Public Policy Process

The world of policy and politics, governance and government can be murky with seemingly transparent and tangled connections. Who gets to define the agenda, what type of policy will come to the fore, and who is accountable? This course sheds light on some of these concepts using the work of respected authors in the field. It allows learners to understand how a critical analytic and descriptive framework can help understand who is involved in the policy process, how it operates, and ultimately leads to a discussion about who is accountable. The answers to these questions help lay a solid foundation for further exploration of policy analysis and formation in other courses.
The course is divided into four units. The first unit serves as an introduction to public policy. The second unit introduces in detail the structure of the public policy cycle as defined by Paul Cairney. Unit three is dedicated to the actors in the policy arena and their decision-making process. Finally, unit four introduces the topics of accountability and policy evaluation.

Course leader

Ahmed Hussain (via UNU-MERIT)

Target group

Enrolled as an Undergraduate student or Undergraduate diploma

Course aim

• Understand the distinction between policy and politics, government, and governance.
• Understand how the national political discourse affects policymaking and decision-making.
• Understand the stages of the policy cycle and their interactions.
• Be able to think critically about the actors in the policymaking process in their own country and the influences and motivations they may have in the policy process.
• Be able to distinguish between outputs and outcomes, monitoring and evaluation.
• Understand the importance and relevance of the policy process and all stages of the policy cycle, thereby laying an important foundation for the next course on the techniques for monitoring and evaluation.
• Overall, the student should be able to critically reflect on the literature provided and be able to distil this knowledge into their own country context.