Fall/Winter Timetable

POL2318Y1F L0101

Core Course: Comparative Public Policies

Themes

This class provides an overview of current developments in comparative public policy and surveys a variety of theoretical literatures (including works on preference formation, interest articulation, and institutions) that seek to explain public policy in a comparative manner. The course explores substantive issues in public policy of industrialized democracies with material written by political scientists, economists, sociologists, and psychologists. Issues of research design and the appropriateness of social inquiry figure prominently in the discussions. The course has two fundamental aims. The first is to assess our analytical tools and concepts for understanding how public policies are generated. The second is to explore areas of comparative public policy that have seen interesting developments in the last twenty years.