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DESIGNING
AND DELIVERING PUBLIC POLICIES:
FROM
VALUES TO IMPLEMENTATION
10 July -
4 August, 2000
Course Director: László Váradi (Budapest
University of Economic Sciences, Hungary)
Resource
Persons: Gyula Gulyás (Budapest University
of Economic Sciences, Hungary)
Jeffrey D. Straussman (The Maxwell School,
Syracuse University, USA)
Tony Bovaird (Aston University, United Kingdom)
Martin Potucek (Charles University, Czech
Republic)
György Jenei (Budapest University of Economic
Sciences, Hungary)
Geert Bouckaert (Catholic University Leuven,
Belgium)
Course objectives
The very fact that the
term 'public policy' and the vocabulary of policy-making have to be newly
invented in the local languages of the CEE region indicates the novelty
of policy studies and policy analysis in the region. At the core of political
decision making and the successful implementation of public policies (public
administration activities) there is a fine tuned, 'right' balance between
competing social, political and economic values. The course will enable
participants from the CEE region face the challenge of introducing public
policy courses and programs that educate students to become competent professionals
in governmental and other public sector positions.
Objectives include:
* provide an understanding
of the complexities of policy-making, policy analysis and implementation
through multi-disciplinary analytic frameworks which draw upon a variety
of social science fields;
* offer information, knowledge,
and skills on the processes, analyses, implementation, and evaluation of
public policies to assist development of new courses that will educate
students to work in governments, legislative bodies, and civic or business
organizations;
* demonstrate how the theories
of social, political, and economic values play their roles in policy making
in order to use the concepts and practices of policy analysis that can
lead to successful implementation and delivery;
* learn about the recent
trends in the practice of public management in Western democracies, acquire
usable knowledge of the evaluation of impacts and outcomes, and learn the
measurement of the performance of public sector organizations;
* equip the participants
with practical skills and knowledge for developing policy proposals and
managing public organizations.
Course level, target
audience
The course does not require
prior study of policy-making. A prospective participant should have studied
a social science discipline (e.g., economics, political science, sociology,
law, etc.). Preference will be given to participants who are able to demonstrate
their teaching and/or research experience in one of the empirically-oriented
social science disciplines and/or economics. Building on the respective
knowledge and skills of the participants the course is going to be offered
on an advanced level both in terms of its comprehensiveness and in-depth
analytic techniques and skills.
Syllabus
The first module of the
course will cover the subject of values - the normative approach in the
policy process. Examples of these values are social justice, efficiency,
equity and equality, democratic procedures and the problem of value preferences
and trade-offs, public interest, public and common good - all in the framework
of collective action. The usage of these theoretical concepts in policy
analysis and public management will be demonstrated and teaching cases
through discussion teaching will develop the analytical skills built on
these concepts. Gyula Gulyás and Jeffrey Straussman will teach this
segment of the course.
The second module will
introduce a policy-analytic framework that has the rationale of improving
public policy-making in terms of social surplus. On the concept of market
failures and other limitations of the competitive market in contrast to
the concept of government failure will be built a set of generic policies
for government. Generic policies demonstrate how almost every policy involves
trade-offs - that is, a policy may correct certain policy failures, but
it also suffers from its own inherent limitations and, hence, may create
new problems. The craft of policy analysis will be demonstrated by how
the analyst can systematically compare concrete alternatives in terms of
their impacts relative to a comprehensive set of goals (values). László
Váradi will teach this segment.
The third module will focus
on models of policy designs. It will introduce alternative approaches to
the development of new policy initiatives, the standard methods for designing
implementation, and empirical policy research designs through cases. Special
focus will be on public policies from the Czech Republic and other CEE
countries with ties to cases from the CEE region presented in the first
module. Martin Potu(ek and György Jenei will lead this module.
The fourth module will
concentrate on the organisation of public policies and transformation of
ideas and methods into concrete policies. Topics will include: establishing
organisational goals and defining missions, co-ordinating across units
and agencies, delegating responsibility, motivating personnel, and monitoring
performance. This segment will also consider evaluating and measuring policy
outputs and outcomes and ways of introducing evaluation and measurement
in organisational and political settings. Tony Bovaird and Geert Bouckaert
will teach this module.
Teaching methods
In addition to traditional
reading and discussions, interactive teaching methods will be used to develop
the analytical skills of the participants and show how to teach throughout
the course. Some modules will use in-classroom workshops and take-home
group assignments with presentation of results in class sessions.
The course will also require
participants to present the state of affairs of the teaching of policy-related
subjects in their home universities and institutes. Altogether four classroom
hours will be devoted to the review of the teaching of public policy in
the CEE universities represented by the participants.
Central
European University does not discriminate on the basis of--including, but
not limited to--race, color, national and ethnic origin, religion, gender
or sexual orientation in administering its educational policies, admissions
policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered
programs.
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