Dr Rafael Hortala-Vallve, Dr Andrew Eggers and others.

This is a compulsory course for MPA Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public Policy and Management/MPA International Development/MPA European Public and Economic Policy and MPA Public and Social Policy. It is also available to other MSc students with permission of the teacher and if space is available.

There are no pre-requisites, but recommended advance reading is given below.

In this course we aim to understand public policy formation in democratic societies: this requires studying the behaviour of individuals in non-market environments. The course introduces game theoretical and empirical tools for the study of public policy making, political economy and a number of both theoretical and applied topics. It focuses on the study of political institutions in modern democracies.

By the end of the course you should be able to:
1) have a good analytic understanding of the different actors, processes and stages involved in formulating public policies in liberal democracies
2) demonstrate a working knowledge of political economy; critically evaluate and apply the core arguments of public choice theory, the principles of spatial analysis, 3) and game theoryapply the previous knowledge so as to analyse contemporary political situations, institutions and complex political processes in liberal democracies.

16 lectures, 15 seminars, 4 weeks of application presentations in seminar slots and two revision sessions in the Summer Term.

Students will complete formative problem sets during the course.

Analysing Politics by Shepsle and Bonchek (W.W. Norton, 1997) provides an excellent starting point and can be used as the main reference for many topics. A full reading list will be distributed at the beginning of the course.

There are three elements of assessment:
- four applications exercises, presented in groups in Weeks 5 and 10 of both the Michaelmas and Lent terms (25%);
- an individual essay of 3,000 words submitted by the second week of the Summer Term responding to a question previously approved (25%);
- a three-hour written examination in the the Summer Term (50%).