We will be using the 3rd edition of Public Policy: An Evolutionary Approach, by Joseph Steward, Jr. and David Hedge. Also Aftershock, by Robert Reich. Both books will be available in the PSU Bookstore, eventually, and are available now at Amazon.com.
We look at policy, rather than at political party wars, so a lot of the interesting stuff now going on in the U. S. Congress will elude us. We are going to be spending our time on three things. The first is the policy process itself. How do "issues" get onto the public agenda; how are they considered, legitimated, implemented, and evaluated and does it make any difference?
The second is what I call "policy skills" and has to do with establishing the axis of salience of an issue, the positions taken on that axis, and the information that becomes available when those positions are turned into "problem charts."
The third is a study of a few representative issues. The economy, for sure, in all its taxing and spending and borrowing complexity. Education, for sure. Welfare policy, for sure--meaning not "welfare" as in Reagan's "welfare queens," but in the sense of how the needy are to be dealt with. We want "the lash of poverty" on the one hand, but not a permanent underclass. How to do that? We will be studying fool politics and environmental politics and maybe smoking politics as well. We'll see.
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