Course Description

Who really makes public policy? For the past thirty years, historians of public policy have broadened the scope of understanding who really shapes public policy, emphasizing the importance of race, gender, class, and power. We will explore more top-down accounts of top leaders and their advisors as well as lawmakers, lobbyists, activists, and ordinary people, all of whom have had important roles in coming up with, advocating, passing, amending, and repealing policies.

Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be required to write an historiography paper on a specific law or public policy. The paper should be attuned to how the field of public policy has broadened historical understandings of who has made public policy. Students will be encouraged to pick a topic that will support their thesis or dissertation.

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Athena Title

People Behind Public Policy

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Undergraduate Pre or Corequisite

One course in HIST or POLS or INTL or ECON or EDLP or JURI or LEGL or third- or fourth-year student standing

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Grading System

A - F (Traditional)

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Student learning Outcomes

• Students will learn the importance of the different stages of policymaking, from recognizing a problem through implementation.
• Students will learn to consider the importance of race, gender, class, and power to the different stages of policymaking.
• Students will learn how to analyze how those and other categories shaped public policies that continue to shape what it means to live, work, and be a resident or citizen.
• Students will know how to research and write an historically focused policy brief attuned to the many people involved in making or changing public policy.

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Topical Outline

• A “progressive” world order
• Economic Crisis & Reform
• Democracy & Decolonization
• Neoliberalism in a Multi-Polar World

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