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Public Policy Analysis and Management

Code: 42271 ECTS Credits: 10
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
4313335 Political Science OB 0

Contact

Name:
Ixchel Perez Duran
Email:
ixchel.perez@uab.cat

Teachers

Francesc Xavier Ballart i Hernŕndez
Raquel Gallego Calderon
Irina Ciornei
Margarita Leon Ramon Borja
Daniel Edmiston
(External) Sheila González

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

As a minimum level, students should hold a Bachellor's Degree or equivalent, in any knwoledge area within social sciences.

 


Objectives and Contextualisation

To understand the main theoretical debates in públic management and public policy analysis.
To provide with an overview of the main issues currently alive in debates on social policy, public administration and public management
To learn how to apply methodological models in order to carry out research in this field.
To understand how to apply that knowledge to the analysis of and intervention in complex social and political problems.
To comprehend how similar issues and public policy dilemmas are expressed differently in different national contexts
To acquire the knowledge and the necessary skills to apply it within organizational environments in the field of politics and public management.
To be able to have an informed opinion of the current tensions between fiscal and social policies that in the current context of austerity many countries are faced with.


Competences

  • Analyse public policies in different sectors.
  • Applied theoretical knowledge acquired from the analysis of real situation and using political analysis generate useful orientations for decision-making.
  • Demonstration reading comprehension for specialist texts in English.
  • Possess and understand knowledge that provides a basis or opportunity for originality in the development and/or application of ideas, often in a research context.
  • Recognise the complexity of politics today, its diversity and the tensions to which it is exposed, with special emphasis on the Spanish and European contexts.
  • Student should possess the learning skills that enable them to continue studying in a way that is largely student led or independent.
  • Work in international and interdisciplinary teams whose members have different origins and backgrounds.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse public policies independently of their sectorial specialisation.
  2. Anticipate the consequences of designing a specific public policy.
  3. Apply the main theories for the analysis of processes for drawing up, implementing and evaluating public policies.
  4. Demonstration reading comprehension for specialist texts in English.
  5. Design instruments to evaluate a specific public policy.
  6. Identify the different agents involved in the definition of a policy, its scope for action, interests and resources.
  7. Identify the different factors and variables that may be involved in the definition and results of public policy.
  8. Identify the importance of specific political contexts when designing policies.
  9. Identify the main agents involved in the generation and design of policies, with special emphasis not only on their particular complexity but also that of the interrelated network environments.
  10. Possess and understand knowledge that provides a basis or opportunity for originality in the development and/or application of ideas, often in a research context.
  11. Student should possess the learning skills that enable them to continue studying in a way that is largely student led or independent.
  12. Work in international and interdisciplinary teams whose members have different origins and backgrounds.

Content

Public Management sessions

  • Today’s context for Public and Third Sector Management

  • Management and Leadership

  • Comparative Performance  

  • Work and Public Service Motivation  

  • Governance reforms in Public Management: Accountability and Transparency 

  • Assessing and Measuring Accountability/Transparency

  • Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms in Public Administration. CUBE case: Artificial intelligence and automated decision-making in welfare policies

  • Representative bureaucracy

 

Public Policy sessions

  • Social innovation and public policy: challenges and evidence from research

  • Who Cares? Social Reproduction and the Welfare State

  • The politics of abortion: public health or the divine commandment? 

  • What's in a name? Regulatory models on Prostitution (or Sex Work)

  • Welfare states in development contexts

  • Education policies, social segregation 

  • Education policies: remedies to social segregation 

  • EU social innovation policy: the framing of the policyproblem, coalitions of interests, quasi-concepts in policy agenda-setting

  • Private actors and finance in public policy design and implementation: looking at PbR in ALMPs and Social Impact Bonds as case studies

  • Private actors andfinance in public policy design and implementation: looking at PbR in ALMPs and Social Impact Bonds as case studies

 

 

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures, attendance and participation 125 5 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12
Type: Supervised      
Seminars and tutorials 50 2 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12
Type: Autonomous      
Reading, essay writing and solving exercises 70 2.8 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12

Learning is based on the reading and discussion of theoretical and empirical knowledge.

The aim is to acquire the capacity to formulate questions and answers. To this end, students will have to be active and autonomous in searching and selecting relevant information, in reading and thinking in order to create a rich and informed dialogue with the lecturer.

This autonomous effort will be required previously to each session, via reading, essay writing and some cases and exercices. This work will then be complemented with seminar discussions and oral presentations, which will help to better understand both theory and practice-based knowledge as well as to question it.

Class teaching will combine lectures and seminar/case, exercise discussions on theoretical and empirical knowledge –always trying to find the applicability of theory to the real world.

Tutorial teaching will focus on the preparation of essays, exercises and presentations.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
In class exercises/ test (Public Management) 50% 2.5 0.1 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Public Policy Essay / Exercises 50 % 2.5 0.1 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10

Evaluation will be botn continuous and final. It will be based on the outputs of the different activities in which students will engage to show they have achieved the expected competencies.

Such activities and outputs include:

  1. Practical exercises/tests (public management) 
  2. Short essays and exercises  (public policy)

Bibliography

More recent papers and adjusted to the each topic in the Syllabus to be distributed in class

Acebillo-Baqué, M.; Pérez Durán, I. (2022). Artificial intelligence and automated decision making in welfare policies. Barcelona: 14 pag. (Case Program Series ; PCUBE-
2022-02) https://ddd.uab.cat/record/272376

Busuioc, M. (2021), Accountable Artificial Intelligence: Holding Algorithms to Account.Public Admin Rev, 81: 825-836. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13293

Boyne, G.A. (2003) “Sources of Public Service Improvement: A Critical Review and Research Agenda”, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 13 (3): 367- 394

Daly, Mary & León, Marga (2022): “Care and the analysis of welfare states”, in Nelson, Nieuwenhuis and Yerkes (eds): Social policy in changing European societies. Edward Elgar Publishing.

De Vries, M.; Nemec, J. 2013 “Public Sector Reform: An Overview of Recent Literature and Research on NPM and Alternative Paths”, International Journal of Public Sector Management, 26(1):4-16.

Ferlie, E., Lynn, L.E. Jr and Pollitt, Ch. 2005 The Oxford Handbook of Public Management, New York: Oxford University Press.

Gallego, R., & Maestripieri, L. (2022). “Women's empowerment and social innovation in childcare: the case of Barcelona, Spain”, European Societies, 24(4), 493-519. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2092641

Gough, I., & Wood, G. (2004). Insecurity and welfare regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America: Social policy in development contexts. Cambridge University Press.

Grant, A. 2012 “Leading with Meaning: Beneficiary Contact, Prosocial Impact and the Performance Effects of Transformational Leadership”, Academy of Management Journal, 55 (2):458-476 

Häikiö, L., Fraisse, L., Adam, S., Jolanki, O., Knutagård, M. (2017). “The Janus face of social innovation in local welfare initiatives”. In F. Martinelli, A. Anttonen, & M. Mätzke, Social Services Disrupted (pp. 281–301). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786432117.00024

Heifetz R. A. Linsky, M. 2002 Leadership on the Line. Boston, Mas: Harvard Business School Press. Pages 9-30

Kelly, J. 2007 “Reforming Public Services in the UK: Bringing in The Third Sector” Public Administration, 85 (4):1003-1022

Koffijberg, J. De Bruin, H. Priemus, H. 2012 “Combining Hierarchical and Network Strategies: Successful Changes in Dutch Social Housing” Public Administration, 90 (1):262-275 

Kotter, J.P. 2001 “What Leaders Really Do”. Harvard Business Review, December  

Kuhlmann, S. and Wollmann,H. 2014 Introduction to Comparative Public Administrations. Administrative Systems and Reform in Europe. Cheltenham and Northampton, MA:  Edward Elgar

Latham, G.P., Borgogni, L., Petitta, L. 2008 “Goal Setting and Performance Management in the Public Sector” International Public Management Journal, 11(4) 385-403

Meijer, A., Lorenz, L. and Wessels, M. (2021), Algorithmization of Bureaucratic Organizations: Using a Practice Lens to Study How Context Shapes Predictive Policing
Systems. Public Admin Rev, 81: 837-846. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13391

McGuire, M Agranoff, R. 2011 “The Limitations of Public Management Networks” Public Administration, 89 (2):265-284

Milward, H.B. Provan. K.G. (2000) “Governing theHollow State” Journal of PublicAdministration Research and Theory 10 (2) 359-379

Moynihan, D.P. 2005 “What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Performance. Dialogue Theory and Performance Budgeting” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 16: 151-168

Moynihan, D. P. Pandey, S. K. 2010 “The Big Question for Performance Management: Why Do Managers Use Performance Information” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 20:849-866

OECD, 2008. Public-Private Partnerships. In Pursuit of Risk Sharing and Value for Money. Paris. OECD Publications. Chapter 1.  

Olsen, J. P.  2005 “Maybe It is Time to Rediscover Bureaucracy”, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 16:1-24 

Page, E. Hood, C. Lodge, M. 2005. “Conclusion; Is Competency Management a Passing Fad”  Public Administration, 83 (4): 853-860

Pérez-Durán, I. (2023). Twenty-five years of accountability research in public administration: Authorship, themes, methods, and future trends. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00208523231211751

Perry, J., Christensen, R.K. 2015 Handbook of Public Administration, London: Routledge.

Perry, J. Hondeghem, A. Wise L.R. 2008. “Revisiting the Motivational Bases of PublicService: Twenty Years of Research and an Agenda for the Future”  Public Administration Review 70 (5):681-690    

Pollit, C. 2009 “Bureaucracies Remember; Post-Bureaucratic Organizations Forget”, Public Administration, 82 (2): 198-218

Pollit, C. and Bouckaert, G. 2004 Public Management Reform. A Comparative Analysis, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Truss, C. 2008 “Continuity and Change: The Role of the HR Function in the Modern Public Sector” Public Administration, 86 (4):1071-1088

Vandenabeele, W. 2008 “Government calling: Public Service Motivation as an Element in Selecting Government as an Employer of Choice”, Public Administration 86 (4):1089-1105

Van Ryzin, G. G. Charbonneau 2010 “Public Service Use and Perceived Performance;An Empirical Note on the Nature of the Relationship” Public Administration, 88 (2): 551-563

Van Ryzin, G. G. Immerwahr, Altman, S. 2008 “Measuring Street Cleanliness:  A Comparison of New York City’s Scorecard and Results from a Citizen Survey” Public Administration Review March –April: 295-303

Weibel A., Rost, K., Osterloh, M. “Pay for Performance in the Public Sector-Benefits and Hidden Costs” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 20: 387-412

Wright, B.E. Moynihan, D.P. Pandey, S. K.2011 “Pulling the Levers: Transformational Leadership, Public Service Motivation and Mission Valence”, Public Administration Review 77 (2): 206-215

 

 


Software

(More detail in the syllabus to be distributed) 


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TEm) Theory (master) 1 English first semester morning-mixed