Fall/Winter Timetable

POL2391H1F L0201

Undergraduate Course Code: POL410H1F L0201

Topics in Comparative Politics III

Comparative Policy Analysis: Design, Feedback Effects and Outcomes

Themes

A growing comparative public policy literature examines the relationship between policy design, policy feedback effects, and policy outcomes, particularly those designed to induce individual and group behavioural change. This course introduces students to theories and approaches to understand policy feedback effects; that is, public policies have distributive consequences; they affect individuals’ and groups’ ability to partake in the policy process (what are called “resource effects”); and they affect how different individuals and groups perceive themselves in relation to the state (what are called “interpretive effects”). How one designs public policies, therefore, has real-world policy implications. Drawing on cases across a number of policy areas including education, environment, health, justice, and social policy, and examining policies across time and space, this course will help students examine the distributive consequences of public policy and examine those resource and interpretive feedback effects in a number of jurisdictions.

Prerequisite: 2.0 credits in POL/ JPA/ JPF/ JPI/ JPR/ JPS/ JRA courses