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POLITICS
D E P A R T M EN T of
& P U BL I C A D M I N I S T RA T I O N
PA4018 Public Policy Process
Bernadette Connaughton, Room: F1017, email: [email protected]
Aims and Objectives
This course provides students with an overview of
the theory and practice (selected cases) of policy
analysis.
• To understand the institutional framework and
main drivers of public policy
• To focus on the key conceptual stages of the
policy making process – agenda setting, formulation,
decision making, implementation and evaluation
• To explore various models of the public policy
process
• To investigate Irish public policy through selected
cases – health, environment, street level bureaucr
ats..
Contents
We study public policy because we want to know why particular decisions are made or not made. Public policy
is important because the scope of the state encompasses almost all aspects of our daily lives. It involves
everything from building roads to providing education and health care services, regulating business activity and
influencing climate change talks. Although the main subject is the decisions and actions taken by governments (at
all levels), many other actors – including international bodies like the European Union, UN and the World Bank,
businesses, trade unions, community groups, religious leaders, journalists, celebrity activists etc. – can play key
roles in setting policy agendas, formulating and marketing proposals, implementing decisions, and stirring up
public support and/or indignation for the outcomes.
Questions of interest are:
1. How and why do governments choose specific policies at specific times and under specific circumstances?
2. Why is it challenging to give effect to policy prescriptions?
Part one of the course introduces key policy actors that set policy agendas, formulate proposals, broker
decisions and implement public policy. It also focuses on key concepts – power and accountability – in the public
policy process. Part two presents different stages in the policy cycle – agenda setting, formulation, decision
making and implementation. Part three presents selected cases (e.g. health, environment, fiscal) and theories
(rational choice, advocacy coalition framework, policy transfer) used to interpret policy decisions.
Core Readings
Core text:
Cairney, P. (2012) Understanding Public Policy – Theories and Issues, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Supplementary Texts:
Hill, M., (2012) The Policy Process in the Modern State (sixth edition), London: Pearson Longman.
Howlett, M., Ramesh, M. and Perl, A. (2009) Studying Public Policy: Policy Cycles and Policy Subsystems, (third edition),
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
John, P. (2012) Analysing Public Policy (second edition), London: Routledge.
Knill, C. and Tosun, J. (2012) Public Policy – A New Introduction, Basingstoke: Palgrave.