• the centrality of values
• non-operational stakes
• categories: vital, important, peripheral

• identifying and weighing importance of elements that can have a negative or positive impact upon public interests

• specific and concrete policy goals to serve public interests, meet threats or exploit opportunities
• allow policy success or failure to be clearly measured

• how operational objectives are meant to be achieved by influencing other actors
• if/then theory of persuasion/coercion (if clause posits individual/organizational/governmental action; then clause predicts anticipated policy outcome)
• identify central assumptions that underpin the strategy

• blueprint for implementation
• answer detailed questions (who does what? when? where? for how long? to/with whom?)

• putting the design into action
• coping with "friction" caused by divergence between the design and the actual course of events

• routines

8

• have the operational objectives been achieved?
• did something go wrong?

1.   Systematic analysis should be geared toward policy prescription/action
2.   Aim for consistent application of the analytical frameworks
3.   Understand your own analytical frameworks—"Know Thyself"
4.   Understand the analytical frameworks of others
5.   Internalize the analytical frameworks of the course and use them in daily public policy practice—an intellectual grasp of the frameworks is necessary but insufficient for effective application
6.   Attention to detail is often the difference between policy success and failure
7.   Facts matter
8.   Precise language is crucial in policy formulation and implementation—every word counts
9.   It is very hard to make good policy—it requires stamina and diligence
10.   Identify and question assumptions at all times
11.   Be suspicious of historical analogies
12.   Policy reviews are especially important if the policy environment changes
13.   Some policy problems are too hard—there are times when one cannot craft strategies and policy designs to achieve operational objectives
14.   Theory and ideology matter—theory is implicit in all 8 steps; ideology can distort one’s receptivity to evidence disconfirming deeply held theories, and/or reinforce one’s energy and determination to succeed
15.   All 8 steps have to work for a successful policy—7 out of 8 right and policy may still fail. Success therefore requires both analytical capability and capacity for effective action
16.   This is serious work—be responsible

Tuesday, September 21-- Agenda Setting: Players and Processes I
Friday, September 24-- Agenda Setting: Players and Processes II
Tuesday, September 28-- Agenda Setting: Problems, the Primeval Soup and Policy Windows I
Thursday, September 30-- Agenda Setting: Problems, the Primeval Soup and Policy Windows II

Tuesday, October 5-- Introduction to the Eight-Step Concept
Thursday, October 7-- Operational Objectives I
Tuesday, October 12-- Operational Objectives II
Thursday, October 14-- Strategies I
Tuesday, October 19-- Strategies II
Thursday, October 21-- Policy Design I
Tuesday, October 26-- Policy Design II
Thursday, October 28-- Implementation, Maintenance and Policy Review I
Tuesday, November 2-- Implementation, Maintenance and Policy Review II
Thursday, November 4-- Wrap-up of the Eight-Step Concept

Tuesday, November 9-- Small Group Dynamics and Leadership
Thursday, November 11-- No Class—Veterans Day
Tuesday, November 16-- "Rational" Analysis
Thursday, November 18-- Organizational Behavior I
Tuesday, November 23-- Organizational Behavior II
Thursday, November 25-- No Class--Thanksgiving
Tuesday, November 30-- Organizational Politics
Thursday, December 2-- Bringing the Three Models Together

Tuesday, December 7-- Negotiation I: Application of Power and Sources of Negotiating Leverage
Thursday, December 9-- Negotiation II: Coalition Building -- and Lobbying
Thursday, December 9-- Negotiation III: Negotiating Exercise "The Mouse Exercise"
Tuesday, December 14-- Negotiation IV: Lessons Learned from Negotiating Exercise
Thursday, December 16-- Negotiation V: Video

Tuesday, December 21-- Finding Black Parents: One Church, One Child

Tuesday, September 21

Agenda Setting: Players and Processes I

Read: John Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, chaps. 1-4

Questions: If you served on the staff of a member of a legislature in your country, how would you undertake an analysis of the member’s optimal agenda in the next session of the legislature?

Agenda Setting: Players and Processes II

Read: "Air Pollution and Democracy: The Mexico City School Calendar Change Proposal" KSG Case C16-92-1164.0, 1164.1 (epilogue to be provided in class)

Questions: Which groups emerged as the UNPF’s main allies, and how did the UNPF’s proposal change as its coalition grew? With the Mexico City Assembly of Representatives about to consider an investigation, was this likely to help or hurt the UNPF’s cause?

Agenda Setting: Problems, the Primeval Soup, and Policy Windows I

Read: Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, chaps. 5-9

Questions: What factors appear to determine the ideas that will frame the consideration of public policies? How can an outside expert or policy advocate best influence this process?

Agenda Setting: Problems, the Primeval Soup, and Policy Windows II

Read: "From Research to Policy: The Cigarette Excise Tax" KSG Case C16-93-1233.0

Questions: Place the Excise Tax case within Professor Kingdon’s framework. What unforeseeable events helped open a "window of opportunity?" Were there predictable events that were (or could have been) exploited by a policy entrepreneur? Who, in your opinion, proved to be a better policy analyst: Eugene Lewit or Ken Warner?

Introduction to the Eight-Step Concept

Read: Philip Zelikow, "Foreign Policy Engineering: From Theory to Practice and Back Again," International Security Vol.18, No. 4 (Spring 1994), pp. 143-71

Questions: What are Zelikow’s steps of policy formulation and implementation? Find at least one example of each step from the current media. How applicable are the analytical steps to public policy that is not related to foreign affairs? Health care reform? Social Security reform? Transportation policy?

Operational Objectives I

Read: "A ‘Seamless’ Transition: US & UN Operations in Somalia" Parts A&B KSG Case C16-96-1324.0, 1325.0

Questions: What were the operational objectives of the Bush Administration in responding to the unfolding crisis in Somalia in November 1992? What bureaucratic and organizational challenges did the Administration face in securing agreement on an appropriate course of action? What competing national interests were at play? In what ways did UNISOM’s operational objectives work at cross purposes to those of the Administration’s? Did the Bush Administration’s operational objectives allow for the clear measurement of policy success or failure?

Operational Objectives II

Read: Current Public Policy Issues in the Media (to be provided)

Questions: Find five public policy operational objectives in the assigned reading. Bring five more examples to class drawn from the current media.

Strategies I

Read: "Sunk Costs: The Plan to Dump the Brent Spar" KSG Case CR1-97-1369.0, 1369.1

Questions: The operational objectives for Shell Oil and Greenpeace seemed clear as the conflict began, yet Shell ultimately changed its strategy. Were there shortcomings in Shell’s initial strategy? In terms of developing strategies, does it matter that neither Shell nor Greenpeace is a governmental institution?

Strategies II

Read: "Voting Rights Act of 1965" Part A "The Selma Campaign" and Part B "LBJ and the Department of Justice" KSG Case C-14-75-113.0, 114.0

Questions: What were the operational objectives of the Selma activists? What were the principal strategies adopted by the Selma activists to accomplish those operational objectives? How effective were they? Alternative strategies that might have been chosen?

Policy Design I

Read: "Catastrophic Health Insurance for the Elderly" KSG Case C18-95-1278.0

Questions: Who won, who lost, and what specific elements of policy design made public outcry likely? Would it have been possible to design a policy that could have been successfully implemented?

Policy Design II

Read: "Mano Dura: Mobilizing the National Guard to Battle Crime in Puerto Rico" KSG Case C109-97-1390.0, 1390.1

Questions: What were the major crime policy design challenges faced by the newly elected governor? How were these challenges supported or undermined by the strategy for crime reduction proposed by the Puerto Rican police department? Were there sufficient political and financial resources to support the strategy and objectives informing the policy design? How did the traditional role played by the National Guard in maintaining civil order affect the Governor’s blueprint for action? Is Operation Centurion a good example of divergence between policy design on paper and its actual implementation?

Implementation, Maintenance and Policy Review I

Read: Jeffrey Pressman & Aaron Wildavsky, Implementation, chaps. 1-5

Questions: What happened in the implementation of the Oakland Project? How might the problems of implementation have been eased?

Implementation, Maintenance and Policy Review II

Read: "Coping with Crisis: Hong Kong Public Health Officials and the ‘Bird Flu’" KSG Case C15-98-1430.0

Questions: What went wrong in the "Bird Flu" implementation? What might have been done differently to reduce these implementation problems?

Wrap-up of the Eight-Step Concept

Read: "Against All Odds: The Campaign in Congress for Japanese American Redress" KSG Case C16-90-1006.0

Questions: What were the operational objectives of those who pressed for Japanese American redress? Their strategies? Their policy design? The quality of their implementation? The opponents’ operational objectives? Strategies? Policy design? The quality of their implementation? Any policy review in the process?

Small Group Dynamics and Leadership

Read: Joe Flower on Ronald Heifetz, "Leadership Without Easy Answers." Healthcare Forum Journal. July/August 1995. Pgs. 30-35.

Questions: How can one distinguish between leadership, authority, and dominance behavior?  When should a leader's goal be to build consensus, and when should a leader push through non-majoritarian positions?

NO CLASS—VETERANS DAY

"Rational" Analysis

Read: Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow, Essence of Decision, introduction and chaps. 1-2

Questions: Do you consider Khrushchev’s decision to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba to be rational? Why? Do you consider Kennedy’s decision to risk nuclear war in responding to this deployment also to be rational? Why? Is behavior more rational if the preferences being maximized are revealed in advance?

Organizational Behavior I

Read: Essence of Decision, chaps. 3-4

Questions: During the ExComm deliberations, an analyst for the US government developed the hypothesis that the Soviet government wanted the United States to catch it in the act of installing the missiles, at a time when the Soviets had denied to Washington that any missiles were being deployed in Cuba. What arguments support this view? What arguments can be made against it?

Organizational Behavior II

Read: "Improving Civil Service Quality at Trujillo City Council Registry Office" KSG Case C119-96-1347.0

Questions: Examine Exhibit 1, the "Diagram of Procedure." Why were the registry’s SOPs likely developed? Did citizens develop SOPs in response? From the user’s point of view, what parts of the interactions with the registry might be deemed "political" and why?

NO CLASS—THANKSGIVING

Organizational Politics

Read: Essence of Decision, chaps. 5-7

Questions: How can we explain the decision to establish a blockade and the particular ways in which that decision was implemented? Include consideration of the Kennedy Administration’s external political environment both inside and outside the United States. What were the most distinctive features of the ExComm as a tool of crisis management?

Bringing the Three Models Together

Read: "A Big Dark Pond: Britain, China, Hong Kong, 1979" KSG Case C16-91-1048.1, 1048.1

Questions: Apply the three Allison/Zelikow models to analyze the case and public policy outcome in this case.

Negotiation I: Application of Power and Sources of Negotiating Leverage

Read: "Smith and the Public Health Battle" KSG Case C16-86-655.0, 655.1 (sequel to be provided in class)

Roy Lewicki, Essentials of Negotiation, chaps. 1, 2 and 9

Questions: What are Smith’s strengths, weaknesses and issues? What should Smith do now and why? As distinct from the issue in contention (signing the contract) on which Smith’s position (no) and Philgud’s (yes) depend, what are the affected parties’ interests? Given that Philgud won’t even go along with a proposed agreement to furnish a list of names, why might he agree with some of Smith’s creative proposals for resolving the conflict? What is each partys’ Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)? How does Philgud appear to see his "Basic Problem" (the choice between agreement and no agreement)? What process might lead Philgud to see his Basic Problem the way Smith would prefer? After reading the sequel (in class), evaluate Smith’s actions. What might she have done better? What lessons about power and leverage are suggested?

Negotiation II: Coalition Building - and Lobbying

Required Reading: Roy Lewicki, Essentials of Negotiation, chaps. 7 and 8

Optional Reading: "The Gulf Crisis: Building a Coalition for War" KSG Case C16-94-1264.0

Questions: What was the Bush Administration’s target coalition? How did the Administration change the attractiveness of alternatives for potential coalition partners? Did Bush and Baker construct an optimal strategic sequence for coalition building? What might they have done differently? How did Bush use carrots, sticks, commitments and relationship networks to guard against the consolidation of adverse, blocking coalitions?

Guest for the Class: Marla Grossman, Federal Affairs Director of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhart, McPherson and Hand. Note, this is an addition to the original syllabus.  Ms. Grossman will discuss some of the essentials in lobbying on Capitol Hill, including how to create and maintain lobbying coalitions.

Negotiation III: Negotiation Exercise "The Mouse Exercise"

Negotiation IV: Lessons Learned from Negotiating Exercise

Read: Roy Lewicki, Essentials of Negotiation, chaps. 8 and 10

Negotiation V: Video: "Final Offer"

Read: Roy Lewicki, Essentials of Negotiation, chaps. 3, 5 and 6

Bringing The Analytical Frameworks Together

Read: "Finding Black Parents: One Church, One Child," KSG Case C16-88-856.0, 856.1

Questions: Apply the analytical methods of the course to illuminate the development of the "One Church, One Child" policy. How would you rate the government’s performance in this case? How could it have been improved?