Course description 
This course explores public policy actors, processes and outcomes primarily from a comparative perspective. It does so by engaging with a range of conceptual and methodological approaches employed by policy scholars, and introduces students to debates around the best ways of explaining and understanding policy-making and outcomes: that is, the relative importance of interests, institutions and ideas. Topics also include a discussion of globalisation and the role of the state, international conventions and organisations, equality mainstreaming and policy representation. In addition to seminar presentations and discussion, students will have the opportunity to investigate a policy issue in-depth using a comparative approach.
Recommended reading
Links are through to the Library catalogue record. Items are cited according to the Chicago
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Note: Course readings may only be used for the University's educational purposes. You may print a copy for your own use, but you may not make a further copy for any other purpose. You may not copy or distribute any part of the reading to any other person. Failure to comply with these terms may expose you to legal action for copyright infringement and/or disciplinary action by the
University.
General Readings
Comparative Public Policy
Public Policy Making
Comparative Public Policy
- Arestis, Philip, and Malcolm Sawyer. The
Economics of the Third Way: Experiences From Around the World. Northampton, Ma.: Edward Elgar, 2001.
- Castles, Francis. Comparative Public
Policy. Patterns of Post-War transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1998.
- ---. Families of Nations:
Patterns of Public Policy in Western Democracies. Aldershot, Hants, England: Dartmouth, 1993.
- Castles, Francis G., Rolf Gerritsen, and Jack Vowles, eds. The
Great Experiment: Labour Parties and Public Policy Transformation in Australia and New Zealand. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1996.
- Esping-Anderson, Gosta. Three Worlds
of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990.
- Goodin, Robert E., and others. The
Real Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Also available as an e-book via the Library database Ebrary.
- Heidenheimer, Arnold J. Comparative
Public Policy: The Politics of Social Choice in America, Europe and Japan. 3rd ed. New York, N.Y. : St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
- McBride, Stetson Dorothy, and Amy Mazur, eds. Comparative
State Feminism. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1995.
- O’Connor, Julia S., Anna Shola Orloff, and Sheila Shaver. States,
Markets, Families: Gender, Liberalism, and Social Policy in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
- Sainsbury, Diane. Gender and
Welfare State Regimes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Also available as an e-book via the Library database Oxford Scholarship Online.
- Theodoulou, Stella Z. Policy and
Politics in Six Nations. A Comparative Perspective. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Public Policy Making
- Anderson, James E. Public Policy Making. An Introduction. 6th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
- Considine, Mark. Making Public
Policy: Institutions, Actors, Strategies. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005.
- ---. Public Policy: A
Critical Approach. Melbourne: Macmillan, 1994.
- Dunn, W.N. Public Policy Analysis: An
Introduction. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.. : Pearson Prentice Hall, 2003.
- Dye, Thomas R. Understanding
Public Policy. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002.
- Fischer, Frank, Gerald J. Miller, Mara S. Sidney, eds. Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory, Politics, and Methods. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis, 2007.
- Hill, Michael, ed. The Policy
Process: A Reader. 2nd ed. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1997.
- Hill, Michael. The Policy Process
in the Modern State. 3rd ed. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1997.
- Howlett, Michael, and M. Ramesh. Studying
Public Policy: Policy Cycles and Policy Subsystems. 2nd ed. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Moran, Michael, Martin Rein, and Robert E. Goodin, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Parsons, Wayne. Public Policy: An
Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Policy Analysis. London: Edward Elgar, 1995.
- Shaw, Richard, and Chris Eichbaum. Public
Policy in New Zealand: Institutions, Processes and Outcomes. Auckland: Pearson Education, 2005.
Seminar readings
Comparative Public Policy: Field or Method?
Making Comparisons: Indicators and Databases
Institutions and Path Dependency
Ideas and Public Policy
Critical Policy Studies
Policy-making in the “new” global context
Comparing policy “problems” – policy representation
Comparing policy solutions – policy transfer
Policy Networks: Global and Local
Comparative Public Policy: Field or Method?
Advance readings
Additional reading
- Feldman, Elliot J. "Comparative Public Policy: Field or Method?" Comparative
Politics 10, no. 2 (1978): 287-305. Available online via the Library database JSTOR.
Making Comparisons: Indicators and Databases
Advance reading
- Geske Dijkstra, A., and Lucia Hanmer. "Measuring Socio-Economic Gender Inequality: Toward and alternative to the UNDP Gender-Related Development Index." Feminist Economics 6, no. 2 (2000): 41-75. Available online via the Library database Business Source Premier.
- United Nations Human Development Programme. "Concept and Measurement of Human Development." Human Development Report, 1990. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. See the internet section.
Institutions and Path Dependency
Advance readings
Additional reading
- Gorges, Michael. "New Institutionalist Explanations for Institutional Change: A Note of Caution." Politics
21, no. 2 (2001): 137-145. Available online via Wiley Interscience.
- Greener, Ian. "Understanding NHS Reform: The Policy-Transfer, Social Learning and Path-Dependency Perspectives." Governance
15, no. 2 (2002): 161-183. Available online via the Library database Business Source Premier.
Ideas and Public Policy
Advance reading
- Goldstein, Judith, and Robert O. Keohane. "Ideas and Foreign Policy: An Analytical Framework." In Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change, edited by Judith Goldstein and Robert O. Keohane. Cornell University Press, 1993.
- Skogstad, Grace. "Ideas, Paradigms and Institutions: Agricultural Exceptionalism in the European Union and the United States." Governance 11, no. 4 (1998): 463-490. Available online via the Library database Business Source Premier.
Critical Policy Studies
Advance reading
- Fischer, Frank. "Public Policy and Discourse Analysis." Chap. 4 in Reframing
Public Policy: Discursive Politics and Deliberative Practices. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Also available online via the Library database Oxford Scholarship Online. Chap. 4.
- Hajer, Maarten. "Policy Without Polity? Policy Analysis and the Institutional Void." Policy Sciences 36, no. 2 (2003): 175-195. Available online via the Library database JSTOR.
- Smith, Miriam. "Queering Public Policy: A Canadian Perspective." In Critical Policy Studies, edited by Michael Orsini and Miriam Smith, chap. 5. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007.
Policy-making in the “new” global context
Advance reading
- Hobson, John M., and M. Ramesh. "Globalisation Makes of States What States Make of It: Between Agency and Structure in the State/Globalisation Debate." New Political Economy 7, no. 1 (2002): 5-2 Available online via the Library database Business Source Premier.
- Rabe, B. G. "Beyond Kyoto: Climate Change Policy in Multilevel Governance Systems." Governance 20, no. 3 (2007): 423-444. Available online via the Library database Business Source Premier.
- Weiss, Linda. "Globalization and National Governance: Antinomy or Interdependence?" Review of International Studies 25, no. 5 (1999): 59-88. Available online via Cambridge Journals Online.
Comparing policy “problems” – policy representation
Advance reading
- Bacchi, Carol. "Policy and Discourse: Challenging the Construction of Affirmative Action as Preferential Treatment." Journal
of European Public Policy 11, no. 1 (2004): 128-146. Available online via the Library database Academic Search Premier.
- Houston, David J., and Lilliard E. Richardson. "The Politics of Air Bag Safety: A Competition Among Problem Definitions." Policy Studies Journal 28, no. 3 (2000): 485-501. Available online via the Library database Academic Search Premier.
- Stone, Deborah. "Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas." Political Science Quarterly 104, no. 2 (1989): 281-300. Available online via the Library database JSTOR.
Comparing policy solutions – policy transfer
Advance reading
- Dolowitz, David P., and David Marsh. "Learning from Abroad: The Role of Policy Transfer in Contemporary Policy-Making." Governance 13, no. 1 (2000): 5-24. Available online via the Library database Business Source Premier.
- Stone, Diane. "Non-Governmental Policy Transfer: The Strategies of Independent Policy Institutes." Governance 13, no. 1 (2000): 45-70. Available online via the Library database Business Source Premier.
Policy Networks: Global and Local
Advance reading
- Goldfinch, Shaun. "Remaking New Zealand’s Economic Policy: Institutional Elites as Radical Innovators." Governance 11, no. 2 (1998): 177-207. Available online via the Library database Business Source Premier.
- Stone, Diane. "Non-Governmental Policy Transfer: The Strategies of Independent Policy Institutes." Governance 13, no. 1 (2000): 45-70. Available online via the Library database Business Source Premier.
Journals
Journal articles are a useful source of information. Scholarly articles are written in peer-reviewed journals.
Reference books
Reference books are a good place to start researching a topic because the information is brief and written by experts.
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- Bevir, Mark, ed. Encyclopedia of Governance. Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, 2007. Available as an e-book via the Library database Gale Virtual Reference Library.
- Darity, William, ed. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan, 2008. Available as an e-book via the Library database Gale Virtual Reference Library.
- Midgley, James, Martin B. Tracy, and Michelle Livermore, eds. The Handbook of Social Policy. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2009.
- Rabin, Jack, ed. Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy. New York: Marcel Dekker, 2003.
- Rowley, Charles K. and Friedrich Schneider, eds. Encyclopedia of Public Choice. Boston: Kluwer Academic, 2004. Also available as an e-book via the Library database Ebrary.
- Schultz, David, ed. Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy. New York: Facts On File, 2004.
- Shafritz, Jay M., ed. International Encyclopedia of Public Policy and Administration. Boulder: Westview Press, 1998.
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Library catalogue searches
Suggested subject searches in the Library catalogue.
Databases
Internet sites
Seminar readings
- United Nations Human Development Programme. "Concept and Measurement of Human Development." Human Development Report, 1990. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. html
General websites
Library information
How do I find the full text of an article if it is not available in the database I am searching?
A number of the databases, such as International Political Science Abstracts may not include links to the full text of the article. Use the  button within International Political Science Abstracts to establish our Library's full text holdings, or to search the Library catalogue.
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