PUBPOL 586 Performance Management in U.S. Public Policy

Course Description

PUBPOL 586 provides 1.5 credits and is designed to fill one-half of the Ford School MPP requirement in Public Management, supplemented with completion of a second module selected from a list of electives. This course is intended to introduce students to a series of fundamental issues and challenges linked to the implementation of public policies through governmental departments and agencies. It will examine questions of performance measurement and management in the context of public sector agencies in the United States, including consideration as to whether best practices of evidence-based policy making and implementation are feasible and sustainable in the actual world of public management. This course will focus primarily on the federal level of government but also consider state and local levels while making occasional reference to cases beyond American borders where public management excellence has been achieved.

This module will be divided into two units. First, it will review the political history and institutional evolution of public management in the United States and consider enduring political, social, and economic challenges that frequently lead to management failure. Second, it will consider lessons from recent decades in which performance measurement and management have been mandated by federal and state statute and become a focal point in American governance. Both units will consider whether public management and performance are constant or change in far-reaching ways when elected executive leadership changes, including presidential transition. More broadly, the course is designed to enable students to discern the real-world applicability of many theories, methods, and concepts introduced in other core courses focused on economics, program evaluation, and politics in the applied world of public management and policy implementation where many of them will devote much of their subsequent careers.