Course 2021-2022 a.y.

The basic framework of the course walks students through a “policy pipeline”: first, students will learn how to set policy goals clearly, and why; then students will learn how to root policies in what has worked or failed in other places via quantitative and qualitative research; they will then learn how to further root policies in the local contexts and negotiate desired outcomes, also via negotiation simulations. Lastly, students will learn how to make policies operational and how to evaluate them. The very last section aims to reconnect this framework with political and moral philosophy by dissecting the moral underpinnings of controversial policies, such as Universal Basic Income.

For each class, students will be assigned a case beforehand which will serve as a base for in class discussion. In some classes, case protagonists may attend and conclude the lecture to help students understand the real-life consequences of policy making.

Throughout the course, students will be asked to develop a policy that solves a real life problem. Their proposed solution will make most of their grades.

• Identify policy goals and their philosphical underpinnings

• Understand the policy setup process and basic quantitative - qualitative tools required to design policies

• Identify common problems in policy implementation

• Summarize the proces of policy evaluation

• Be able to construct basic policies that solve defined real-life problem

• Lezioni frontali
• Testimonianze (in aula o a distanza)
• Analisi casi studio / Incidents guidati (tradizionali, multimediali)
• Lavori/Assignment individuali
• Altre attivita' d'aula interattive (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

• Guest speaker's talks will concern cases in policy design, implementation, and evaluation; these talks are linked to specific case studies assigned to the class
• Individual assignments will entail students developing a policy that solve real-life problems and illustrating it to the class in two different instances (a mid-point and final presentation)
• Interactive class activities will entail students going through negotiation simulations

Attendance for this course is mandatory. For all students, the final grade will be based on one individual written assignment (worth 60% of the grade) with in-class presentation (worth 20% of the grade), an in-class participation (worth 20% of the grade).

The required readings for this course will be scientific articles, book chapters, case studies, and policy reports that represent the key and/or state of the art contributions to the different topics analyzed. Required and suggested readings will be released one week prior to the class for which they are assigned and should be done before the beginning of said class. All readings will be posted on Blackboard.