Central European University A Program for University Teachers, Advanced Ph.D. Students, Researchers and Professionals in the Social Sciences and Humanities Summer University

Course Director: László Váradi (Budapest University of Economic Sciences)

Resource Persons: 

Lance T. LeLoup (Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA)
Martin Potucek (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic)
David H. Greenberg (University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland, USA)

What is the educational goal?
The fact that the term ‘public policy’ and the vocabulary of policy-making had to be invented in the local languages of the CEE region indicates the novelty of policy studies and policy analysis in the region. The purpose of this course is to increase the learning process by providing comprehensive multi-disciplinary policy analytic frameworks which draw upon a variety of social science fields. The course  will provide information, knowledge, and skills relevant to topics and courses for university programs which educate students who will work for governments, legislative bodies, and civic or business organizations.

Why this course?
The multi-disciplinary character of public policy making has still not been incorporated into the curriculum of most CEE universities.  Even public policy programs, in which such courses should best fit, are rarely found in the region. The departmental structures existing within universities still preserve the traditional boundaries of social science disciplines and impede the emergence of the multi-disciplinary study of public policy.
Outside the universities, political debates are often framed in ideological and historical terms, with no informed connection to contemporary realities.  Moreover, policy discussions and the evaluation of alternatives lack the depth of analysis found in countries with longer traditions of democracy.   By and large, decision makers and public administrators may lack up-to-date conceptual and analytical knowledge and the skills needed to manage effectively in a democratic, market-oriented society.  In addition, because policy analysis is fundamental in the search for alternatives, it is a departure from the prevailing conventional wisdom.
By having courses on public policy studies and policy analysis on their curricula, CEE universities could contribute significantly to improving the capacity of formulating and implementing public policies.

What is the content of the course?
The course provides: (1) a conceptual foundation of the rationales for and limitations of public policy; (2) establishes an understanding of the major characteristics of policy-making; (3) demonstrates the application of a policy-analytic framework and analytic techniques for conducting policy analysis; (4) provides practical advice about how to do policy analysis; and (5) describes techniques for evaluating public policy and programs. The length of the course is four weeks.

This course will provide an understanding of the complexity of policy problems in a framework in which analytical concepts, procedures and tools brought from different branches of economics and other social sciences play equal parts.  It introduces procedures and concepts not yet well established, or understood, in policy-making structures within and outside governments in post-communist countries.
The first five days of the course cover the topics of policy-making process; introduces fundamental concepts, approaches, and typologies; describes the policy environment and ways in which political institutions shape the process of policy formulation and adoption; and explores implementation as well as bureaucratic and judicial policy-making.  Cases drawn from contemporary policy issues such as budget, economic, health and social welfare, defense and foreign policies provide actual policy-making examples which demonstrate how institutions and processes can affect outcomes.
On the sixth and seventh days, empirical policy research cases drawn from the Czech Republic are discussed with a background of identifying the function, place, and organization of policy research, and also their methodology.  The applicability of single methods and an illistration of a complex research methodology into the policy formation and implementation is discussed.
From the eighth to the thirteenth days, another policy-analytic framework is introduced and its components are explained in detail. This framework has the rationale of improving public policies by searching for socially desirable outcomes. It does so by introducing students to the concept of market failures and the other limitations of the competitive market in contrast to the concept of government failures.  The concept and the operational effects of generic policies (tools for governmental intervention) will then be explained.  This concept demonstrates how almost every policy involves trade-offs - that is, it may correct certain failures in the public arena, but they may suffer from inherent limitations and, hence create new problems. The craft of policy analysis is demonstrated by showing how the analyst can systematically compare concrete alternatives in terms of their impacts relative to a comprehensive set of goals (values).
Between the fourteenth and nineteenth days, the course extends the policy-analytic framework by describing how benefit-cost analysis can be used to evaluate public sector programs and policies. After introducing the basic theory and concepts that underlie benefit-cost analysis, methods are described that are used to empirically perform benefit-cost analysis. The methods will be illustrated with case studies of previously conducted benefit-cost evaluation.
On the twentieth day, the course concludes by discussing the tools for prediction and influence of the adoption and the implementation of public policies.