 (March 17th): Health Care Policy
Reading: Thompson, Medicaid Politics, all.
Week 9 (March 24th): Housing policy
Reading: Briggs, Popkin and Goering, pages 3-24, 40-46, and 67-237.
Week 10 (April 7th): Explaining policy change, part I
Readings:
1. Lindblom, Charles E. 1959. “The Science of ‘Muddling Through’”. Public
Administration Review 19 (2):79-88.
2. Lindblom, Charles E. 1979. “Still Muddling, Not Yet Through.” Public Administration
Review 39 (6): 517-526.
3. True, James, Bryan Jones and Frank Baumgartner. 2007. “Punctuated Equilibrium
Theory: Explaining Stability and Change in Public Policymaking.” In Paul A. Sabatier,
ed. 2007. Theories of the Policy Process (2nd ed.). Westview Press.
4. Lowi, Theodore 1972. “Four Systems of Policy, Politics and Choice.” Public
Administration Review 32 (4): 298-310.
5. Wilson, James Q. 1995. Political Organizations (revised paperback edition). Princeton
University Press. Pages 327-337.
Week 11 (April 14th): Explaining policy change, part II
Readings (continued on next page):
1. Sabatier, Paul. 1988. "An Advocacy Coalition Framework of Policy Change and the
Role of Policy-Oriented Learning Therein." Policy Sciences 21 (2/3) 129-168.
2. James, Thomas E. and Paul D. Jorgensen. 2009. “Policy Knowledge, Policy
Formulation, and Change: Revisiting a Foundational Question.” Policy Studies Journal
37 (1): 141-162.
3. May, Peter J. and Ashley E. Jochim. 2013. “Policy Regime Perspectives: Poliies,
Politics, and Governing.” Policy Studies Journal 41 (3): 426-452.
4. Heikkila, Tanya and Andrea K. Gerlak. 2013. “Building a conceptual Approach to
Collective Learning: Lessons for Public Policy Scholars.” Policy Studies Journal 41 (3):
484-512.
Policy Evaluation due April 17th
Week 12 (April 21st): Network analysis and diffusion
Readings:
1. Adam, Silke and Hanspeter Kriesi. 2007. “The Network Approach.” In Paul A.
Sabatier, ed. 2007. Theories of the Policy Process (2nd ed.). Westview Press. Pages 129154.
2. Dowding, Keith. 1995. "Model or Metaphor? A Critical Review of the Policy Network
Approach." Political Studies 43: 136-158.
3. Lewis, Jenny M. 2011. “The Future of Network Governance Research: Strength in
Diversity and Synthesis.” Public Administration 89 (4): 1221-1234.
4. Mintrom, Michael and Phillipa Norman. 2009. “Policy Entrepreneurship and Policy
Change.” Policy Studies Journal 37 (4): 649-667.
5. Graham, Erin R., Charles R. Shipan, and Craig Volden. 2013. “The Diffusion of Policy
Diffusion Research in Political Science.” British Journal of Political Science 43 (3): 673701.
Week 13 (April 28th): Urban Sprawl
Reading: Williamson, pages 3-109, 179-248, and 266-286
Week 14 (May 5th): Citizens and Policy making
Readings
1. Ingram, Helen and Anne L. Schneider. 2006. “Policy Analysis for Democracy.” In
Michael Moran, Martin Rein and Robert F. Goodin, eds. Oxford Handbook of Public
Policy. Oxford. Pages 169-189.
2. Fischer, Frank. 1993. Citizen Participation and the Democratization of Policy
Expertise: From Theoretical Inquiry to Practical Cases. Policy Sciences 26:165-187.
3. Wildavsky, Aaron. 1979. Speaking Truth to Power, chapter 11 (pages 252-263)
4. Mettler, Suzanne and Joe Soss. 2004. “The Consequences of Public Policy for
Democratic Citizenship: Bridging Policy Studies and Mass Politics.” Perspectives on
Politics 2 (1): 55-73.
Final exam due Tuesday, May 13th
Guidelines for Policy Analysis Paper
What is a Policy Analysis?
There are many different ways to write a policy analysis; the term is so broad that it can apply to
any type of research on public policy (even though in the literature authors often provide a more
specific definition). For example Professor Maher listed the following types of policy analyses in
her 603 syllabus from a few years ago:
a. A cost-benefit analysis of policy alternatives to solve a particular problem
b. A study of agenda-setting or agenda denial (e.g. how did a certain policy end up on the
legislative agenda, or why has an issue been chronically ignored)
c. A study of the tactics and strategies of particular actors as they influence (or try to
influence) a policy
d. A study of representations, images, or discourse as used by political actors or the
media to frame a particular issue or population
e. A political geneaology or process tracing of how a policy came about, or how it came
to be framed or operationalized in a particular way
f. A study of the policy decision or design process.
g. A study of how a policy was implemented in particular contexts, either successfully or
not
h. An evaluation of a current or former policy’s outcomes
In this class, I am going to ask you to follow a particular format: you should identify a social
problem that needs to be addressed, evaluate an existing policy in a specific jurisdiction to assess
its effectiveness, and then assess the merits of other policy alternatives to address the problem.
I’ve narrowed the assignment in this way in order to make expectations clearer and facilitate the
process of writing the paper.
Choosing a topic
You should choose a specific policy to analysis, not a broad class of policies (even if the social
problem you have identified has many policies aimed at addressing it). Choose something
narrow; “health care policy” or “Medicare” is way too broad. Something along the lines of the
prescription drug benefit within Medicare, or provisions to address “dual eligibles” would be
more appropriate. The policy you choose should have been around long enough to be able to
observe outcomes. For example, provisions of Obamacare are too recent to be a suitable topic for
this assignment (although the Massachusetts policy on which it is based has been around long
enough to do a good analysis). Also, don’t choose a policy that has already been studied to death;
steer clear of policies where there are already high quality analyses. I would suggest considering
state or local policies, as they are not studied as much and are frequently narrower in scope.
Define your research questions
After you choose a topic, you should identify a research question or set of questions. All papers
should address two broad questions:
 Is current policy effective at addressing the problem under consideration?
 Are there better alternatives to existing policy to address this problem?
Beyond these two general questions, you need more specific research questions pertaining to the
specifics of the policy under question. Good question usually involve causation. For example,
does policy x cause y group of people to change their behavior? Does policy x lead to y
outcome? Why has policy x led to y outcome? If the research questions you identify have already
been satisfactorily answered by other research, choose a different topic (that said, if others have
attempted to answer your question but in your judgment their research is lacking, you should
pursue your question).
Defining good research questions is much more difficult that it at first appears. Avoid either
extreme of vague questions that cannot be answered or questions that are so specific that they
can be answered in one or two paragraphs. The key is to find substantive, important questions
that you can answer in a seminar paper.
Finding sources
Sources that you use to write your policy analysis fall into four broad categories. These
categories are not mutually exclusive; not only could a work fall into more than one category,
but there could be disagreement about whether something is scholarly or not. That said, these
categories can help you think through the types of information you should be looking for.
1.) Primary Sources. Primary sources contain data or information about the policy or social
problem that you are examining. Examples include:
 Texts of existing laws
 Transcripts of legislative hearings
 Data found in statistical abstracts
 Governmental reports that contain data on your policy or social problem
 Interviews with policy makers or policy targets
 Government audits
2.) Scholarly articles and books. There are many good databases to use for scholarly work. The
two I would recommend are PAIS International and Web of Science, both of which are available
through SDSU’s library. There may also be some databases on your specific policy, such as
ERIC (for education policy).
3.) “Quasi-scholarly sources.” These would include think tank reports (although many of these
belong in the previous category) and various web resources. Be careful about using these; some
can be extremely valuable but others are of questionable accuracy. Many of these sources are
included in the article databases discusses under #2.
4.) Other. Don’t hesitate to use other sources that could add to your analysis, but be careful to
use them appropriately. For example, if a source is “partisan,” it is acceptable to cite it as an
example of a partisan analysis, but don’t cite it as objective source. Another example; if a source
draws a conclusion without providing evidence to support it, you can cite the source but be sure
to indicate that the conclusions were unsubstantiated.
Writing your analysis
Your analysis should follow the standard format for a scholarly article:
I. Introduction: Identify the social problem you are concerned with, the policy you will be
evaluating and the alternatives you will examine. Then describe the research questions
you will be asking and why they are important. Also provide a summary of your main
findings and argument (that is, the answers you provide to your research questions).
II. Literature review: Review past research that is relevant to your topic.
III. Methods and data: Explain how you plan to evaluate the policy under question and
assess alternatives
IV. Analysis
a. Program evaluation
b. Assessment of alternatives
V. Conclusion: summarize your findings and explain their significance (this can include
recommendations for reforming policy or paths for future research)
This is not a strict template, and you may find reason to depart from it slightly depending on the
specifics of your topic. That’s acceptable, but be sure that all components are present.
Tips for writing a good policy analysis and problems to avoid
Here are some suggestions for how to write a good policy analysis and pitfalls to avoid:
1.) Don’t just summarize past research—do “original research.” Some students figure that the
easiest way to write this paper is to simply summarize what others have done. This is not
acceptable. I am asking you to do your own policy analysis, not summarize others’ work.
2.) Read broadly on a topic before settling on a research question. In order to identify good
research questions, you need to have a solid understanding of the policy and past research.
Putting in the time at the beginning will save you a lot of time at the end of the process.
3.) Do some digging to find primary sources. There are lots of data out there on virtually every
policy, but they are often difficult to find.
4.) There is no minimum or maximum page limit, although I would find it hard to believe that a
student could complete an acceptable policy analysis in less than 15 pages.
5.) Suggested Books on how to do a policy analysis. Note that these books are probably not
worth the cost of purchase—try borrowing them either through the library or from someone else.
 Mintrom, Michael. Contemporary Policy Analysis.
 Jansson, Bruce S. Becoming an Effective Policy Advocate.
 Weimer, David L. and Aidan R. Vining. Policy Analysis
 Smith, Catherine F. Writing Public Policy.
 Weiss, Carol. Evaluation
 Fitzpatrick, Sanders and Worthen, Program Evaluation: Alternative Approaches and
Practical Guidelines
 Bardach, Eugene. A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eighfold Path to More
Effective Problem Solving.
 Bingham, Richard D. and Claire L. Felbinger, Evaluation in Practice: A Methodological
Approach (2nd edition)
6. Don’t hesitate to come to my office hours (or set up an appointment to meet) if you have
questions or run into problems.
Good luck!