Political Sciences and International Security

ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC POLITICS

Course objectives

Policy analysis' research object is the definition, implementation and evaluation of programs and activities promoted by public institutions and other actors to face common interest problems and opportunities. It is a branch of political science, but borrows concepts and tools from several other social sciences. The aim of the course is to provide knowledge, information and tools enabling students to: - know the conceptual structure of policy analysis; - learn to use it as a tool for analysis and evaluation of policies; - design a public policy and follow its implementation. Dublin Descriptors: 1. Knowledge and understanding: through the lessons, students will gain appropriate knowledge to understand public policies and conceptual tools aimed at their analysis and evaluation. 2. Applying knowledge and understanding: the mix of theoretical topics and analysis of materials and cases will enable students to develop a proper operational ability, so that they will learn to use concepts and theories at the end of gather information on actual public policies. 3. Making judgements: the toolbox for the analysis of public policies will enable students to enhance their attitude to deliver autonomous judgements, also thanks to individual exercises and working groups. 4. Communication: through class discussion of themes and issues dealt with in the lessons, and through individual or group presentations, students will improve their communication abilities. 5. Learning skills: students will be stimulated to refine learning techniques and methods through the interaction with the teacher as well as with researchers, experts, and people engaged in public policies during ad hoc meetings. In the final evaluation students will have to prove that have proper knowledge and abilities, so that they could produce analysis and contribute to the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies, consistent with a professional framework.

Channel 1

GIOVANNI MORO Lecturers' profile

Program - Frequency - Exams

Course program

The course will deal with the following topics: 1. Origins and main features of policy analysis; 2. The public policy cycle: - Agenda setting; - Policy design; - Decision making process; - Implementation; - Evalutation; 3. Policy actors and their relations; 4. Policy analysis and the transformations of democratic regimes; 5. Non-institutional actors as promoters of public policies: the case of active citizenship. The last part of the course will be devoted to working in groups to analyze or design a specific public policy, as well as meeting and talking with experts, scholars and key players in policy making.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites are needed.

Books

Testo adottato: L. Bobbio, G. Pomatto, S. Ravazzi, Le politiche pubbliche. Problemi, soluzioni, incertezze, conflitti, Mondadori Università 2017 Testi di riferimento: - C. Borgomeo, Sud, il capitale che serve, Vita e Pensiero, 2022. - V. Laino, Al di là del tavolo. Processi partecipativi e co-progettazione: modelli e strumenti, Sapienza Università editrice 2025; - M. Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy. Dilemmas of the individual in public services, Russell Sage Foundation, 1980 - E. Melloni, Strategie di implementazione, Mondadori Università 2025 - Y, Meny, J.-C. Thoenig, Le politiche pubbliche, Il Mulino, 1996 - M. Moran, M. Rein, R. Goodin, The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy, Oxford University Press, 2008 - G. Moro, Cittadini in Europa. L'attivismo civico e l'esperimento democratico comunitario, Carocci 2009 - C. Sabel, Esperimenti di nuova democrazia, Armando 2013 - N. Stame, Valutazione pluralista, FrancoAngeli 2016 - A. Vino, L'attuazione delle politiche pubbliche. Dalla decisione politica all'efficacia sociale, Carocci 2018 - A. Wildavsky, Speaking Truth to Power. The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis, Transaction 1993

Frequency

Attendance is not mandatory

Exam mode

The exam will be based, for everyone, on the Bobbio et al. reference book; and on one option chosen by the students among: - focus on policy implementation: E. Melloni, Strategie di implementazione, Mondadori Università 2025; - focus on public policies in Italy: G. Capano, A. Natalini (eds), Le politiche pubbliche in Italia, Il Mulino 2020, Introduction and chapters 1 (Administration reforms), 6 (Labour), 8 (Health), 9 (Education); - focus on citizens and public policies: V. Laino, Al di là del tavolo. Processi partecipativi e co-progettazione: modelli e strumenti, Sapienza Università editrice 2025; - focus on Mezzogiorno: C. Borgomeo, Sud, il capitale che serve, Vita e Pensiero 2023 (focus on policies for the Italian Mezzogiorno); - focus on writing: a 30.000 characters (with spaces) paper on a topic to be agreed with the teacher, that must be delivered one week before the exam and that will be evaluated and discussed during the exam.

Lesson mode

Teaching will consist of face-to-face lectures, classroom group exercises, document analysis, case studies, and meetings with experts and public policy actors.