Catalog Course Description

Homelessness, global warming, corruption, bankrupt pension systems, educational inequality: the list of intractable public problems seems to grow every year. This course explores the way societies try to address and solve difficult and seemingly intractable public problems. Can we attribute success or failure to institutions and their capacity to solve problems? Are problems difficult to solve because they are complex or because of a failure of political will? What are the characteristics of organizations or communities that are able to solve problems? How are public problems framed and how are they used to mobilize constituencies? The course draws on literature in public administration, public policy studies, and democratic theory to try to better understand some of the major social, political, environmental, and economic problems of our contemporary world.

Spring Term

1.5 hours of The exchange of opinions or questions on course material per week and 3 hours of Instructor presentation of course materials per week and 7.5 hours of Outside Work Hours per week.

Summer Term

20.5 hours of Outside Work Hours per week and 8 hours of Instructor presentation of course materials per week and 1.5 hours of The exchange of opinions or questions on course material per week.

Summer Term

6 hours of Instructor presentation of course materials per week and 1 hours of The exchange of opinions or questions on course material per week and 15.5 hours of Outside Work Hours per week.

Fall Term

1.5 hours of The exchange of opinions or questions on course material per week and 3 hours of Instructor presentation of course materials per week and 7.5 hours of Outside Work Hours per week.