Presentation

The purpose of this class is to develop students’ essential skills for analyzing policy and public action; skills which will enable students who have taken "Government and Public Action" as a minor to carry out analytical and operational tasks for designing or assessing public policies in general and in the Global South in particular. The class provides theoretical and practical training in analytical methods applied to public policies and training in operational skills for professional purposes. Its objective is to enable students to conduct, in the best conditions, their country risk analyses and interpretation of policymaking processes. The class is divided into five parts: definition of policies and public action; study of the processes of emergence of a public issue; interpretation of the processes of production of public policies; training in the analytical tools used in public policies (IPMS in particular); understanding and use of evaluation tools and processes.

Recommended Prerequisite(s)

Knowledge in political sociology, sociology of organizations or administrations, sociology of decision-making, or institutional economics is required. Participating in associative activities or performing internships in various public or private organizations are significant assets.

Bibliography

• Hassenteufel P., Sociologie politique : l’action publique, coll. U, A.Colin, 2011.
• Sabatier P., Weible C., Theories of the Policy Process, Westview Press, 3^e ed, 2014.
• Lemieux V., Décentralisation, politiques publiques et relations de pouvoir, Montréal, Les Presses de l’université de Montréal, 2001.
• Eboko F., Repenser l’action publique en Afrique. Du Sida à l’analyse de la globalisation des politiques publiques, Paris, Karthala, 2015.
• Provini O. & Darbon D., Gouvernement et action publique, 2018.

Educational formula

The class is structured around a PowerPoint presentation, made available on Moodle, illustrated with videos, and containing references for further reading as well as resources of various kinds. 

This will enable students to further develop their understanding of public policy processes if they so wish. The teacher expects students to work on the assigned topics in advance so that the class sessions can serve to reinforce students’ knowledge and enable them to apply their skills through concrete case studies. Additional bibliographical information, particularly on analytical tools, is also available on Moodle.