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Analysing Public Policy

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
  • Convenor and tutor: Dr Rachael Dobson
  • Assessment: a 4000-word policy analysis (100%)

Module description

Public policy is central to contemporary society. In responding to social problems and distributing material resources, it creates as well as resolves inequalities.

In this module we introduce you to critical and contemporary debates about what public policy is, how it is made, and who and what influences it. We will identify the range of institutions, processes and people central for public policy making and delivery. We also introduce you to the intellectual and practical skills needed to carry out policy analyses. This enables you to apply critical and social ideas, theories and methodologies to real-world policy events and issues.

Indicative syllabus

What is policy?

  • Policy-making systems and processes
  • Understanding government and governance
  • Contemporary governance and policy networks

Who and what influence public policy?

  • Human actors
  • Society and the social
  • Society and culture
  • Spatialities and temporalities

Analysing policy in theory and practice

  • Understanding policy languages
  • Interpreting policy
  • Applying policy methodologies

Learning objectives

By the end of this module you will be able to:

  • understand the range of institutions, processes and actors involved in making and delivering public policy, in liberal democratic governing contexts
  • understand and evaluate key debates and thinkers in the study and analysis of public policy
  • understand and evaluate key theories, concepts and methodologies relevant to the critical analysis of public policy problems and institutional responses
  • understand and evaluate the contributions of interdisciplinary approaches for the critical analysis of public policy problems and institutional responses
  • understand and analyse public policy as historic, social and cultural phenomena
  • understand and evaluate critical theories and methodologies and apply these to the analysis of real-world public policy problems, issues and events.