CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION

PPA 200, section 1
INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION

FALL 2002

PPA 200 - Introduction to Public Policy and Administration, Section 1
Mondays: 6:00-8:50 p.m.
Location: Tahoe 1027

Professor Cristy Jensen
3040 Tahoe Hall 
Office Hours: Mondays 5-6 or by appt.
(916) 278-5955
jensenca@csus.edu

Course Content and Objectives

This is the introductory course in the Graduate Program and is designed to provide broad exposure to the history, values, conflicts, and challenges which have been characteristic of academic discourse and the practice of public policy and administration. PPA graduate students typically bring diverse academic backgrounds, with the majority having some organizational experience, either as interns/fellows or as professional analysts and administrators. The seminar will be organized to utilize that broad experiential and academic base through a variety of written and in class assignments. I also hope that you will work together with your fellow students in forming a unique learning community which can serve as a support for you both intellectually and personally.

Specific learning objectives include:

  1. self assessing professional goals and learning objectives
     
  2. understanding the relevance of essential institutional features of American government, California State and Local Governments to political cultures and the study of PPA
     
  3. understanding the values, norms, and some of the "best practices" of graduate education
     
  4. building skills in writing and oral presentation
     
  5. understanding and utilizing the varied perspectives and traditions in the field and profession including political science, economics, social psychology/public administration
     
  6. developing ethical perspectives and stances
     
  7. strengthening interpersonal/group collaboration and presentation skills

Required Texts

Mark Baldassare, When Government Fails: The Orange County Bankruptcy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998)

Edward L. Lascher, Jr., The Politics of Automobile Insurance Reform: Ideas, Institutions, and Public Policy in North America (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 1999)

Jay Shafritz and Albert Hyde, Classics of Public Administration, Fourth Edition, (Wadsworth Publishing, 1996)

James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It (New York: Basic Books, 1989)

Course Reader which contains assigned readings described in the syllabus.

Diane Hacker, "A Pocket Style Manual," Third Edition (Bedford Books: Boston, 1999)

All readings are available from the Hornet Bookstore. Additionally, copies of each of the required books (but not the course reader) will be on two hour reserve at the CSUS Library.

Expectations

Graduate seminars rely on the expectation that you will have completed the readings assigned and thought about the questions and issues which they have raised for you. Successful learning requires that you be an active learner, attend seminars regularly (no more than three absences permitted), submit papers on time, be an active participant in class discussions and be a good listener and questioner. As you might guess, quality is as critical as quantity. Absences which are not first cleared with me will be considered unexcused.

Short Papers: three short papers are assigned as noted in the schedule.

Group Project/Presentation: I will be assigning groups of 3-4 students policy/administrative issues to stimulate group research and problem solving. The work will culminate in a group oral presentation (approximately 30-45 minutes) the last two weeks of the semester. Group assignments will be made by the fourth week of the semester. A handout will describe expectations for the group presentation.

Final Paper: The final paper (12-15 pages) will use a concept or framework from the readings assigned during the semester to explore and explain a public policy and organizational issue of interest to you. The general issue may overlapp with and build from the topic of the group presentation.  You should schedule an appointment with me or come in during office hours after the 8th week of classes to talk about your ideas for this paper.

Web CT:  On October 28 and November 11 our seminar will take in cyberspace.  In order to participate you must have a sac link account.   You may apply for a sac link account at http://www.csus.edu/uccs/inetemail/saclink/   The first half of the class session on Monday, September 16 will be an orientation to WEB Ct as a course tool. 

 

Grading:

Short papers

30%

   

Class attendance and participation

20%
   

Final Paper

30%
   

Group Presentation

20%

Schedule

September 9

Course Introduction, Expectations, and Review of Syllabus

Reading

2000 PPA self study, pages 4-13, available on our Web site at:
http://www.csus.edu/mppa/progreview/PPA_selfstudy.htm

Note: each CSUS academic department/unit is reviewed every few years by a faculty committee.  The first step in such program reviews is preparation of a "self study" by the unit being reviewed; the aim of this study is to describe the academic discipline, outline student learning goals, explain how the curriculum is organized to meet such goals, discuss needed changes, etc. Our latest self study was completed two years ago.

Discussion Questions

  1. What are your professional and academic goals?
  2. What do we hope students take away from the PPA program?  

September 16

Web CT and Library Orientation

6:00-7:00 Web CT Orientation and Course Work

7:30-8:30 Library/Electronic Data Sources Orientation –Library Lab 2024

In addition to the reading assigned below for next week, I want you to read the Sacramento Bee and hopefully the LA Times daily, looking for articles which are concerned with public policy and administrative issues which face California's State and Local Governments. Bring one article (and enough copies for your fellow students) which particularly interested you to class on September 16 and be prepared to briefly describe the issue.  There will be a short, simple WEBCT assignment on this during the Orientation on the 16th

Explore the Internet and locate two sources of information which may be helpful to you and other students in increasing your understanding of California government and/or public policy and administration. Bring those web addresses to class.

 

September 23

Institutional Overview of American Government and Emergence of Public Policy and Administration as a Field of Study and Profession

Reading

Federalist Papers #10 and #51
(to be given in class)

Shafritz and Hyde:  Part One (pages 2-61)

John W. Kingdon, America the Unusual (New York: St. Martin's 1999), pp. 7-17

Discussion Questions

  1. What were those who drafted the US Constitution trying to avoid in designing the national government the way they did?
  2. How have the institutional features they developed impacted the political culture of the US?
  3. What impacts do you think it has had on the policy and organizational environment?
  4. What values, perspectives, and tensions are apparent in the early writings about public administration?  How are they relevant today?

September 30

Institutional Overview of California State and Local Government

Reading

Baldassare, Chapters 1-3
Peter Shrag, Paradise Lost: California's Experience, America's Future (New York: The New Press), 1998, pp. 7-19

Discussion Questions

  1. In what ways is California government unlike the National structure?
  2. What is the legacy of the progressive period for Californias political culture?
  3. What myths about the Orange County bankruptcy does Baldassare seek to expose and dismiss?
  4. What are the three factors to which he attributes the fiscal crisis?

October 7

Writing Assignment #1 due

California Context: Part II

Reading

Shafritz and Hyde:  pages 76-79; 357-363; 444-451

Baldessare, Chapters 4-9

Discussion Questions

  1. How do the three factors Baldassare identifies play out in the response to the crisis in Orange County?
  2. What are the larger lessons to be learned?
  3. Could it happen again?

Check out the Legislative Analysts’ 02-03 Perspectives and Issues on their Web Page and the A pages of the Governor’s 02-03 Budget to review to current thinking about State -- Local Finance issues in California.

 

October 14

Disciplinary Roots: Public Administration/Social Psychology

Reading

Shafritz and Hyde:  pages 100-106 ;262-273 ;401-407 ; and 491-504

JQWilson, Parts I - III
"The Fourth Platoon" (KSG case)

Discussion Questions

  1. What concepts do organizational theorists bring to the study of public policy and administration?
  2. In explaining how bureaucracies work, what concepts does Wilson especially stress?
  3. How might Wilson explain what transpired in "The Fourth Platoon"?  

October 21

Writing Assignment #2 due

Disciplinary Roots: continued

Reading

Shafritz and Hyde:  pages 567-576

JQ Wilson: Parts IV, VI
Video (to be viewed in class)

"The California Franchise Tax Board:  Strategies for a Changing Workforce" (KSG video/case)

 

October 28  Web CT session

Disciplinary Roots: Political Science: The importance of ideas

Reading

Lascher:  Chapters 1-5

Mark Moore, "What Sort of Ideas Become Public Ideas?" from Robert Reich, The Power of Public Ideas

Shafritz and Hyde:  pages 514-521

Discussion Questions

  1. what concepts do political scientists bring to the study of policy making?
  2. How do political science explanations differ?
  3. How do such differences relate to the study of automobile insurance reform?

November 4

Disciplinary Roots: Political Science : Institutions Matter Too

Reading

Lascher Chapters 6-8

Discussion Questions

  1. What do political scientists consider in evaluating how "institutions matter" to policy outcomes?
  2. How do political institutions matter in the specific case of automobile insurance reform?
  3. What type of explanations may political scientists be inclined to overlook?

November 11

WEBCT session

Disciplinary Roots: Economics:  Public Choice and Vouchers

Reading

Shafritz and Hyde:  pgs. 458-465

Additional  readings to be assigned

Discussion Questions

  1. What concepts and tools do economists bring to the study of public policy and administration?
  2. What key assumptions do economists make?
  3. How might economic concepts be used to evaluated contemporary public policy controversies in California?  

November 18

Organizational Diagnosis and Interventions

Reading

 Shafritz and Hyde:  209-218

Additional readings to be assigned

 

November 25

Writing Assignment #3 due

Applied Ethics

Reading

John R. Walton, James m. Stearns, and Charles T. Crespy, "Integrating Ethics into the Public Administration Curriculum: A three-Step Process," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 16 (1997), pp. 470-483

"The Senate Confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas" (KSG case)

Discussion Questions

  1. What does the field of applied ethics contribute to the study of public policy and administration?
  2. Given sharp differences in ethical perspectives, to what extent can we reach consensus about normative principles or standards?
  3. How should we evaluate the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas? Was the process of determining his fitness to serve on the Supreme Court a fair one.

December 2 and 9

Group Projects and Presentation

December 16

Final Papers Due
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