The goals of this course are to provide you with the basic knowledge and skills needed to work within (or to deal with) public agencies.  After the course, you should...

1. understand the basics of public agencies, their context, and their administration.  This includes how public administration differs from private business (even large, complex, bureaucratized corporations).  We will particularly examine the challenges of multiple (and cross-) pressures on agencies and the resulting value ambiguities.  This will make up the first 5-6 weeks of the course.
2. be able to use negotiating skills both to clarify one's own interests, to reach understanding with others, and thereby develop mutually agreeable solutions to conflicts.  This will make up the middle 4-5 weeks of the course.
3. read and comprehend policy analyses, know their purposes and limitations, and carry out simple cost-benefit analyses.  We will be learning these during the final weeks of the course.
   

There is no time in a single semester to teach the technical field of public administration, which has an extensive array of graduate programs, degrees, analytic skills, journals, theoretical disputes, and so on.  Nor is there time in a single semester to teach the detailed skills of any particular field of administration:  budgeting, human resource management, policy analysis and evaluation, and so on.  Each of these skills takes a lifetime to master, and in any case the academic setting can't provide the necessary realism.  No, what I hope to provide this semester is the basic skills that will let you land on your feet and learn quickly when you work in public service.   I see this course as ... well, the course I wish I had had during my roughly eight year in public service.  The key skills are those listed above:  an understanding of basic bureaucratic structure, a critical eye for policy analysis, and an ability to negotiate well and honorably.  Taken together, these will become an internal compass to guide you as you learn and prosper in the intricacies of your profession.  (I have cast this in terms of students who will enter public service, but it should be apparent how these skills will apply equally, even if not as urgently, to those who simply need to deal with public agencies in the future.)

• Robert B. Denhardt & Joseph W. Grubbs [D&G]  Public Administration:  An Action Orientation (4th ed) (Belmont, CA:  Wadsworth, 2003)  [Publisher's page]
  
• Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton [F&U] Getting to Yes:  Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (2^nd ed) (NY:Penguin, 1991)  [Publisher's page]
• Roger Fisher and Danny Ertel [F&E]  Getting Ready to Negotiate:  The Getting to Yes Workbook (NY:Penguin, 1995)  [Publisher's page]
• Janet V. Denhardt & Robert B. Denhardt  The New Public Service:  Serving, not Steering (Armonk, NY:  M.E. Sharpe)  [Publisher's page]  {I am not yet sure whether to require this text;  don't purchase it until I've decided.}
  

You will be graded on the basis of three (take-home) exams and your participation in the exercises we will be doing regularly in the course.  Participation includes attendance (see below) plus coming to class prepared and turning in the required assignments.

IDIOSYNCRASIES

Every teacher has h/her idiosyncrasies, and I'm no exception. My number one idiosyncrasy, as you may have heard from my previous students, is that I expect you to turn in work that is well-written, meaning that I expect of high school graduates:  spelled correctly, grammatical, correctly punctuated, and proofread.  Your grades will reflect my expectation.

ACCESSABILITY

If you have a disability, either permanent or temporary, that might affect your ability to perform in this class, please let me know soon.  I will adapt methods, materials, or testing as required to allow equitable participation.^(Acc) (This includes problems you might believe you have with writing.)  These adaptations will not be mushier academic standards but rather ways to allow you to demonstrate your full grasp of the material, despite circumstances that are beyond your control.

As long as we're talking about circumstances beyond your control, be advised that you will find me much more pliable regarding incompletes, extensions, missed exams, and so on, if you tell me of your situation before the due date.  Unless your canoe has sunk up in the BWCAW, along with your cell phone, there's no reason you can't leave a message on my voice mail.

Special requests, such as extensions on assignments, should be sent to me by email.

ATTENDANCE

How important is attendance?  Except as explained in the next paragraph, I will not be taking attendance.  Anything that comes up in class discussions is fair game for exam questions (and/or to enrich your answers), but I will not deliberately give exam questions on that material in order to catch you.  Of course, you can find out what I think is most important in the course (and the texts) by noting what I cover in class.

I will be taking attendance during classes where we do class exercises (role-playing, group exercises, case studies, and so on).  Your attendance record will be used to adjust your final course grade by as much as a letter grade.  Absence or tardiness will be recorded regardless of their reason;  I am not judging how dutiful a student you are but only whether you have been exposed to and benefitted from the participatory classes and exercises.  For them, there's no substitute for your presence.

COMMITMENT

If you have trouble figuring out what to study, or if you study hard and get a bad grade on an exam or assignment anyway, come and talk to me. Please don't just suffer in silence!

You are expected to treat everyone in class with respect in discussion and classroom presence.  Please wear appropriate clothes to class.  If you wear your swimsuit, then I'll be forced to wear mine -- something we would all regret.  Please arrive before the class begins and remain until the class ends.  If you know you'll have to leave before the end of class, please sit near an exit and depart quietly.

LAPTOPS

Do not use laptops, PDAs, and similar equipment during class.

ASSIGNMENT	DUE	WEIGHT
Mid-term exam #1 (take-home)	2/17	20%
Mid-term exam #2 (take-home)	3/10	24%
Final exam (take-home)	May 16	28%
Participation	[ongoing]	28%
Extra credit	[ongoing]	Added credit
Course-specific extra credit	[ongoing]	Added credit

COURSE SCHEDULE
 

WEEK	DATE	CLASS CONTENT	CLASS PREPARATION & ASSIGNMENTS DUE
1	1/22	Introduction Syllabus:  structure;  grading;  extra credit;  course-related extra credit;  links;  course web site Public administration vs. business administration:  multiple goals (justice, democracy, responsiveness, efficiency, accountability), multiple masters (via "publicness") The three sections of the course The technical field, "public administration"
	1/24	Introductions;  ambitions Quick overview of U.S. civics The three branches of government Legislative;  the functions of articulation, aggregation, and legitimation Executive;  regulatory vs. constructive;  laws not self-enforcing;  construction needing organization Judicial:  adjudication;  the necessity of interpretation Checks and balances Federalism Consequence:  administrative complexity;  no clear division between policy and administration The relationship between the three sections of Pol 3221 and the three branches of government	D&G Ch 1 (esp. 9-17, 23-27)
THE BASIC STRUCTURE AND PROCESS OF GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC AGENCIES
2	1/27	The complex political context Executive Legislative Judicial	D&G Ch 2
	1/29
	1/31
3	2/3	More complexity intergovernmental relations non-governmental organizations	D&G Ch 3
	2/5
	2/7
4	2/10	Some theory & concepts public goods, free riders, NIMBY, user fees, privatization mandates, unfunded mandates rationality vs. "muddling through" In-class exercises (with out-of-class preparation) 2/14:  Exam 1 handed out at end of class
	2/12
	2/14
5	2/17	Exam 1 due at or before beginning of class Budgeting budgeting theory forms of budgeting political games Exercise(s?) Ex 2:  The Lakewood Budget Ex 3:  The Procurement Proposal 2/21:  Exam 1 returned at end of class	D&G Ch 5
	2/19
	2/21
6	2/24	Human resources	D&G Ch 6
	2/26
	2/28
7	3/3	Organizational dynamics 3/7:  Exam 2 handed out at end of class	D&G Ch 7
	3/5
	3/7
PRINCIPLED NEGOTIATION
8	3/10	Exam 2 due at or before the beginning of class Negotiation exercise Discussion of exercise Lecture:  principled (a.k.a. interest-based) negotiation and positional bargaining:  interests vs. positions;  relationships vs. outcomes
	3/12	Introduction of principled negotiation Come  to class on 3/12 having thought of several potential negotiations one might wish to prepare for. Lecture:  Separating the people from the problem Discussion of possible negotiations to prepare for Choice of negotiations 3/14:  Exam 2 returned at end of class	Read F&U Intro, Ch 1, & Ch 2 Read F&E Intro
	3/14
SPRING BREAK [NO CLASS]
9	3/24	Separating the people from the problem	Read F&U Ch 2 Read F&E Ch 8.  [Do not complete the forms in Ch 8.]
	3/26	Focusing on interests, not positions
	3/28	Inventing options for mutual gain
10	3/31	Insisting on using objective criteria
MIDWEST POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING [NO CLASS]
11	4/7	.	.
	4/9	.	.
	4/11	.	.
12	4/14	.	.
	4/16	.	.
	4/18	.	.
POLICY ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
13	4/21	Types and methods of policy analysis and evaluation Read D&G Chapter 7 Cost-benefit analysis exercise:  D&G Ch 7 - Ex 4:  Assess the net cost of the various garbage hauling options, and write a short memo that the director of sanitation might write to the mayor recommending an option and explaining/justifying it. Identifying costs & benefits exercise:  D&G Ch 7 - Ex 2:  List all the costs and benefits for all parties affected by the bottle deposit policy. Research methods exercise:  D&G Ch 7 - Ex 2:  Develop research programs, specifying their methods, for assessing the various costs and benefits suggested previously -- at least for those costs & benefits lending themselves to such research. 4/30:  Teaching evaluation 5/9:  Review of course & farewells 5/9:  Final exam available on the web after class
	4/23
	4/25
14	4/28
	4/30
	5/2
15	5/5
	5/7
	5/9
Friday, May 16, 9:55:  Final exam due in my office or department mailbox.  (You are, of course, free to hand it in earlier.)
Tuesday, May 20:  All grades and an annotated version of the final exam are posted on the web today.

[RUNNING] BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RELATED WORK

• Charles E. Lindblom (1959).  The Science of "Muddling Through".  Public Administration Review 19(Spring):79-88.
  

FOOTNOTES

The course material is available (or can be made available) in alternative formats upon request. Please contact the Access Center (726-8217).

*Information about me: I am an Associate Professor of Political Science. My professional research interests are in the intersection of social science and moral philosophy, i.e., in the role of moral beliefs within social dynamics. This makes me particularly concerned with political philosophy and political theory, and you'll accordingly find this course to contain a healthy dose of theory. I concentrate primarily upon European political theory, within which primarily postmodern theory, within which primarily Frankfurt School / Critical Theory work, within which Jürgen Habermas, within which Discourse Ethics. I have written a number of works in this area: "A Second Moment of Discourse Ethics" (1998), Defining Political Development (1988), and Grounding Political Development (1991), and, with Shawn Rosenberg and Dana Ward, Political Reasoning and Cognition: A Piagetian View (1988). I'm currently at work on a book, Ways of Relating.  You can find my vita here on my web site.