Spring 2010
Undergraduate Course Offerings (PUBP, POL, PST)
Georgia Tech School of Public Policy
POL 1101DM - Government of the U.S.
Matisoff
POL 1101JM - Government of the U.S.
Melkers
PUBP 2012 - Foundations of Public Policy
Leggon
This course explores policy as both a product and a process. Among the issues addressed are the
policy cycle, evaluation, and ethical issues and the role of public opinion in public policy. Policy
principles and processes will be examined in the context of specific issues such as health care,
education,employment, social security, energy and the environment. (Note: PUBP 2012 is not a
core course in the new BSPP curriculum.)
PST 2020 - Philosophical Analysis for Policy Choices (core) Hoffmann
This class introduces philosophical theories that we will use to analyze and understand
controversies on policy decisions; in particular theories from logic, ethics, and epistemology.
Logic is important because in democratic societies conflicts should be resolved by means of
arguments. Ethics is important because in matters of public policy those arguments often refer to
moral principles, values, or how things are supposed to be. And epistemology is important
because we need to know how things are and what the facts are.
With regard to epistemology, we will focus, on the one hand, on the role concepts play in
organizing and structuring reality and, on the other, on the problem of framing; that is, the
problem that we inevitably set boundaries around issues, construct meaning, and make sense of
what is going on based on certain “webs” of beliefs and values. Regarding ethics we will discuss
Kant’s deontological approach, utilitarian approaches (cost-benefit analysis), virtue theory, and
Rawls’s theory of justice. In order to analyze arguments for or against policies, you will learn
Logical Argument Mapping (LAM), a method that has been designed to support the analysis of
controversies and argumentations, and to visualize belief-value systems.
After discussing these philosophical theories and learning Logical Argument Mapping in
the first half of the semester, we will use all this in the second half for the analysis of
contemporary public policy debates, both in small groups and individually.
PUBP 2030 - Organizations and Policy (core)
Fox
PUBP 3020 - Applied Political Economy (core)
Knox-Hayes
This course focuses on the interaction of politics and economics and on the impact of that
relationship on public policy. We focus on how politics and economics—in theory and in
practice—affect the actual policy decisions of government. The first section of the course will
survey a range of important topics and concepts in political economy, through investigation of
some of the major theories. Such theories are informed from both political and economic
viewpoints with an emphasis on the pursuit of power and distribution of wealth. At stake within
these theories are fundamental issues of politics including security, order, sovereignty, fairness
and democracy. The second section of the course will examine the practice of political economy.
Ideas matter in policy making: policy problems often are framed and disputed in terms such as
participation, equity, efficiency, costs, risks, development and fairness. The applied section of
the course will allow students to explore the framing and application of political economy to
several of the most significant policy issues faced in the United States.
PUBP 3030 - Policy Analysis (core)
Noonan
The science and craft of professional problem-solving, analysis, and advice. Economic and
political approaches and techniques for analysis of costs, benefits, and risks.
PST 3103 - Modern Philosophy
Biddle
A new style of philosophy -- "modern philosophy" -- arose in the beginning of the 17th century as
an engagement with the Scientific Revolution of the 16th-17th centuries. This course offers a
comprehensive introduction to modern philosophy and to the central philosophical problems
addressed in the modern period, including the nature of mind and body, the existence of the
external world, the scope and limits of knowledge, the existence of God, and the apparent conflict
between freedom and determinism. We will study the works of such philosophers as Bacon,
Descartes, Leibniz, Hobbes, Boyle, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.
PUBP 3130 - Research Methods and Problem Solving (core) Levine
Conceptual and methodological issues in policy studies, including causality, explanation, models,
threats to research, data collection, and assessment of applicability to policy issues. Design of
research strategies.
PUBP 3600 - Sustainability, Technology and Policy
Norton
Ethical, scientific, technological, economic, and political dimensions of sustainable human
practices, applying multidisciplinary perspectives to challenges facing public and private-sector
approaches to sustainability.
PUBP 3610 - Pre-law Seminar
Pikowsky
The Pre-Law Seminar is designed for students who are seriously considering law school. The
class is divided into three segments. The first segment will introduce students to the basics of
legal writing, which is fundamental to success in law school and in law practice. The second
segment will introduce students to some of the career paths available to an attorney. The third
segment will introduce students to some of the oral advocacy skills that are essential to a career in
litigation.
PST 4174 - Perspectives in Science and Technology
Biddle
This course begins with an exploration of the nature of scientific knowledge, and it draws upon
this exploration in order to investigate fundamental questions concerning the relations between
science, technology, and society. Issues to be addressed include the role of science and
technology in a democracy and the moral responsibility of scientists for the technologies that
result from their work.
PST 3105 - Ethical Theories
Borenstein
In this course, we will discuss and examine the merits of several different ethical theories,
including Kant’s moral theory and Utilitarianism. We will also determine how ethical theory can
be applied to current moral issues. Opposing viewpoints on a variety of subjects, including
euthanasia, abortion, and free speech, will be presented and evaluated.
PST 3109 - Ethics and Technical Professions
Borenstein
In this course, we will examine the ethical, legal, and social implications of being a professional
in a technical field. A primary approach used in the course will be to analyze engineering and
ethics case studies. Key viewpoints on a variety of subjects, including obligations to the
environment, conflicts of interest, and risk assessment, will be presented and evaluated.
PST 3109RR - Ethics and Technical Professions
Rosenberger
PST 3127 - Science, Technology and Human Values
Klein
PST 3127 approaches ethics through writings on the critique of consciousness and the realization
of freedom. The class differs from most philosophy classes, which conceive of ethics in terms of
a rational agent acting on the basis of higher principle, such as utility maximization (Mill) or
universality (Kant). We consider human rationality to be incomplete but to be capable of
development and improvement. We examine cognitive impediments to ethical action (“false
consciousness”), various accounts of the origins of such impediments, methods for critique of
consciousness, and visions of freedom. Readings will draw not only on philosophy but also on
literature, the social sciences, and clinical psychology.
PST 3127RB - Science, Technology, & Human Values
Berry
In the first half of this course, we will examine the health care delivery system, including
proposals for its reform, through multi-disciplinary readings. In the second half of the course, we
will examine issues in bioethics throughout the life cycle, from birth to death, again through
multi-disciplinary readings. The course will employ an active-learning, seminar-style approach,
with panels of students assigned to write and present short “reaction papers” addressing the class
readings. Presentations of the reaction papers will be followed by class discussion.
PUBP 4600 - Senior Seminar/Thesis (core)
Kingsley
A capstone course usually taken in the student's last term before graduation, the senior seminar
and thesis involves writing an original paper entailing policy analysis relevant to a public or
nonprofit agency. PERMIT REQUIRED
PUBP 4609 - Legal Practice
Attorney
This course develops skills in reading and comprehension of legal materials, analysis of legal
writing, and document drafting in selected areas of law.
PUBP 4803SC - Special Topic: Science and Technology, Innovation, and
Development
Cozzens
PUBP 4803RB - Special Topic: Science, Technology and Regulation Barke
Many of the most important policy decisions are not made by legislatures and executives but by
regulatory agencies -- particularly in areas such as environment, health and safety, energy,
transportation, and communications. How do regulatory agencies actually make regulations? To
whom do they listen and respond? When should regulations command people and industries,
when should they simply inform us, and when should we be left alone? How can regulators
compare the benefits and costs of policies? How can you (or someday, your company, law firm,
etc.) influence them? In short, how do they and should they decide?
We will examine regulatory policymaking, procedures, and politics. Special attention
will be given to topics such as regulatory/legal history, major provisions of administrative law
and procedure, the role of experts and the public, the treatment of scientific and behavioral
uncertainty, and interactions among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. POL 1101
or equivalent is the only prerequisite. Cases will include emerging regulations of
nanotechnology, environmental risk, and the regulation of research (e.g., stem cells, human
subjects, conflict of interest). Students will participate in exercises that examine current
regulatory controversies.
PUBP 4803JR - Special Topic: Information Policy and Management
Rogers
PUBP 4803WS - Special Topic: Survey of Telecommunications Law
Sapronov
PUBP 4803AL - Special Topic: Stem Cell Science, Ethics, and Policy
Levine
Stem cells and related technologies offer the potential to advance our understanding of human
diseases and lead us to a new era of regenerative medicine. Yet scientific research using stem
cells raises profound ethical questions and deciding whether to support and how to regulate stem
cell science has posed challenges for policymakers in the United States and around the world.
This class will explore the history, current state of the art and likely future of stem cell science.
To do so, we will examine different types of stem cell science (e.g. adult stem cells, embryonic
stem cells) and research in related fields, such as cloning. For each topic, we will ask assess the
current state of scientific knowledge, and examine relevant ethical issues and policy considerations. At the end of the course, students will have a solid grounding in the stem cell debate,
complemented by an ability to assess ethical issues and participate in and contribute to policy
debates on the development of emerging technologies in the life sciences.
PUBP 4803 - Special Topic: Negotiating Sustainability
Knox-Hayes
Sustainability is an effort to balance economic growth, social equity and environmental
preservation. This course explores sustainability not as an endpoint but as a constantly evolving
process of negotiation. There are dynamic tensions between the pillars of sustainability, and at
stake are principles of power, equality, and justice in the decision-making process. This
discussion based seminar will allow students to deconstruct the three pillars of sustainability and
analyze what is at stake within each pillar as well as who the main stakeholders are. Course
readings will be supplemented with relevant documentaries.
The course will introduce a series of case studies or modules to analyze specific policies
of sustainability negotiations at different scales. The case studies will bridge the three pillars of
sustainability and investigate policies relevant to social, economic and environmental
development. The modules will include organization-specific issues such as corporate
environmental management, local issues such as power, energy and agricultural resource
management in Georgia, nation-specific issues such as the one child policy in China, and global
issues such as climate change, biodiversity, and nuclear-non proliferation. Students will come
away from the course equipped to understand and debate the complex and contested positions
within sustainable negotiations as scholars or as policy makers.