Syllabus for PPA 297 California Executive Fellowship Program Seminar - Spring 2002
California State University, Sacramento
Professor Robert Waste
Office Location, Phone: 3036 Tahoe Hall - 916/278-4944
Home Phone 916/448-7957, Cell Phone 804-8185
Email address: wasterj@csus.edu
Office Hours: Wednesdays 4-6 pm & Fridays 11- Noon and by appointment
Class Location & Time: OPR Conference Room, Fridays 9-11:30 AM

Course Description
The purpose of this course is to teach Exec Fellows about policy formation in public organizations. This is a graduate level seminar in public policy and administration concentrating on incrementalism (and decrementalism) in public policymaking, the "environment" and life cycle of public policy, and the possibility of reforming the California public sector policymaking process. Specifically, we will learn about the following topics in detail:

Þ the rise of incremental and decremental policymaking & budgeting;

Þ the life cycle of policymaking, including a consideration of policy entrepreneurs, and strategies & styles frequently used by policy actors;

Þ about policy beliefs, constraints, turf issues and context (Wilson), about triggering events and focusing events and how to avoid or cope with policy disasters (Birkland), and about reforming the California public policy process (Cain & Noll).

There will be a specific focus on state government in California, and on aspects of the public policy process that apply both to your immediate Exec Fellow internship experience, and to your long-term skills and future as a potential federal, state or local public sector manager and policymaker. Each week you will have a chance to connect issues raised in the readings and class discussions to your Exec Fellowship internship experience. Remember: the goal of this class and our discussions is not to "grade" your Exec agency and co-workers or to critique them in any negative fashion. Rather, the goal is to help you better understand how public agencies function, and to help you develop life-long managerial perspectives, values, and skills that will make you a strong contributor to the public life of both California and the nation.

Grades: Grades are based on the following assignments:

(1) Class attendance and participation 20%
You will be requited to complete 26 pages of written assignments, including
(2) Four short (4 page) essays requiring you to 40%
 
  1. Build a better California policy life cycle model than the model presented in class;
  2. Build a better public policy typology than thetypology discussed in class;
  3. Build and defend a reform proposal to reform the public policy process of California aimed primarily at either the initiative process, the executive or the legislative branch of government; and
  4. Explain what James Q. Wilson means by "autonomy," turf issues, strategies context and constraints, and critically analyze his argument in light of public policy formation in the state of California.
  
(3) A final 10 page written and oral project summarizing the 40%
  experience you had in your agency placement, and the lessons of that placement for someone such as yourself interested in a career in public life in California, and in the policy process of the public sector in California.  

Attendance Policy:
I consider your acceptance of admission into the Executive Fellowship Program to be a commitment to me and to your student colleagues to attend each class session. We all benefit from everyone’s contributions. It is not okay to miss class for any but the most unavoidable of reasons Once in awhile you may be required to attend a conference or placement-related activity that will require you to miss the seminar. Please remember that excessive absences (let’s call twice "excessive" for the moment) jeopardize successful completion of the course. In addition to attendance and "seat time," the quality of your participation in class discussions will be reflected in your grade.

Seminar Format:
This is not a lecture class. If you come expecting to be told what was covered in the readings, you will be disappointed. My job is to select interesting and useful readings, orient you to them by identifying key questions, and to guide the discussion. Your job is to read the material, think about it, and come prepared to share your ideas with your classmates. We have the tremendous advantage that each of you will be placed in an Executive Branch agency or program. This experience will provide you with a daily ability to test and apply the material discussed in the class readings and discussions. You should emerge from the class with a richer understanding or your specific placement and state agency, and a life-long ability to better understanding the workings of public bureaucracies at the federal, state and local government levels.

Required Books:

  1. Jay Shafritz and Albert Hyde (eds.), Classics of Public Administration, 4th Edition (San Diego: Harcourt - Brace College Books Division, 1996).
  2. Mona Field and Charles Sohner, California Government and Politics Today (Menlo Park, CA: Longman - Addison Wesley, 1998).
  3. Thomas Birkland, After Disaster: Agenda-Setting, Public Policy, and Focusing Events (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1997).
  4. Bruce Cain & Roger Noll (eds.), Constitutional Reform in California: Making State Government More Efficient & Responsive (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).

Recommended Book:

  1. Diana Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual, 3rd Edition (Boston, MA: Bedford Books).

Course Outline and Readings:
PART I: PUBLIC POLICY: INTRODUCTION
Week 1: Jan. 11Incrementalism & Decrementalism Explained

Read: Charles Lindblom, "The Science of ‘Muddling Through.’ "
Discussion Questions

  1. What does "incrementalism" mean?
  2. What, if any, are the "advantages" of a an incremental policy process?
  3. How does incrementalism apply to the budget process?
  4. What are the strategies and roles used by incremental (& decremental) actors in the policy/budget process?

Week 2: Jan. 18 Life Cycles, Triggering and Focusing Events.

Read: Begin reading Birkland, After Disaster.
Discussion Questions:

    1. What is a triggering or focusing event?
    2. What is the policy life cycle, and how does it explain the formation of public policy?

Week 3: Jan. 25 For class, we will be attending a workshop at the California Highway Patrol Academy.

PART II: THE TYPES OF PUBLIC POLICY
Week 4: Feb. 1A Typology of Public Policies

Read:Robert Waste "City Limits, Pluralism, and Urban Political Economy" Journal of Urban Affairs (handout).
Discussion Questions

    1. Critically analyze the economic determinist policy model of Harvard’s Paul Peterson?
    2. What implications does the "policy stepladder" model discussed in the assigned reading have for understanding (or failing to understand) the policy process in California?

Week 5: Feb. Building Improved Life Cycle and Policy Typology Models

Group Projects
Read: Birkland (entire).

Week 6: Feb. 15 Regulatory Policy

Discussion Questions

  1. What is the "clientele capture thesis" and how, if at all, does it apply to regulatory policymaking? (i.e., the FPPC, the PUC, the ALRB or the California Coastal Commission) in California?

Week 7: Feb. 22 Budgeting Policy in Uncertain Times: Zero-Base

Budgeting Exercise
Read: Naomi Caiden, "Public Budgeting Amidst Uncertainty and Instability".

PART III: THE POSSIBILITIES FOR REFORM
Week 8: March 1 Attempting Reforms in Budgetary Policymaking

Read Philip Joyce, "Using Performance Measures in Federal Budgeting;" (in Classics); John Ellwood and Mary Sprague, "Options for Reforming the California State Budget Process;" and Mathew McCubbins, "Putting the State Back into State Government:

Week 9: March 8 A Case Study in Policy and Reform

Video (to be viewed in class) "The California Franchise Tax Board: Strategies for a Changing Workforce," (Kennedy School of Government video case)
Discussion Questions

    1. What exactly is organization culture?
    2. How does one go about determining what culture(s) operate(s) within an organization?
    3. What is the culture of the Franchise Tax Board? How has it changed over time?
    4. How does org culture impact attempts to craft policy and reform efforts?

Week 10: March 15 Policy, Reform and Leadership in Public Organizations: Constraints, People & Compliance

Read: Wilson, Bureaucracy, Chapters 7, 8 & 9
Discussion Questions (To be distributed in Week 9)

Week 11: March 22 Leadership & Reform in Public Organizations: Turf, Strategies & Innovation

Read: Wilson, Bureaucracy, Chapters 10-12.
Discussion Questions (To be distributed in Week 9).

Week 12: April 5 Reform & Organizational Culture

Read: Wilson, Bureaucracy, Chapters 3-6.

Week 13: April 12 Wilson on Barriers to Change

Read: Wilson, Chapters 17-20.

Week 14: April 19 Reforming California’s Plural Executive

Read: Cain & Noll, Noll on "Executive Organization."

Week 15: April 26 Reforming California’s Legislative Policy Process?

Read: Cain & Noll, articles by Kathleen Brawn; Bruce Cain & Nathaniel Persily; David Brady & Brian Gaines: and Linda Cohen.

Weeks 16, 17 & 18
May 3, 10 & 17 Oral and Written Reports Analyzing Your Executive Fellow Placement Experience, and the Lessons for a Potential Career in Public Service.

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