The role of public policy has grown in the world over recent generations, with governments and other policy organizations doing more in societies than ever before. Public policy work tends to address social problems that private people and organizations cannot solve alone. But how effective is it at solving these problems? In other words, does public policy ‘get the job done’? Reflecting on this question, with an eye to helping policy workers get things done more effectively, this course offers a view into current practice in public policy. It does this by reflecting on cases, prominent readings, and research, on: How policy organizations commonly think about success; How policy organizations commonly structure their pursuit of success; What conditions are commonly associated with success; How successful policy work commonly turns out to be; How policy work might be made more successful.
Students will leave the course with a clearer view on how to do policy work (and well) given current ways of thinking and doing such, and on how to do policy work differently. The course is particularly focused on policy work in developing country contexts, and the policy work undertaken by governments with international development organizations like the World Bank. The lessons are relevant beyond this domain and these actors, however.
While registration is limited to MPAID students during rounds 1 and 2, other interested students are welcome to submit petition requests in my.harvard for enrollment during the add/drop period.
