Over the last two decades the field of development economics has been revolutionized by the spread of experimental evaluations as well as the increased use of non-experimental evaluations to study policies and programs that work in promoting economic development. In this course we study the lessons for development that have arisen from these pilot studies concentrating on studies in the areas of education, health, labor markets, crime, governance, micro credit and productive projects. We begin with an introduction to the tools necessary to understand evaluation methodology.
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Focuses on the theoretical and normative underpinnings of contemporary political philosophy, particularly theories of the legitimacy and proper function of nation states and global institutions. What role should ethics play in public policy formation and implementation? We will give special attention to ideals and institutions of national and global justice and how they are and should be related to ideals and institutions of democracy. What are the merits and demerits of democratic institutions in comparison with authoritarian ones? Do prosperous, liberal democratic states have reason to promote economic and political development in other countries and, if so, what are the best ways to do so? Key readings: Hobbes, Ober, Rawls, the Capability Approach (Robeyns), D. Bell, and Deveaux.
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Examines the future of intelligence analysis against the backdrop of emerging transnational issues, the continuing process of globalization as it concerns de-risking and de-coupling, advances in information technology, the open-source revolution, and U.S. homeland security requirements. Restricted to PLCY majors or permission of instructor.
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Examines how governments and policymakers define poverty and the extent and demographics of contemporary poverty in the United States, other developed countries, and developing countries. Looks in detail at the official U.S. poverty measure and the Supplemental Poverty Measure developed by the Obama administration, as well as those developed by the World Bank and other international organizations. Explores the causes of poverty in the developed and developing world, and efforts to alleviate poverty over the last fifty years, focusing in the U.S. on income transfers, civil rights and equal opportunity, and efforts to increase human and social capital (with a special focus on children, the elderly, and minorities), and focusing in the developing world on infrastructure development, governance, and corruption. Restricted to PLCY majors or permission of instructor.
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Serving as a successful leader for a nonprofit or public organization of any kind requires an understanding of the strategic management process and a well-developed and managed strategy. It is a key to an organization’s performance. This course provides an integrated approach to leadership theories and concepts, research, and modern practices related to strategic planning and execution. Leading strategy approaches are discussed and students gain a deep understanding of how strategy can be developed, implemented, and managed in these organizations. The course is relevant for students who want to work for and/or consult with nonprofit and government organizations. Restricted to PLCY majors or permission of instructor.
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Introduces students to the fundamentals of fundraising. Identifies the major types of nonprofit funding models and assesses which fundraising methods are appropriate for each model. Explores motivations for giving; ethical concerns; types of funding sources; types of fundraising mechanisms and instruments; grant writing and the rise of strategic philanthropy and the new demands it places on nonprofit leaders - both to manage their programs and to raise funds.
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Provides frameworks, tools, and skills to improve program results in an environment where policy challenges span organizational boundaries and third parties implement programs. Several results-oriented frameworks and case illustrations will be examined in depth, including the Government Performance and Results Act, federal, state and local Performance-Stat systems and the use of performance dashboards, executive branch performance management initiatives, and international and US initiatives to foster civic engagement through open government and web based performance reporting.
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This course explores how scientific and technical information gets used (or not used) in the formation of public policy, and how public policy influences science and technology development. Students will come away from this course with a fundamental understanding of the institutional landscape of S&T policy, the instruments of S&T policy implementation, and the processes of S&T policy decision-making. The landscape encompasses government, business, academic institutions, and NGOs. The policy mechanisms include government subsidies for research and development, enforcement of intellectual property rights, encouragement of public understanding of S&T, and much more. The processes range from direct democracy and litigation to legislative and bureaucratic decision-making. Along the way, students will examine some of the most challenging S&T-linked public-policy issues of the 21st century – climate change, energy, national security, innovation, spectrum allocation, environmental monitoring, agricultural productivity, the pursuit of sustainable economic development – and will grapple with the interlinked issues of S&T education, and the level of public participation in S&T decision making.

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Provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to understand, describe, and critique program evaluations, and also to identify the policy implications of specific findings. Using examples from domestic policy and international development, the course covers (1) process and summative evaluation issues, including data collection, causal validity, and generalizability; (2) economic evaluations, including cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit studies; and (3) performance measurement of ongoing programs.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights begins with “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” But what does “human dignity” mean, and does this concept really matter in the worlds of diplomacy, foreign aid, international and domestic policy, and concerns about gender equity and social justice? How have notions of human dignity changed since Aristotle and Cicero? How does dignity link to human rights, global climate change, leadership, status, grace, and other ethical concepts? Is dignity something that you are born with, something that you can lose, or something that you have to earn? Are we cheapening the notion of human dignity – and its effectiveness in public policy – by overusing it in our rhetoric? Without some consensus on a moral and philosophical foundation for dignity, and some more precision in its meaning, is dignity quickly becoming a useless notion? Or, to the contrary, is dignity an essential baseline for public policy.
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