With political polarization becoming the defining issue of our time there is a pressing need to develop a more precise understanding of the complex incentives and limitations that shape the policy behavior of modern governments. In this course we develop an in-depth understanding of what public policy is and why we sometimes justify government action to solve social problems and other times do not. We learn each step of the policy process and evaluate the characteristics of effective and ineffective policies. We also examine the environments in which poorly designed public policies may have created unexpected and negative outcomes such as inequality or political capture. This course explores many of the paradoxes inherent in public policy by focusing on the controversial topics that animate today's most meaningful public debates such as healthcare police reform gun ownership homelessness and education.
