Institutional and Political Foundations of Public Policy - Einzelansicht

The course introduces current developments and fields of research in comparative public policy and policymaking. The first aim of the course is to provide an overview of different theoretical literatures that seek to explain the formation and change of public policies in a comparative manner. The focus is on works dealing with political parties, institutions, and international factors. The second goal is to assess the analytical instruments and concepts used to understand policymaking and policy change. The course focuses on industrialized democracies and deals with different policy areas such as environmental policy, social policy, energy policy, consumer protection policy, economic policy, and tax policy. Questions about research design and the appropriate methods of social inquiry play an important role in the discussions.

• Collier, D. and Brady, H. E., (eds.) (2004). Rethinking social inquiry: Diverse tools, shared standards. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
• King, G., Keohane, R., Verba, S. (1994). Designing Social Inquiry. Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Knill, C. and Tosun, J. (2012). Public policy: A new introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Hall, P. A. (1993). Policy paradigms, social learning, and the state: The case of economic policymaking in Britain. Comparative Politics, 25(3), 275–296.
• Scruggs, L. A. (1999). Institutions and Environmental Performance in Seventeen Western Democracies. British Journal of Political Science, 29, 1–31.