Required Core Courses (21-22 credit hours)
PPOL 501 Research Methods (3 credit hours) All students must begin with Research Methods, a course that provides an overview of the scientific method, methods of ethical analysis, methods of research design, widely used statistical methods, and specific means of social observation such as survey research.
PPOL 502 The Political Environment of Public Policy (3 credit hours) This course examines how policy making occurs in our political system: the roles of community leaders, citizens, scientists and experts in the policy process; the stages of policy formulation, agenda setting, legislative action, budget-making and the administration of policy, and judicial oversight of the policy process; and the pros and cons of various ways of making policy.
PPOL 503 Economics and Public Policy (3 credit hours) The course focuses on the tools of economic analysis needed to discuss and evaluate public policy proposals. Emphasis is on microeconomic analysis such as supply and demand; monopoly, oligopoly, and perfect competition; public goods, and government regulation of market failures.
PPOL 504 Rational Choice (3 credit hours) The course examines how rational decisions are made, and the types of errors that lead to sub-optimal decisions and loss of social well-being.
PPOL 505 Ethics and Public Policy (3 credit hours) The course focuses on the tensions and relationships between personal morality and political action by examining the moral aspect of contemporary policy issues such as the right to life, environmental policy, social welfare policy, discrimination, and war.
PPOL 506 Program Evaluation (3 credit hours) The course focuses on how particular policies and programs can be evaluated to assess how well they are working and whether they are attaining their goals.
PPOL 507 Cost –Benefit Analysis (3 credit hours) The course focuses on the various techniques used in costbenefit analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques, and case studies illustrating the practical problems involved in such analysis.
PPOL 508 Project Writing (One credit hour) Required only for students not writing a Master’s thesis, the course is designed to produce a capstone paper that demonstrates the student’s ability to integrate previous policy papers into a final coherent overview of a policy area. This course is required only for students electing Plan A.
Policy Related Electives (21 credit hours)
Each student in the program enrolls in additional policy-related courses available across the campus. Relevant policy courses in such areas as economics, health, foreign relations, the environment, social welfare, and criminal justice (among others) are offered intermittently and can be found in the Schedule of Courses and in the Graduate Announcement. Students, however, should note that some courses have required prerequisites that must be taken before enrolling. Moreover, enrollment in courses offered by other graduate programs such as the M.P.A., the M.B.A., or the M.S. in Psychology may not always be available. Students should consult each semester with the program director for the time and semester of core course offerings as well as the availability of electives in other graduate programs.