Professor Patrick Dunleavy, Sir Richard Mottram and Dr Nikitas Konstantinidis.

This is a core course for second year students on the MPA Public and Economic Policy, MPA Public Policy and Management, MPA International Development, MPA European Public and Economic Policy students and MPA Public and Social Policy. It is also available to MSc students in related areas if space is available. This is a controlled access course.

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

This half-unit course provides an introduction to understanding power and leadership in organisations making or influencing public policies (such as government agencies, firms, professional bodies, NGOs, aid agencies etc). Topics include: Organizations - How bureaucracies are structured in terms of morphology, budget types, functions and missions; Organizational culture; Understanding competition for power in organizations. Power - Analysing organized power; Power and the decision process under majority rule; Power in executive contexts . Leadership - Conventional views of organisational and political leadership; Rational choice perspectives on leadership and policy change; Leaders, delegates and the power of appointment; How leaders can shape organisational change in government. One case study is discussed each week. The range of cases is drawn from economic, public management, international development, social policy and European policy contexts.

All teaching takes place in Michaelmas Term:

10 x 2 hour lectures and 10 x 1.5 hour seminars. 

Students are expected to complete one formative piece of written work during MT to assist them in preparing their main assessed essay, which is due in January.

A full reading list will be distributed at the beginning of the course.

Useful preliminary readings are:

Organizations - H. Mintzberg, Structure in Fives (Prentice Hall, 1983); P. Dunleavy, Democracy, Bureaucracy and Public Choice (Harvester-Wheatsheaf, now Longman, 1991), Part II only;
Power - K. Dowding, Rational Choice and Political Power (Edward Elgar, 1991). N. Luhman, Trust and Power (Wiley, 1979), Part II only; P. Morriss, Power: A Philosophical Analysis (Manchester University Press, 2002).
Leadership - J. S. Nye, Powers to Lead (Oxford University Press, 2008); P. G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, 4th edition (Sage, 2007); G. Allison and P. Zelikow, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, 2nd edition (Longman, 1999); W. H. Riker, The Art of Political Manipulation (Yale University Press, 1986).

The assessment is by:
- the student's participation in seminars(5%);
- an individual seminar presentation (ie slide set plus no more than 20 minutes talk) (10%);
- a case study analysis of max. 2,000 words in Michaelmas Term (25%);
- an essay of max. ,4000 words (60%) due at the beginning of Lent Term.