PP401      Half Unit
Political Science for Public Policy

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

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The course examines the political context of policymaking using theoretical and empirical insights from modern political science. We assess how politics shapes fundamental patterns in public policy and the feasibility of policy change, and study political consequences of policy decisions.  The course covers, among other things, political actors (such as voters, parties, politicians, and the media), political institutions (such as political regimes, electoral systems, forms of government, delegation, and decentralisation), and how they shape policy outcomes (such as economic policies, public services, and corruption).  The course combines a review of empirical regularities across space and time, with an introduction to key theoretical arguments about how actors interact and how institutions shape strategic behaviour, and empirical strategies to test theoretical propositions.

15 hours of seminars and 20 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars totalling a minimum of 35 hours across the Autumn Term. 

Students will be expected to produce one formative assignment in the AT.

W. R. Clark, M. Golder, and S. N. Golder (2018). Principles of Comparative Politics. CQ Press.

E. Bueno de Mesquita (2016). Political Economy for Public Policy. Princeton University Press.

K. A. Shepsle (2010). Analyzing Politics: Rationality, Behavior, and Institutions. W.W. Norton.

These books can be used as references for some topics. A full reading list will be distributed at the beginning of the course.

Exam (85%), duration: 120 Minutes, reading time: 15 minutes in the January exam period

Presentation (15%)