Public Policy (PUB POL)

Terms offered: Fall 2020
During the fall 2020 semester we will have the quadrennial opportunity to study American politics during a presidential campaign. Combining real-time analysis of the election, an in-depth study of the relevant historical and sociological trends that are shaping this moment, and a lively roster of guest speakers from across the Berkeley campus and community, this class will provide students with a comprehensive and interdisciplinary introduction to American politics in a time of unprecedented crisis and possibility.
THE 2020 ELECTION: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2016
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower-division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Enrollment limits are set by the faculty, but the suggested limit is 25.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023
Group study on selected public policy topics. Open to freshmen and sophomores.
Group Study in Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024 8 Week Session
A systematic and critical approach to evaluating and designing public policies. Combines theory and application to particular cases and problems. Diverse policy topics, including environmental, health, education, communications, safety, and arts policy issues, among others.
Introduction to Public Policy Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2009, Spring 2008
This course is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding both of the structure of political economy and of why the distribution of earnings, wealth, and opportunity have been diverging in the United States and in other nations. It is also intended to provide insight into the political and public policy debates that have arisen in light of the divergence as well as possible means of reversing it.
Wealth and Poverty: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021
This course is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding both of the organization of the political economy in the United States and of other advanced economies, and of why the distribution of earnings, wealth, and opportunity have been diverging in the United States and in other nations. It also is intended to provide insights into the political and public-policy debates that have arisen in light of this divergence, as well as possible means of reversing it.
Wealth and Poverty: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The objective of this course is to improve negotiation skills and to increase the ability to resolve conflicts in a multitude of situations, including public policy disputes. Topics will include: distributive and integrative bargaining; preparation strategies; defense to ploys; power and perceptions; team and multi-party negotiations; political, legislative and regulatory negotiations; emotions and gender, email negotiations, handling difficult negotiators, impact of personality traits and public policy mediation. Simulated negotiation exercises and role-plays will be used extensively.

Negotiations: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The objective of this course is to use the tools and insights of public policy analysis as a means of understanding the ways in which policies are shaped by and respond to issues of race, ethnicity, and cultural difference. The course is organized around a series of discrete policy problems involving issues of race and ethnicity. It is designed to allow for comparative analysis within and across cases to explore the variety of ways in which policy intersects with different racial and ethnic groups.
Race, Ethnicity, and Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022
This course will survey societal challenges that are fundamentally global in nature, in contrast to challenges that are more effectively addressed by domestic policies. The goal of the course is to understand the cause and structure of a broad set of global challenges, with an eye towards eventually participating in their management or resolution. The first part provides foundations for understanding the governance context in which global challenges emerge. The second part of the course examines individual topic areas, building students’ knowledge of modern issues and policy debates. Topics may include, but not limited to the governance of oceans; poverty and development; scientific research and technology transfer; international aid.
Global Challenges: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course introduces a range of economic phenomena that cannot be explained by standard, fully rational economic models, and explores implications for public policy. Why do we vote for social security despite the fact that it reduces our freedom to choose how we spend our money? What would happen to job seeking behavior if we cut off unemployment benefits in multiple steps? Why do fines work better than bonuses (except when they don't)? What kinds of policies should the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau implement? Behavioral Economics provides answers to these questions that standard economics does not.

Behavioral Economics for Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020
This course focuses on the sensible application of econometric methods to empirical problems in economics and public policy analysis. It provides background on issues that arise when analyzing non-experimental social science data and a guide for tools that are useful for empirical research. By the end of the course, students will have an understanding of the types of research designs that can lead to convincing analysis and be comfortable working with large scale data sets.
Applied Econometrics and Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course introduces students to the arena of security policy. Students will learn the origins and evolution of the governing framework for security policy in the United States, including the post-9/11 creation of Homeland Security, and key methodologies of security policy, including risk assessment. The course will evaluate the variety of scales at which security policy is enacted, from state/local to federal and even international. The course delves into defining security dilemmas of the present: the challenge of securing democracy against both internal and external threats; the challenge of cybersecurity in a networked world; and global climate change. The course concludes with a required one-day crisis simulation exercise.
Introduction to Security Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2016, Fall 2011
Studio/laboratory in the design of nonphysical environments. Complements courses in policy analysis, public management, economics, and political science; especially intended to integrate elements of professional programs in public policy and related areas. Students will design, in groups and individually, programs and policies that create value in the public sector, including statutes, regulations, and implementation projects. Comparative reviews will feature invited guests. Undergraduate level of 256.
Program and Policy Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Spring 2022
Survey of government policy toward the arts (especially direct subsidy, copyright and regulation, and indirect assistance) and its effects on artists, audiences, and institutions. Emphasizes "highbrow" arts, U.S. policy, and the social and economic roles of participants in the arts. Readings, field trips, and case discussion. One paper in two drafts required for undergraduate credit; graduate credit awarded for an additional short paper to be arranged and attendance at four advanced colloquia throughout the term. Undergraduate level of 257.
Arts and Cultural Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Survey of government policy toward the arts (especially direct subsidy, copyright and regulation, and indirect assistance) and its effects on artists, audiences, and institutions. Emphasizes "highbrow" arts, U.S. policy, and the social and economic roles of participants in the arts. Readings, field trips, and case discussion. One paper in two drafts required for undergraduate credit; graduate credit awarded for an additional short paper to be arranged and attendance at four advanced colloquia throughout the term. Undergraduate level of 257.
Arts and Cultural Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2020
This course provides a broad, inter-disciplinary overview of the U.S. labor movement in the fight for social and economic justice. It will introduce students to critiques of racial capitalism and the power dynamics inherent in paid work, while considering why and how workers form unions in response. One of the primary objectives of this course is to develop a theoretical and analytical understanding of contemporary workers’ experiences of work in the U.S. shaped by race, class, gender, sexuality, immigration status, language, religion, and other social constructs. There will be a special comparative focus on the role of structures and the space for agency and mobilization in the Latinx, Black and Asian American communities.
Work, Justice and the Labor Movement: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2021
This fieldstudy course is designed for undergraduates/graduates who have an interest in social/economic justice, and seek to earn academic credit while gaining exp in organizing. Building upon the Labor Center’s Summer program, it allows students to apply existing organizing skills/acquire new knowledge in community and labor organizations. Students will be matched with our community partners that promote the interests of Bay area working families. Classroom-based guided reflection, skills development, career information, and engagement with current debates will complement the fieldwork. This exp can open the door to life-long careers as organizers, researchers, policy analysts, political lobbyists, communication specialists and leaders.
Field Study in Labor Organizing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2007
Examination of the impact of policies of state intervention and public benefit programs on poor children and families. Introduction to child and family policy, and study of specific issue areas, such as income transfer programs, housing, health care, and child abuse.
Impact of Government Policies on Poor Children and Families: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023
This course is an introduction to social science research methods that center principles of equity and justice connecting the Berkeley Changemaker L&S 12 to the discipline of public policy in the field of work and employment relations. It is based on the premise that the COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to reshape the economy for a fair, inclusive, and democratic society with the participation of people typically excluded from policy development. Currently, young workers are at the helm of transforming the labor market by leading union organizing at workplaces. This course examines the position, attitudes, and interests of young workers through the lens of critical race theory, feminist and queer theory, and disability justice.
Berkeley Changemaker: Labor Research for Action and Policy (L-RAP): Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
This course will examine the nature and extent of poverty in the U.S., its causes and consequences, and the antipoverty effects of existing and proposed
government programs and policies. The first ten weeks of this course focuses on social science theory and evidence about the causes,
consequences and costs of poverty. The last four weeks of the course examines child poverty policies, employment policies, and setting an overall agenda for poverty policy.

Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.
Energy and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 8 Week Session, Summer 2023 8 Week Session, Summer 2022 8 Week Session
Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.
Energy and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
The class focuses on the economic regulation of electricity and natural gas and its role in public policy innovation. We will explore the regulatory rationale in the context of microeconomic principles, the nature and evolution of energy technology and regulation in the United States, and the ways to advance public policy objectives. The class covers the alternatives to traditional cost-of-service rate regulation, the electricity deregulation experiment, the resulting energy crisis in California, and current efforts to reconsider the utility business model. We will delve into how the economic regulatory framework creates opportunities to implement public policy, and the enhanced role climate change now plays in decision making worldwide.
Energy Regulation and Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
In this interdisciplinary course students examine the relationships among social science, law, and crime prevention policy. Emphasis is placed on how psychological science (clinical, developmental, social) can inform decisions about individuals at high risk for repeated involvement in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Topics of focus include risk assessment, adolescent development and juvenile justice, and prevention/intervention/correctional psychology. Students will have an opportunity to master a specific problem area. Broadly, goals are for students to a) become comfortable in translating crime prevention problems into social scientific questions, and b) specifically understand how research findings can inform law and policy.
Social Science & Crime Prevention Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Course examines current problems and issues in the field of public policy. Topics may vary from year to year and will be announced at the beginning of the semester. Open to students from other departments.
Special Topics in Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
This class will provide students with a grounding in the literature of social movement theory and history, with a special emphasis on social movements led by African American, Latinx, indigenous, and Asian Pacific Islander communities for equity. The class will also introduce students to the basics of social movement organizing, including mobilizing unlikely voters through organizing technique, and the theory of nonviolent direct action, all with a focus on race and gender equity.
Social Movements, Organizing & Policy Change: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Group study of a selected topic or topics in Public Policy. Meetings to be arranged.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2020
For upper division students wishing to pursue special study and directed research under direction of a member of the staff. Enrollment restrictions apply; see the Introduction to Courses and Curricula section of this catalog.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
This practicum is an applied research training course that accompanies PUBPOL 160AC Work, Justice, and the Labor Movement and connects the Berkeley Changemaker L&S 12 to the discipline of public policy. It is designed to provide a robust training in research methods and community engagement with worker organizations to inform policies for a fair, inclusive, and democratic society. The practicum integrates elements of quantitative and qualitative research methods in a semester-long service-learning project in partnership with a worker organization. Students will work in teams to collect and analyze data thematically, and learn to use digital tools to disseminate the research findings to various audiences.
Berkeley Changemaker: Labor Research for Action and Policy (L-RAP): Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
This introductory course will integrate various social science disciplines and apply these perspectives to problems of public policy. Throughout the academic term, students will apply knowledge of politics, economics, sociology, and quantitative methods in the analysis of case studies of policymakers and managers making decisions. Students learn to use the techniques of social science to evaluate projects and programs. Course will include the preparation of a major paper for a client.
Introduction to Policy Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This is a course about how to identify public problems and craft policies to best address those problems. The course is designed to improve our abilities to think creatively and critically about public policy issues, whether as politically-engaged citizens, advocates for policy change, practicing policy analysts, or members of one of the many disciplines and professions shaped by public policy. This course focuses on the art and science of public policy analysis. We address the following fundamental questions: What kinds of problems are public problems? How do we know when government should get involved? What kinds of solutions are available to government? How do we confront the trade-offs between possible solutions?
Foundations for Public Policy Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This introductory course will integrate various social science disciplines and apply these perspectives to problems of public policy. Throughout the academic term, students will apply knowledge of politics, economics, sociology, and quantitative methods in the analysis of increasingly complex problems.

Professional Policy Practice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Each student will conduct thorough analysis on a major policy question. In this research, students will apply the interdisciplinary methods, approaches, and perspectives studied in the core curriculum.
Advanced Policy Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Theories of microeconomic behavior of consumers, producers, and bureaucrats are developed and applied to specific policy areas. Ability to analyze the effects of alternative policy actions in terms of 1) the efficiency of resource allocation and 2) equity is stressed. Policy areas are selected to show a broad range of actual applications of theory and a variety of policy strategies.
The Economics of Public Policy Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Theories of microeconomic behavior of consumers, producers, and bureaucrats are developed and applied to specific policy areas. Ability to analyze the effects of alternative policy actions in terms of 1) the efficiency of resource allocation and 2) equity is stressed. Policy areas are selected to show a broad range of actual applications of theory and a variety of policy strategies.
The Economics of Public Policy Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024
This class explores the social construction of gender and sexuality and the ways society has produced and reproduced these constructions through public policy. We examine how policy has been used to influence who forms family, how families are structured, and what life looks like inside families. Over the course of the semester, we cover policy histories and current debates in key domains, including marriage and children, social safety net, paid and unpaid work, reproductive rights, and domestic and sexual violence.
Gender, Sexuality, & Family Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Focuses on legal aspects of public policy by exposing students to primary legal materials, including court decisions and legislative and administrative regulations. Skills of interpretation and legal draftsmanship are developed. Relationships among law-making agencies and between law and policy are explored through case-centered studies.
Law and Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
Graduate seminar examining the role of energy science, technology, and policy in
international development. The course will look at how changes in the theory and practice
of energy systems and of international development have co-evolved over the past half-
century, and what opportunities exist going forward.
A focus will be on rural and decentralized energy use, and the issues of technology, culture,
and politics that are raised by both current trajectories, and potential alternative energy
choices. We will explore the frequently divergent ideas about energy and development that
have emerged from civil society, academia, multinational development agencies, and the
private and industrial sector.
Climate, Energy and Development: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023
The objective of this course is to improve negotiation skills and to increase the ability to resolve conflicts in a multitude of situations, including public policy negotiations. The course will examine the theory and dynamics of negotiation and various approaches to negotiating. Topics will include: distributive and integrative bargaining; preparation strategies; defense to ploys; power and perceptions; multi-party negotiations; working with lawyers; impact of gender, cross-cultural negotiations, organizational change and mediation. Simulated negotiation exercises will be extensively used.

Negotiations: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022
This seminar course offers students the opportunity to develop and hone research skills that can shape campaigns to improve workers’ lives. We will address priority questions that have emerged in ongoing organizing and advocacy campaigns led by labor partners. The class will culminate in presentations of findings, analyses, and policy recommendations to key stakeholders. Through a combination of lectures, key readings, and active participation in a “live” research initiative, students will develop an understanding of the current challenges that the labor movement in California faces and contribute to innovative policy advocacy and political action. This course can be a gateway to applied research capstone projects in different disciplines.
Challenges and Innovation in Labor Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This graduate course provides an introduction to the relationship between politics, policy-making, and development in the Global South. Sections may focus on a range of countries or countries from a specific region. The course will examine the political institutions underlying the policy process and the role played by groups with diverse policy interests, as well as specific policy interventions. In doing so, we will evaluate the characteristics of political competition and the dynamics of political participation in highly dynamic contexts.
Politics and Policymaking in Comparative Perspective: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023
This course focuses on four inter-connected areas of pedagogy important to urban planning, design, and public policy that repair, rather than perpetuate, systemic harm. First, we will examine the main tenets of critical race theory to address the structural roots and history of injustice. Second, students will learn the theory, methodology and practice of transformative community planning, design and public policy principles that center the lived experiences, experiential knowledge, and agency of people directly impacted by systemic injustice. Third, we will examine the role of individual and collective healing focusing on the principles of restorative justice. Fourth, we will explore the theory and practice of love-based justice.

Critical Race Theory in Planning, Design, and Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022
This course will survey societal challenges that are fundamentally global in nature, in contrast to challenges that are more effectively addressed by domestic policies. The goal of the course is to understand the cause and structure of a broad set of global challenges, with an eye towards eventually participating in their management or resolution. The first part provides foundations for understanding the governance context in which global challenges emerge. The second part of the course examines individual topic areas, building students’ knowledge of modern issues and policy debates. Topics may include, but not limited to the governance of oceans; poverty and development; scientific research and technology transfer; international aid.
Global Challenges: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The course provides students an in-depth understanding of key issues and constraints facing top officials in running a city. The course examines the extent cities are viable: can they provide services residents demand and deserve; can they provide for public safety, jobs, housing, schools, basic services, and fill potholes? And there is the public interest question: viable for whom and in benefit of whom? Using Oakland and Bay Area cities as case studies, the course integrates direct front-line experience with broader conceptual analyses. Students work on projects of current importance and gain familiarity with a wide-range of city policies and programs. The class will include presentations by key city decision-makers.
Implementation: Key Issues in Managing California Cities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022
This course provides an overview of the causes and consequences of civil war. The course is organized around three units. First, we investigate some of the structural conditions and individual
reasons for engaging in rebellion. Why do people fight? The second unit turns to the internal dynamics of conflict. How are civilians treated during the war? Why do rebels and civilians
cooperate? The third unit explores conflict resolution and post-war politics, where we explore issues of peacekeeping, conflict resolution, and post-war reconstruction. In the end, students
should leave with an understanding of why civil wars occur and an improved capacity to devise solutions for ongoing contentious political events around the world.
Politics of Civil War: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course examines how politics affects development in the Global South. First, we will examine state institutions and the enduring effects of natural resources, conflict, and historical legacies on present-day
development. We will then explore the role of elections and political participation in shaping public goods provision, and how politicians leverage development and security for political gain. Finally, we will focus on a broad variety of development interventions, covering areas such as conflict, education, and gender. Readings will draw primarily from the political science and economics literature and concepts are grounded in case analyses from the Global South.
Politics and Development in the Global South: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
An integrated course on the use of quantitative techniques in public policy analysis: computer modeling and simulation, linear programming and optimization, decision theory, and statistical and econometric analysis of policy-relevant data. The student develops a facility in distilling the policy relevance of numbers through an analysis of case studies and statistical data sets.
Decision Analysis, Modeling, and Quantitative Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
An integrated course on the use of quantitative techniques in public policy analysis: computer modeling and simulation, linear programming and optimization, decision theory, and statistical and econometric analysis of policy-relevant data. The student develops a facility in distilling the policy relevance of numbers through an analysis of case studies and statistical data sets.
Decision Analysis, Modeling, and Quantitative Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
This course covers intermediate quantitative methods for public policy analysis. The primary learning goals for the course are that students understand how to 1) implement and interpret linear regression; 2) distinguish correlation from causation; 3) code descriptive statistics, regressions, and data visualizations; and 4) engage in self-learning of additional methods depending on the student’s research interests. We will also learn, in a mostly conceptual way, about more advanced linear models and ‘quasi-experimental’ research design such that students leave the course as effective consumers of these methods.
Decision Analysis, Modeling, and Quantitative Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024
Data and analytics have become essential for tackling real-world social and policy problems. This course will cover key tools in this setting: data wrangling and description with (often messy) data sets, including data aggregation and manipulation; visualization; and introduction to more advanced statistical programming. Students will explore these topics via individual- and group-based applied data projects, including hands-on assignments during class. The goal is for students to “get their hands dirty” with data and to produce workable—rather than ideal—solutions to problems. Data sets will be drawn from governments, non-profits, and other partner organizations. The course will be taught using the open-source programming language, R.

Data Science for Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
How do we know whether a program or policy is having its intended impact? This course will cover the methods used to answer this question. The focus will be on quantitative studies, with an emphasis on the econometric techniques used in experimental and non-experimental evaluations. We will also discuss the role of program evaluations in policy analysis and design and the limits to program evaluation as a tool for policy improvement. Examples will be drawn from real-life social policy interventions in domestic and international settings.
Statistics for Program Evaluation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course examines the political and organizational factors involved in developing new policies, choosing among alternatives, gaining acceptance, assuring implementation, and coping with unanticipated consequences. Materials will include case studies, theoretical, empirical, and interpretive works from several disciplines.
The Politics of Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
Research seminar to develop public policy analyses based on microeconomic theories of organization, including collective demand mechanisms, behavioral theory of regulatory agencies and bureaucracies, and productivity in the public sector.
Microeconomic Organization and Policy Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
This course emphasizes the development and application of policy solutions to developing-world problems related to poverty, macroeconomic policy, and environmental sustainability. Methods of statistical, economic, and policy analysis are applied to a series of case studies. The course is designed to develop practical professional skills for application in the international arena.
International Economic Development Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course introduces students to the arena of security policy. Students will learn the origins and evolution of the governing framework for security policy in the United States, including the post-9/11 creation of Homeland Security, and key methodologies of security policy, including risk assessment. The course will evaluate the variety of scales at which security policy is enacted, from state/local to federal and even international. The course delves into defining security dilemmas of the present: the challenge of securing democracy against both internal and external threats; the challenge of cybersecurity in a networked world; and global climate change. The course concludes with a required one-day crisis simulation exercise.
Introduction to Security Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2016, Fall 2011
Studio/laboratory in the design of non-physical environments. Complements courses in policy analysis, public management, economics, and political science; especially intended to integrate elements of professional programs in public policy and related areas. Students will design, in groups and individually, programs and policies that create value in the public sector, including statutes, regulations, and implementation projects. Comparative reviews will feature invited guests. Graduate level of 156.
Program and Policy Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Spring 2022
Survey of government policy toward the arts (especially direct subsidy, copyright and regulation, and indirect assistance) and its effects on artists, audiences, and institutions. Emphasizes "highbrow" arts, U.S. policy, and the social and economic roles of participants in the arts. Readings, field trips, and case discussion. One paper in two drafts required for undergraduate credit; graduate credit awarded for an additional short paper to be arranged and attendance at four advanced colloquia throughout the term. Graduate level of 157.
Arts and Cultural Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course discusses and criticizes the conceptual foundations of cost-benefit analysis, and analyzes in depth some important applied aspects such as endogenous prices of other commodities, methods to infer willingness to pay, valuation of life, uncertainty and the rate of discount. The goal of this course is to teach you the theory and practice of cost-benefit analysis, with an eye to preparing you to confidently conduct a CBA for an employer or client starting on day one of your career as a policy analyst. There will be three main components to the course: The textbook, discussion, and the semester project.
Benefit-Cost Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
This course is designed to help students develop their skills for leading and managing groups, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and public advocacy, with the goal of achieving positive social change. Materials include case studies, analyses, and works from several disciplines. Course is open to first and second year MPP students, but recommended for first year.
Public Leadership and Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
Financial modeling is a process by which organizations test key revenue, expense and programmatic assumptions and examine the likely outcomes of a projected course of action. Financial modeling offers nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs a way of clarifying the financial implications of various options and facilitates critical, intentional, and informed decision making. Real-world case studies will be used to train students in the highly-iterative process of financial model development. Students will learn how to identify key variables, articulate underlying assumptions, construct staffing models, develop and analyze multi-case funding scenarios, and identify key questions critical to organizational decision making.
Financial Modeling for Nonprofit Organizations: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
Course reviews theories of why the state enters the child and family policy arena, then walks through four specific policy domains. Utilizing multi-media material, funded through ILTI at UCOP, including interviews with leaders in the field, video clips, and conventional academic journal articles.
Early Childhood Policy - Children, Contexts, and Politics in Diverse Societies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This class examines the racist history of public policy in the U.S. and teaches students to use radical imagination to inspire new policy ideas for a transformative social change. We will explore how the legacy of stolen land and human bondage persist in exclusionary government policies that generate, maintain, and enforce inequitable systems. We will learn from advocates, researchers, and practitioners engaged in the collective process of radical imagination across a wide range of social spheres. Students will come to understand how policies can contribute to or mitigate the interlocking and mutually reinforcing nature of racism and anti-Blackness and will begin to envision policies towards building a thriving multiracial democracy.
Race & Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024
We will examine the nature and extent of poverty and inequality in the U.S., its causes and consequences, and the effects of government programs and policies. The first unit covers the measurement of poverty and inequality and reviews the evidence for the trends in the U.S. and other developed countries. The next unit covers the causes of poverty and inequality, particularly the influences of the labor market and education. The course also surveys the government policies and programs such as taxes, government transfers, active labor market policies, and labor market institutions such as unions and minimum wages. Throughout the course, policy context is highlighted, in terms of reviewing prior reforms and the potential prospective changes.
The Social Safety Net, Poverty and Income Inequality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
An effective nonprofit leader must be able to analyze and act upon financial information as part of an overall approach to strategic decision making. This course will focus on the core financial management
issues faced by board members and by senior and executive managers in large and small nonprofit organizations. Students will learn the tools and techniques for effective financial management, including pricing, program analyses, budgeting, forecasting and overall business model sustainability. The course will address current regulations and issues that impact nonprofit financial management. The development and use of internal and external financial reports will be studied with an emphasis on using financial information in decision-making.
Financial Management of Nonprofit Organization: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Public sector budgeting is an activity that incorporates many, perhaps most, of the skills of the public manager and analyst. The goal of this course is to develop and hone these skills. Using cases and readings from all levels of American government, the course will allow the student to gain an understanding of the effects and consequences of public sector budgeting, its processes and participants, and the potential impacts of various reforms. Graduate level of Public Policy 179.
Public Budgeting: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
This seminar appraises the critical policy choices that shape the lives of children and adolescents from birth through high school and beyond. The issues are as varied-and hotly debated by politicians and policy-makers-as banning Coke machines in schools to reduce obesity, regulating teenage abortion, providing universal preschool and helping abused children. Students from across the campus-public policy, education, social welfare, business, sociology, political science, economics-bring different perspectives. Discussions and readings draw on insights from across the policy sciences. Problem-solving is the focus in seminar meetings and research projects.
Kid-First Policy: Family, School, and Community: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
This course is designed to provide graduate students with a deeper understanding of the organization of the political economy of the United States and why earnings and wealth have been diverging over the last thirty-five years. Given that most of the underlying forces causing this trend in the U.S. are also prevalent in other nations, the lessons learned in this course are likely to be relevant elsewhere. The course is also intended to provide insights into the political and public policy debates that have arisen in light of this divergence, as well as possible means of reversing it.
The Political Economy of Inequality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016
This advanced graduate seminar will examine the theoretical frames and models used to examine the linkages between energy and development, and the impacts of one on the other.

Energy and Development: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Spring 2022
This course examines concepts and case studies to illustrate how to be an effective organizational leader in government and the non-profit sector. Topics include formulating and articulating goals; the influence of assets and the external environment; the importance of structure, culture and craft; reforming when resources are scarce; negotiation techniques; and elements of crisis management. students are expected to read all assignments before class and be prepared to be active participants in class discussion, debates and negotiations. The instructor will provide discussion questions for each subsequent session.
Public Management and Policy Implementation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
This course introduces students to spatial data and its analysis, modeling of spatially dependent processes, and related policy problems. Through hands-on analysis, students will learn to extract quantitative information from spatial data for applied research and public policy. Students will be introduced to spatial statistics, spatially dependent simulation, and spatial optimization. Students will learn to think creatively about spatial problems through examples drawn from economics, politics, epidemiology, criminology, agriculture, social networks, and the environment. Students will benefit from prior experience with basic computer programming, although prior experience is not required.
Spatial Data and Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
Public policy analysis requires a sophisticated understanding of a variety of types of data. Empirical arguments and counterarguments play a central role in policy debates. Quantitative analysis courses teach you how to analyze data; this course will introduce you to strategies of data collection and principles for critically evaluating data collected by others. Topics include measurement reliability and validity, questionnaire design, sampling, experimental and quasi-experimental program evaluation designs, qualitative research methods, and the politics of data in public policy.
Research Design and Data Collection for Public Policy Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2016, Fall 2014
This seminar brings together two related frames for policy thinking: the ethics of policy, that is, what does it mean to do the right thing? and the intervention of policy, that is, how do new policy paradigms emerge? Those who seek to govern well inescapably confront questions of value in their political, professional, and personal choices. the discussion of ethical dilemmas, which will take up the first half of the semester, is designed to provoke analytic reflection on the moral challenges and responsibilities of public policymaking in a democracy. The focus is on the many and often competing obligations, commitments and values that should guide public actors, as well as on the public principles that guide the design of good public policy. Politics and conventional analytics dominate policy in the short run. But over the longer term, conceptualizations as varied as exit/voice/loyalty, satisficing, the tipping point, memes, winner-take-all, strong democracy, broken windows, and the prisoners dilemma profoundly influence the policy conservation.
Ethics, Policy, and the Power of Ideas: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2009, Fall 2008
Most environmental issues involve technology, either in the role of "villain" or "hero." This course uses the lens of specific technologies to survey environmental policy and management, with an emphasis on the complexities of policy-making with diverse interest groups. The class includes case studies, guest practitioners, and a group project in which students employ a range of analytic tools and frameworks in order to develop creative, effective, and actionable environmental solutions.
Environment and Technology from the Policy and Business Perspective: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course will focus on the evolution and current status of renewable energy policy on the federal, state, and local levels. It will explore the context for promoting renewables in a country that has long subsidized fossil production and nuclear power and encouraged greater consumption. We will explore the particular tools and perspectives that governments on different levels bring to the challenge and the ways various governmental bodies have seized that opportunity. We will move beyond consideration of broad policies to examine the specific policy challenges and opportunities faced by proponents of each of the major renewable energy technologies.
Renewable Energy Policy in the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Energy sources, uses, and impacts; an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.
Energy and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 8 Week Session, Summer 2023 8 Week Session, Summer 2022 8 Week Session, Summer 2021 8 Week Session, Fall 2020
Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.
Energy and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
The course will review the origins and evolution of nuclear energy, how it has been applied for both peaceful and military purposes, and the current and prospective challenges it presents. The purpose of the course is to educate students on the policy roots and technological foundations of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons so they are positioned to make original contributions to the field in their scholarly and professional careers.
Nuclear Security: The Nexus Between Policy and Technology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
An extensive examination of contemporary U.S. national security issues and how policy is developed and implemented. Topics include Russia after the Cold War with emphasis on nuclear and biological weapons; crisis decision-making and the key players in national security policy; the struggle against terrorism, especially since 9/11, with some reference to homeland security; the challenges to U.S. policy in the Middle East after the Arab spring; China as the chief great power rival; and the role of unmanned vehicles, cyber, and special operations as key elements of U.S. policy. Students will write policy memos, participate in crisis simulation exercises, and complete a take-home final examination.
US National Security Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
The class focuses on the economic regulation of electricity and natural gas and its role in public policy innovation. We will explore the regulatory rationale in the context of microeconomic principles, the nature and evolution of energy technology and regulation in the United States, and the ways to advance public policy objectives. The class covers the alternatives to traditional cost-of-service rate regulation, the electricity deregulation experiment, the resulting energy crisis in California, and current efforts to reconsider the utility business model. We will delve into how the economic regulatory framework creates opportunities to implement public policy, and the enhanced role climate change now plays in decision making worldwide.
Energy Regulation and Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
Optimization and simulation models in stochastic and deterministic contexts. Monte Carlo simulation, Bayesian models and decisions, linear and nonlinear programming, queing models, and a review of heuristics and biases in individual risk assessment. Hands-on exploration of tools oriented to management and policy decisions in public and nonprofit organizations. Objective for students: lifelong habit of learning and using new analytic methods.
Risk and Optimization Models for Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Course examines current problems and issues in the field of public policy. Topics may vary from year to year and will be announced at the beginning of the semester. Open to students from other departments.
Special Topics in Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
Open to qualified graduate students wishing to pursue special study and research under direction of a member of the staff.
Directed Advanced Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2009, Fall 2008
Open to qualified graduate students wishing to pursue special research under direction of a member of the staff. Discussion and analysis of dissertation research projects, including conceptual and methodological problems of designing and conducting policy research.
Supervised Research Colloquium: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Discussion and analysis of dissertation research projects, including conceptual and methodological problems of designing and conducting public policy research.
Ph.D. Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Course examines current problems and issues in the field of public policy. Topics vary from year to year.
Graduate Student Led Course in Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
This Clinic seeks to develop students to advance an anti-racist future guided by the principles of love, healing, and justice. Students are required to enroll in the companion theory course, EnvDes C231, Critical Race Theory in Planning, Design, and Public Policy. This Clinic focuses on four areas of professional practice. First, students are supervised by experienced professional practitioners. Second, students will learn the framework of racial equity analysis through applied theoretical frameworks and case study pedagogy. Third, students will apply the framework of racial equity analysis to real-world projects. Fourth, students will engage in reflection of their experiences through peer learning and regular journal entries.

Dismantling Racism in Planning, Design, and Public Policy Clinic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Open to qualified graduate students wishing to pursue special study and research under direction of a member of the staff.
Directed Advanced Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
By arrangement with faculty. Open only to qualified second-year graduate students working toward the M.P.P. degree.
Independent Study in Preparation for the Advanced Policy Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course is directed at Graduate Student Instructors for undergraduate and graduate courses, and reviews the most important elements of effective teaching, especially teaching graduate students in professional programs like the Master of Public Policy. It satisfies the graduate division requirement for a 300 course for GSI's.
GSI Practicum: Read More [+]