Course 2024-2025 a.y.

20511 - POLITICS AND POLICY MAKING

Department of Social and Political Sciences

Course taught in English

Student consultation hours
Class timetable
Exam timetable

Go to class group/s: 14

GIO (6 credits - I sem. - OB | SPS/04)

Course Director:
PAOLO ROBERTO GRAZIANO

Classes: 14 (I sem.)

Instructors:
Class 14: PAOLO ROBERTO GRAZIANO

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

Politics and Policy-Making allows the students to understand political processes by focusing on the different actors, interests and institutions which are part of contemporary political systems. More specifically, the course provides the main analytical tools needed to understand the nature of policy-making and public management in multi-level settings. The first part of the course addresses issues such as politics and political systems, the policy cycle, stakeholder analysis, models of public administration and public management. The second part of the course will focus on patterns of decision-making in multi-level contexts with a special focus on the European Union and environmental and social policies. The interaction among public institutions, political actors and decision-making processes are discussed using political science methodological tools and analytical approaches.

CONTENT SUMMARY

- Political systems

- Policy cycle

- Political actors

- Social actors

- Agenda-setting

- Formulation

- Adoption

- Implementation

- Evaluation

- Europeanization

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

Identify the various components of a political systems
Contextualize the policy processes
Identify the main policy contexts and issues
List the actors involved in a given policy process
Recognize interests involved in a given policy process
Illustrate the political strategies of political actors playing a specific policy game

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

Identify specific policy arenas
Formulate a stakeholder mapping
Compare different policy preferences
Assess the relative relational power of political and social actors involved in policy processes
Draft a policy paper
Formulate adequate policy recommendations

Teaching methods

Lectures
Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
Individual works / Assignments
Collaborative Works / Assignments
Interaction/Gamification

DETAILS

Exercises will focus on actors’ mapping, on the understanding of the policy phase and the policy content

Group assignments will be focused on identifying the policy actors involved in a given policy, describe the policy process, identify the interests and interactions of the various actors involved, develop policy recommendations.

Assessment methods

	Continuous assessment	Partial exams	General exam
Written individual exam (traditional/online)			x
Collaborative Works / Assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)	x

ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

With the purpose of measuring the acquisition of the above-mentioned learning outcomes, the students’ assessment includes a written exam.
The exam consists in four open questions: three are aimed at verifying the knowledge acquisition of the students, whereas the fourth is aimed at evaluating the full understanding of stakeholder mapping, policy phase and policy content identification
Individual assignments, group assignments and active class participation account for 40% of the final grade. The exam accounts for the remaining 60%.

Teaching materials

ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

- M. Howlett, M. Ramesh and A. Perl (2020), Studying Public Policy: Principles and Processes (4th edition), Oxford University Press

- Coursepack (made available on BB)

Last change 15/07/2024 09:52