Department of Public
Policy And Administration
PPA 297A&B:
Fall and Spring, 2004-05
Instructor:
Nancy Shulock, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Public Policy and Administration
Executive Director, Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy
Tahoe Hall 3062
(916) 278-7249
Seminar meetings:
Fridays,
Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, 2nd floor conference room
(Corner of 10th and N Streets), downtown
Course Objectives
This course is designed to give you an academic foundation to complement and enrich your executive office placement. We typically talk of the benefits of linking theory (seminar work) to practice (your placement). But in addition to theory, we will cover practical issues and skill development with the goal of giving you a fuller set of skills and knowledge than one could gain from a placement alone. As a staff member in the executive branch, your duties and your experiences will likely include both policy and management concerns. Therefore the course will cover public policy and public management topics.
Public policy topics include:
· The role of the executive branch in policymaking
· Trends in public sector reform: in search of more effective governance
· Accountability
· The policy process and policy change
· The role of policy analysis in policy development
· Specific policy issues at the discretion of the fellows
Public management topics include:
· Public sector leadership
· Personnel issues and civil service reform efforts
· Public sector ethics
· Performance measurement and performance management
· Public budgeting
It is our goal to build your skills in the following areas:
An overriding goal of this course is to heighten your
appreciation for public service. As you
will discover in course readings, and as you know well from general experience,
negative notions of “bureaucrats” and “bureaucracy” are commonplace. We hope, through the readings and discussions
in the seminar, to enrich your understanding of the role and the contributions
of public servants. We want you to
complete the
Seminar Format
and Expectations
The seminar is a required component of your program. While I understand that you may be more
excited about your agency placement than about the seminar, the two go hand in
hand and you cannot be successful in the fellowship program without being
committed to the seminar as well.
Mentors are aware of this requirement and have been advised to ensure
that Friday mornings are free for fellows to attend the seminar. Nevertheless, it is possible that on rare
occasions fellows will have an unavoidable conflict directly related to one’s
placement (e.g., the need to make an out-of-town presentation). Any fellow who finds it necessary to miss a
seminar should clear it with me first and will be responsible to make up any
missed assignments or to otherwise demonstrate completion of that week’s
readings.
I expect students to come to the seminar having read the
assigned material and ready to discuss it.
I am not going to lecture about or summarize the readings. The purpose of the seminar is to synthesize
and critique the readings and see how they apply to your placement
experiences. A significant part of your
grade will be your participation in these discussions. I have selected readings that I think will
stimulate good discussions, about concepts in general and about how these
concepts apply to your work experiences.
I will also structure ample time for students to bring up issues and
topics that are not anticipated in the syllabus. I will invite guest speakers from time to
time to draw upon the vast expertise in the capital community.
Assignments and
grading
The major project for the year is an issue paper on a
specific policy or management issue of your choice with relevance to your
placement. It should be an analysis of
the issue along with recommendations aimed at leaders in your organization or
at legislators or others in a position to influence matters for your
organization. We will have class
discussions about the format and requirements for this paper, which will be
quite different from a traditional term paper.
Its length is much less important than its content, which should be
focused, logical, persuasive, and clear.
The paper will include a summary of the problem on which the paper is
focused, the context within which the problem exists, an analysis of possible
choices or approaches to addressing the problem, some recommended next steps
for implementing the recommendation, as well as other advice that may be
relevant to the person(s) to whom the recommendation is directed.
Examples of policy problems are too agency-specific to
provide here. Management issues are more
widely applicable, and your paper could include such issues as staffing,
strategic planning, new means of allocating resources within the department,
the development and use of performance indicators, and recommended budget
change proposals. You will be required
to prepare a proposal, a full draft, and a final draft – each of which will
receive a grade.
There will be about five short memos/papers required
throughout the course, intended to demonstrate learning of course concepts and
to practice the kinds of writing skills that are so valuable in policy
settings.
The final course grade will be determined as follows:
Seminar
participation 25% (includes
discussion questions submitted via email prior to class)
Final paper 40%
Proposal (10%)
First
draft (10%)
Final paper
(20%)
Short
memos/papers (about 5) 35%
Required
I have deliberately tried to emphasize interesting,
informative readings while keeping the page requirements manageable. Accordingly, I expect students to complete
all readings by the seminar date.
Books:
• Osborne, David and Ted Gaebler, Reinventing Government, Plume Books, 1993.
• Denhardt, Janet Vinzant and Robert B. Denhardt, The New Public Service: Serving, not Steering, M.E. Sharpe, 2002.
•
Ashworth, Caught Between the Dog and the
Fireplug, or How to Survive Public Service,
•
Radin, Beryl, Beyond Machiavelli: Policy
Analysis Comes of Age,
Some of the articles, reports, and websites are listed
below under the weekly topics, but I may add more as the year evolves. Be sure to consult the web version of the
syllabus to be sure you are up to date with readings and assignments. For journal articles that can be accessed
on-line, I have included a link along with the journal citation and date so you
can access it yourself if the link does not work for any reason. You can access most of these articles
directly through the CSUS Library homepage on-line periodical service, as
follows:
·
Begin at CSUS library
home page: http://library.csus.edu/
·
Click on CSUS Library
Catalog –
·
Click on “enable
access to e-journals and books”
·
Click on “Periodicals
– Serials”
·
Click on “title”
Many of the other links are just to web pages and should
not present any special access challenges.
I am designing this with deliberate flexibility in order to be responsive to Fellows needs and concerns as we move along. I will maintain an updated version of this syllabus on my website which you should consult on a weekly basis for possible changes to class meeting times, scheduled topics, and weekly readings.
ORIENTATION
Session 1: The
·
Economist,
Is
·
PS Online, Recalling
the Recall
·
PS Online, Minority
Participation and the
·
Journal of State Government, Lighting a Candle Rather than Cursing the
Darkness: adapting to the challenges of legislative term limits
·
Pattakos, The
Search for Meaning in Government Service
Session 2: Government research and writing (a preview)
· Musso, Biller, Myrtle, Tradecraft: Professional Writing as Problem-solving
· Bardach, Gathering Data for Policy Research
Session 3:
· About CPR http://cpr.ca.gov/about/#cpr
· Wall Street Journal editorial http://cpr.ca.gov/updates/archives/update42.shtml
· Sacramento Bee editorial http://cpr.ca.gov/updates/archives/update43.shtml
PPA 297A&B:
Part I: The Search for More Effective Government
November 12: The “Reinventing Government” Movement and the “New Public Management”
· Osborne and Gaebler, Reinventing Government, entire book (including preface and introduction). Get an early start in the weeks ahead.
Discussion questions:
• Who are the customers of your department? Do all government services have customers whose interests should determine service levels?
• Do you see evidence of mission-driven, results orientation in your agency?
• Why do we have so many rules in the first place?
• If public servants act like entrepreneurs, whose values do they represent and how are they to be held accountable?
• Do the authors make a convincing case for the paradigm shift in the values that underlie the operation of government?
• How well do business practices apply to government? Are there limits?
• Why has there been bipartisan support for reinvention principles?
November 19: Assessments and Critiques of Reinvention Theory
• Thompson and Riccucci, “Reinventing Government,” Annual Review of Political Science, 1998:1:231-57
• Denhardt, Preface, Chapter 1, and Chapter 10
• Hindy Lauer Schachter, “Reinventing Government or Reinventing Ourselves,” Public Administration Review, Nov/Dec 1995
Discussion questions:
• What is the public interest?
• What is the difference between a citizen and a customer?
• Do these articles make you think twice about Osborne and Gaebler’s arguments?
• Should a public servant be an entrepreneur?
• How can we retain the best aspects of the reinvention movement without losing a focus on the public interest?
November 26: Thanksgiving Break – no seminar
December 3: Citizens and the Public Interest
• Denhardt, Chapters 2, 3, and 4
Discussion questions:
• What is citizenship? Does a citizen have responsibilities toward the community?
• Does your department have direct interactions with citizens? Are there processes by which citizens influence department decisions or service delivery?
• Does your department use the internet to communicate with citizens?
• On what issues regarding the search for more effective government would Osborne and Gaebler agree with the Denhardts?
• Can you describe how a public manager might act differently under the two competing models of public management?
Memo #1 Due:
Write a memo of no more than 2 pages to a “higher up” in your department (you will not actually send this memo) that describes what the department might do differently about its mission, the way it conducts its business, its customers, or the citizens it serves that reflects your thinking about the readings of the last three weeks. In addition to being thoughtful, the memo should look good and be easy to read.
December 10: The
· History of the National Performance Review (NPR)
(read this link and Appendix F at the bottom of this document – on NPR accomplishments)
· Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) (read only section 2)
· GAO evaluation of GPRA, 2004 (skim)
· CPR Volume I: “Introduction” through “Customer Service: the extra mile” and “Renew the Dream”
· CPR Volume II: Chapter 1: A New Framework for California State Government
Discussion questions:
• What are the common themes to all of these reform efforts?
• What are the biggest obstacles to the reforms that they seek?
• What have you observed in your organization in terms of a culture of evaluation and performance?
December 17: Accountability: New Directions
• Denhardt, Chapter 7
• Behn, Rethinking Democratic Accountability, Chapter 1 (to be distributed)
· Two short book reviews of Behn’s book
o Review by Dwivedi in Political Science Quarterly Volume 117, No. 3 pp.530 – 532 (alternative link to book review)
• CPR Volume I: “Accountable Government”
Discussion questions:
• How have notions of public sector accountability changed with the advent of the reinventing government movement?
• If public managers are political actors, how can citizens hold them accountable?
• How can an agency best demonstrate accountability?
• Who should determine for what an agency is held accountable?
• What is the alternative to top-down notions of accountability?
Memo #2 Due:
Write a memo of no more than 2 pages to someone in your organization (again, don’t send it) recommending a position for or against a recommendation in the CPR. If there are not recommendations pertaining to your organization, choose a different organization that is of some interest to you.
Part II: Understanding
the Policy Process and Skill-building for the Executive Branch
January 7: NO SEMINAR
January
14: Policymaking in
The first two items are summaries of the issues with links to various reports. The last two items are two of these specific reports that I want you to read in their entirety.
• UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies: Constitutional Reform and the California Budget Process, February 2004
•
Read these two specific reports that are referred to in the above summaries:
• Mathew McCubbins, Putting the State Back into State Government: the Constitution and the Budget, 1995
• John Elwood and Mary Sprague, Options for Reforming the California State Budget Process
Guest
Tim
Gage, Former Director of Finance; Chief Senate Fiscal Policy Advisor; Chief of
Staff of Assembly Ways and Means Committee (and more)
Assignment
Come prepared with a question or two to ask
our guest speaker about the impact of budget politics on policymaking.
January 21: Policymaking in
Everyone
read the first two items:
•
J.
•
PPIC: The California
Initiative Process: How Democratic Is It? (5 pages)
Choose one of the following:
•
Elizabeth
Gerber, Interest Group Influence
in the California Initiative Process, PPIC
•
Zoltan
Hajnal and Hugh Louch, Are there Winners and
Losers? Race, Ethnicity, and California’s Initiative Process, PPIC 2001
Past Experience includes: Executive Secretary, California Constitution Revision Commission (1994–1996); Chief Fiscal Advisor, Office of the Senate President pro Tempore (1981–1994); Chief Consultant, Senate Local Government Committee (1975–1981). Special Projects Director, Council on Intergovernmental Relations and the Office of Planning and Research (1972–1975).
Assignment
Write a short paper (not in memo format) of
no more than 2 pages taking and supporting a position on the value or impact of
the initiative process on California politics, emphasizing either the issues in
the Gerber paper on interest group influence or the Hajnal/Louch paper on race
and ethnicity issues.
January 28: Policymaking in
•
Bruce
Cain and Thad Kousser, Adapting to Term Limits:
Recent Experiences and New Directions
Assignment:
•
Interview
at least one legislative staffer (not a fellow but someone who has been there
at least a few years) about the impact on term limits on the functioning of the
legislature. Send me an email before class
telling me who you interviewed come to class prepared to talk about what they
said.
Guests:
Bob
Franzoia, Chief Consultant, Senate Appropriations Committee
Deborah
Gonzalez, Chief of Staff for Senator Poochigian
February
4: Budget Process and Budget Justification
• Department of Finance, History of Budgeting
• Department of Finance, Description of California Budget Process, including flowchart
• Department of Finance, California Budget Timetable
• Department of Finance, How to Write an Effective BCP
• Sample BCP (old but all that’s available on-line)
• Governor’s Budget Summary (through page 14 – on Structural Reform)
• Osborne and Hutchinson, “Winning Back Public Support….” (distributed in class)
Guests:
Tom Campbell, Director of Finance (invited)
Steve Kessler, Deputy Director of Operations, Department of Finance
Jeannie Oropeza, Manager, Education Section, Department of Finance
February
11: Policy Analysis: the Changing
Profession
• Radin, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4
• Department of Finance Guide, Policy Analysis and Problem Solving Approaches
Assignment
Submit to me via
email by
February
18: Doing Policy Analysis
Assignment
Write
a 2-3 page paper on one of the following topics (use headings and bullets as
appropriate):