Policy Analysis

Prof. Giancarlo Vecchi

 The main aim of the class is to familiarise the students with the theory and practice of public policy analysis, a political science sub-discipline involved in explaining and predicting the ways in which governments at all levels interact with citizens, firms and other public and private organisations in the solution of collective problems.

The core of the course regards the strategies that an innovative actor (public or private) can use in decisional and implementation processes to improve the success of a reform/innovation project. 

More generally, the course focuses attention on using ‘public policy’ as unit of analysis to develop innovations in a political/administrative environment. The intent is to develop an understanding to use analytic concepts and tools to improve managerial capacity for successful changes in dealing with organizations and society problems. The course builds skills in using both theories and methodological approaches, to create capacities useful for public and private managers. The current analysis about the problems regarding our societies underline the concept of ‘multilevel governance’, a concept that seek to describe the strong interactions among public, private and ‘third sector’ actors; and among different territorial levels, from the local to the global. In that context, the framework developed by policy analysts is useful to help both public and private manager in understanding the contexts in which innovations struggle to have success.

 The class, on the basis of a preliminary analysis of the level of linguistic knowledge of both Italian and foreign students, will be organised as follows:

1. introduction: what is public policy, the evolution of public policies and public administrations contests;
2. the decision making process: theories,  models (comprehensive, bounded rationality, incrementalism, garbage can), elements (the actors and their roles, resources, stake, patterns of interaction, environment), strategies for successful decisions;
3. implementation process and mechanism theory: managerial and social mechanisms to explain the capacity of interventions to change the behaviour of individual and organizational groups
4. methodological in-depth analysis: case studies research and process tracing.

The class is based on lectures, group work and exercises. The students attending the class will be required to participate in at least one collective exercise and to present a final individual paper. Active participation in the classroom is an essential element. For optimal discussion to occur, it is imperative that you develop ideas and ask questions that are relevant to the subject matter. I will evaluate your participation at the end of the semester. The final assessment will be the average resulting from the three factors: group work and exercises; final individual paper; active participation.

The students that for acceptable reasons (e.g. Erasmus) are not able to attend will have to do a written exam based on the Bardach and Dente books.

In alternativa alla versione inglese - As an alternative to the english edition

In alternativa all'edizione inglese - as an alternative to the english edition