POL S 303 A: Public Policy Formation in the United States

American Public Policy (Political Science 303)

Summer Quarter 2025

University of Washington

Instructor: Ryan Goehrung

Email: goehrunr@uw.edu

Office Hours: Wednesdays 3:00-5:00 pm via Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/96811341028

Course Description:

This course provides an overview of the actors and institutions involved in creation and implementation of U.S. federal, state, and local public policy. We will draw on concepts from political science and economics and contemporary policy issues to help explain the incentive structures, constraints, and rules that shape public policy outcomes. Students will engage with their classmates through weekly discussion board posts and after selecting a policy topic of their choice will complete a series of short research and writing assignments that culminates in a policy brief on their selected topic.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the primary actors and institutions involved in the U.S. public policy process
2. Develop capacity to Identify key stakeholders invested in and affected by public policies
3. Practice clearly articulating and framing policy issues in ways that can mobilize action
4. Apply critical thinking skills to evaluate policies aimed at addressing specific problems
5. Gain confidence in creating and communicating policy recommendations

Required Texts:

All required texts are open source (you do not need to purchase anything).

The main texts we will be using are the following:

• Martin, Kimberly, Keith E. Lee Jr., John Powell Hall (2023). Public Policy: Origins, Practice, and Analysis. University of North Georgia Press.
• Gehl, Katherine M., and Michael E. Porter (2017). Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America. Harvard Business School.

Assignments & Grading:

You grade in the course will be based on weekly engagement through discussion posts or reading quizzes as well as a series of small assignments. You’ll receive feedback on each assignment and will ultimately combine these components into the policy brief project.

Grades are used as a tool for assessing both the effort and quality of your work. They are not a reward or punishment and do not represent your capacity or value in any way. The weekly assignments are intended to incentive active engagement in the course and help you build the skills necessary to produce a policy brief at the end of the course. Grades are used to provide information so that you can make decisions about where and how to improve these skills. With regular active engagement in the course and its material everyone can succeed in this course.

Academic Honesty:

Academic integrity is a vital component of the UW and university life. All students enrolled in this class are required to read and abide by UW’s Community Standards and Student Conduct guideline: https://www.washington.edu/cssc/facultystaff/academic-misconduct

Cheating and/or plagiarism, including the representation of AI generated materials as the student’s own original work will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Instances of academic dishonesty may result in necessary disciplinary action including failure of the course.

Civility:

UW is committed to maintaining a community which recognizes and values the inherent worth and dignity of every person; fosters tolerance, sensitivity, understanding, and mutual respect among its members; and encourages each individual to strive to reach their own potential. In pursuit of its goal of academic excellence, the University seeks to develop and nurture diversity. The University believes that diversity among its many members strengthens the institution, stimulates creativity, promotes the exchange of ideas, and enriches campus life. It is my intent to provide an environment and materials that are respectful of diversity along all dimensions, including gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, culture, perspective, and other background characteristics. We will be engaging regularly in discussion with each other via Canvas. For this reason, please review the UW’s “netiquette” guidelines and ensure you follow them-https://www.uwb.edu/it/learning/netiquette-guidelines

Accessibility and Accommodations :

I strive to design this course to be as accessible as possible. If you anticipate or experience physical, technological, or academic barriers based on disability please let me know and I will work to accommodate you. You may also Disability Resource Services (drs@uw.edu) if needed.

Religious Accommodations:

Washington state law requires that UW provide accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course at the following: https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request

Course Schedule

Week 1: June 23-27 (No class June 19th) – What is Public Policy?

Public Policy: Origins, Practices, Analysis – Chapter 1 (p. 1-12)

Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America – Executive Summary & Part I (p. 1-11)

Assignment: Introduce Yourself (10 pts)

Week 2: June 30-July 3 – The Bases of American Public Policy

Public Policy: Origins, Practices, Analysis – Chapter 2 (p. 13-32)

The Great American Cannabis experiment – Politico (Fertig, 2019)

Assignment: Reading Quiz (10 pts)

Week 3: July 7-11 – Overview of the Policy Process

Public Policy: Origins, Practices, Analysis – Chapter 3 (p. 35-51)

The Logic of Collective Action - Olson, 1982 (p. 404-413)

Assignment: Pick your Policy Topic (10 pts) & Reading Quiz (10 pts)

Week 4: July 14-18 – The Role of Partisan Politics

Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America - Part II-IV (p. 12-33)

We Need to Fix America’s Internet Problem – The Verge (Hollister, 2020)

Identifying and Analyzing Stakeholders and their Interests

Assignment: Stakeholder Analysis (35 pts) & Reading Quiz (10 pts)

Week 5: July 21-25 – Problem Identification & Agenda Setting

Public Policy: Origins, Practices, Analysis – Chapter 4 (p. 53-75)

How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud – NPR (Parks, 2023)

Words that Work – (Luntz, 2007) – The Ten Rules of Effective Language (p. 1-33)

Assignment: Reading Quiz (10 pts) & Framing Practice (10 pts)

Week 6: July 28-August 1 – Designing good Public Policy

Public Policy: Origins, Practices, Analysis – Chapter 4 (p. 80-102)

Assignment: Issue Framing (35 pts) & Causal Story: Problem (10 pts)

Week 7: August 4-8 – Policy Implementation

Public Policy: Origins, Practices, Analysis – Chapter 6 (p. 104-122)

Assignment: Causal Story: Policy Solution (10 pts)

Week 8: August 11-15 – Evaluating Policy Performance

Public Policy: Origins, Practices, Analysis – Chapter 7 (p. 124-136)

Assignment: Evaluation Exercise (35 pts)

Week 9: August 18-22 – Wrapping Up

Assignment: Policy Brief assignment (45 pts)