Level: 200 level. Read more information on levels in our FAQs

Fees: Please see Fees and payments

Lectures: 36 hours

Classes: 18 hours

Assessment*: One 1,500 word essay (worth 25% of the final grade), and one final exam on the last Friday of the third week (worth 75% of the final grade).

 Typical credit**: 3-4 credits (US) 7.5 ECTS points (EU)

*Assessment is optional

**You will need to check with your home institution

More information on exams and credit

At least one introductory course in either social science (e.g. political science, international relations, sociology, economics), history or law.

Specific topics include:

• Market failures and public goods
• Strategic interaction and collective choice
• Political institutions and electoral accountability
• Policy impact and evaluation
• Decision-making, agenda-setting, and implementation
• Parties, public opinion, and interest groups
• Institutionalist theories and policy diffusion
• Globalisation and global public policy
• Public management and the bureaucracy
• Gender and representation in government
• Corruption and governance reform
• Information technology and public policy.

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Evaluate how and why public policies emerge
• Understand the processes involved in policymaking
• Understand how policy impact is evaluated
• Apply critical concepts to understand challenges of public sector organization.

LSE’s Department of Government is home to some of the most internationally respected experts in politics and government, producing influential research that has a global impact on policy. The Department has always been able to take advantage of its prominent position within the London School of Economics and Political Science, the largest and most important European institution specialising solely in the social sciences. The Department has a strongly cosmopolitan character and alumni can be found in the world's leading political science departments, as well as in journalism, commerce, central and local government, and non-governmental organisations globally.

The 2014 Research Assessment Exercise ranked the LSE Government and International Relations Departments' joint submission first in the UK for the percentage of its research graded world leading or internationally excellent (88%). LSE also came top in the Politics and International Studies REF panel in terms of the most research publications graded “world leading” (4*); the absolute number of top-rated research outputs. LSE’s Department of Government ranked 5th in the world in the 2018 QS World University ranking for Politics and International Studies.

On this three-week intensive programme, you will engage with and learn from full-time lecturers from the LSE’s government faculty.

Weimer, David L., and Aidan R. Vining. 2017. Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice. 6^th edition. Routledge.

Kingdon, John. 2010. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. 2nd edition. Pearson.

Cairney, Paul. 2011. Understanding Public Policy: Theories and Issues. MacMillan.