ASTK12291U Course: Comparative Public Politics

Volume 2014/2015
Education
Bachelorlevel: 10 ECTS
Masterlevel: 7,5 ECTS

SRM - Elective course: 7,5 ECTS
Content

This seminar explores a range of concepts, theories and findings in public policy research with a view to understanding similarities and differences in policies across advanced industrial societies. In doing so, it deals with issues of definition, classification and measurement. What is policy? What is the difference between policy outputs and policy outcomes? How can they be measured? How can we distinguish types of policy and is it useful to do so? We also examine existing research that seeks to explain policy outputs and policy outcomes. Why do some countries respond differently to similar problems? What does the policy making process look like? Which factors influence policy making? Do policy actors like parties and interest groups matter? Which interests and ideas matter, and how? Do policy makers learn from past errors? Do they learn from one another's experiences? We will use discussion of these fundamental questions as a platform to explore substantive policy areas. The course is centred on weekly reading and participation in class. It places a strong emphasis on recent research literature that uses a wide range of methods.

Learning Outcome

By the end of the term, students should:

  1. understand the main analytical concepts underlying comparative policy analysis;
  2. be able to assess competing explanations for variation in policy outputs and outcomes;
  3. have a good understanding of policy-making in substantive policy areas in comparative, cross-national perspective;

be able to identify current research puzzles and unresolved problems in the literature

Session 1. DATE. Introduction.

What is Comparative Public Policy? Overview of the course. Theories. Interpreting results in policy research. Essay-writing.

There is no required reading (or thought piece) for the first week. However, you may wish to consult some of the following general textbooks and edited volumes, which will be useful throughout the module:

Hill, Michael J. 2009. The Public Policy Process. 5th ed. Harlow: Pearson Longman. (6th edition, 2013 is on order.)

John, Peter. 2006. Analysing Public Policy. London: Continuum.

Howlett, Michael, and M. Ramesh. 2003. Studying Public Policy: Policy Cycles and Policy Subsystems. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dodds, Anneliese. 2013. Comparative Public Policy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (On order.)

Sabatier, Paul A., ed. 1999. Theories of the Policy Process. Theoretical Lenses on Public Policy. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. (2nd edition, 2007, is on order.)

Moran, Michael, Martin Rein, and Robert E. Goodin. 2006. The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Weingast, Barry R, and Donald A Wittman, ed. 2006. The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

This article serves as a useful supplement to Sabatier's edited volume, summarising recent developments:

Nowlin, Matthew C. 2011. “Theories of the Policy Process: State of the Research and Emerging Trends.” Policy Studies Journal 39: 41–60.

It is part of an annual publication by the Policy Studies Journal called the Public Policy Yearbook, which summarises recent developments in policy studies. The next edition will be published in April.

For a general overview of comparative politics, see:

Mair, Peter, 1996. 'Comparative Politics: an overview'. In Goodin, Robert E, and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, ed. 1996. A New Handbook of Political Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Session 2. DATE. Describing policy; explaining policy.

Types of policy and policy instruments. Stages of the policy process. Overview of theories in policy research.

Hill, Michael. 2013. ThePublic Policy Process. 6th edition. Harlow: Pearson Longman. Chapter 7.

Smith, K.B., 2002. Typologies, Taxonomies, and the Benefits of Policy Classification. Policy Studies Journal, 30(3), pp.379–395.

Sabatier, Paul A. 1999. “The Need for Better Theories.” In Theories of the Policy Process, ed. Paul A. Sabatier, 3–19. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

Saetren, H., 2005. Facts and Myths about Research on Public Policy Implementation: Out-of-Fashion, Allegedly Dead, But Still Very Much Alive and Relevant. Policy Studies Journal, 33(4), pp.559–582.

 

Session 3. DATE. Institutions and policy.

What are institutions? What are ideas? How do they influence policy-making?

Immergut, Ellen M. 1992. “The Rules of the Game: The Logic of Health Policy-making in France, Switzerland, and Sweden.” In Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis, ed. Sven Steinmo, Kathleen Ann Thelen, and Frank Longstreth, 57–89. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Steinmo, Sven. 1989. “Political Institutions and Tax Policy in the United States, Sweden, and Britain.” World Politics 41 (4): 500–535.

Scharpf, Fritz Wilhelm. 1997. Games Real Actors Play: Actor-centered Institutionalism in Policy Research. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, pp.19-68.

 

Session 4. DATE. Ideas and policy.

Schmidt, Vivien A. 2010. “Taking Ideas and Discourse Seriously: Explaining Change Through Discursive Institutionalism as the Fourth ‘new Institutionalism’.” European Political Science Review 2 (01): 1–25.

Appel, Hilary, and Mitchell A. Orenstein. 2013. “Ideas Versus Resources Explaining the Flat Tax and Pension Privatization Revolutions in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.” Comparative Political Studies 46 (2): 123–152. (Also discusses diffusion: see Sesssion 10.)

Christensen, Johan. 2012. “Bringing the Bureaucrats Back in: Neo-liberal Tax Reform in New Zealand.” Journal of Public Policy 32 (2): 141–168.

 

The following sessions will be available in Absalon

The course consists of lectures, class discussion, group-work and exercises.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Course Preparation
  • 100
  • Exercises
  • 53
  • Preparation
  • 25
  • Total
  • 206
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Written assignment
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
  • Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
  • Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner