Prof. CALLIOPE SPANOU

Course description

The course offers an in-depth analysis of the issues involved in policy development in various fields, based on the international classical and modern relevant literature. As a product of the political system, public policies interact with society, ideas, values and beliefs and need legitimation. Different theoretical perspectives on agenda-setting, decision-making procedures and relations between the political-administrative system and the institutional and social environment, interest groups, etc., are examined in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the scientific inquiry around factors potentially influencing the policy cycle.

The course is designed to:

• deepen the understanding of the policy process
• attitudes in the context of state-society relations[s1] 
• develop awareness of the controversies around policy choices
• foster a critical perception of decision-making processes, beyond their formal-legal expression
• build the capacity of students for empirical investigation based on a theoretical inquiry
• familiarize them with the relevant international literature.

Contents

• Introduction. Public policy: the general frameworks
• The emergence of public policy. Agenda setting processes
• Legitimation, Rhetoric and Framing of public policies
• Decision and Non-decision. Rational model and incrementalism
• Policy implementation
• Factors of success and failure
• Normative, intellectual and cognitive frames
• Policy instruments
• Policy change, transfer and diffusion
• Public policy and interest groups
• State, networks and governance
• Policy types and typologies. Policy style
• New institutionalism and public policy

Learning outcomes

Successful completion of the course provides students with:

• understanding of the processes and mechanisms of policy formation in the context of state-society relations
• capacity to analyze the factors affecting implementation, success or failure and policy change
• capacity to formulate research questions regarding specific policies
• capacity to handle a wide range of foreign language literature on related topics.