Understanding Public Policy

Hi all, and welcome to our last episode on the course material! In this podcast, we will cover disaster and emergency management with a focus on the emergency management approach , data on different natural disasters, and review of a whole host of challenges that we can and do experience when we handle a disaster or emergency (things like fragmentation , the issue-attention cycle , and the Samarit...

Howdy all, I hope you are doing well and gearing up for the last days and weeks of this class! Today's episode is all about criminal justice , or as I like to think of it the system of order we have for inside our borders. When it comes to criminal justice, we have lots of problems ( hate crimes, recidivism, etc.) but we also have some fundamental misunderstandings (particularly about crime rates...

Hi all, and welcome to one of our last 3 episodes on American Public Policy! In this episode we are going to dive into the topic of national defense/security policy . What we are really considering here is how to keep the country safe and secure from threats that exist outside of our borders--so how do we engage in international relations in order to ensure peace (or at least the successful comple...

Hi all, and welcome back to one of our last podcast episodes! We only have a few more left to go, and in this episode we'll be covering environmental and energy policy . It seems to me that with both of these topics, we don't do too much until we run into big problems (aka externalities like pollution or extremely high bills for electricity or gasoline). Our policies in these arenas seem to come a...

Howdy all, welcome to yet another episode on US public policy! Today's episode is going to walk directly into that fiery pathway known as social values policy . These are all the topics that engage and enrage: abortion , rights for different groups (specifically LGBTQ+ and transgender individuals and groups ), the line we draw between religion and government (e.g. church and state separation ), an...

Hi there, and welcome back to our public policy podcast--in this episode, we will cover the general field of educational policy . It's a bit hard to really talk about this topic as most of what falls into educational policy is determined by local and state decision-makers (think school boards here) but at the national level there is quite a bit that is done to supplement state and local initiative...

Hello all, and welcome to our podcast episode about health care ! In this episode, we're going to being by looking at how we define health care problems (is it good health or good medical care?), spend a great deal of time looking at data (on mortality rates, aging populations, insurance, costs, etc.), and then consider what is known as the public health approach to addressing problems (including...

Alright everyone... it's midterm time! I've put together a very brief episode for this week including a few tips for you on how to approach the exam as well as laying out the policies and guidelines you need to follow for this test. I wish you all good luck on the exam!

Hello all, and thanks for joining me again on our investigation of public policy in the US! In this episode, we will delve into the topics of social security and welfare , which are some of the largest programs we have at the national level. It will be important for you to understand the difference this week between what are known as entitlement programs versus what we call means-tested programs ....

Howdy to all of you and welcome to the most engaging discussion of taxes you've had all week (ha)! This episode is going to take us through the basics of tax policy , including definitions of taxes (such as estate or excise taxes), data on how much the national government brings in with taxes (particularly the income tax ), data on the different rates of taxes across all 50 states, and finally a d...

Hello all; welcome to our Public Policy introduction to Economic Policy! Today's episode walks through both the basics of economic policy ( fiscal policy and monetary policy ), the institutions that have been created to support economic development or avoid economic crashes (such as the FDIC and SEC ), a bit more on the history of the problems that have led to these institutions, and data galore!...

Hi there and welcome to the fifth episode on Understanding Public Policy! In this episode we will tackle the last two elements of the stages model: implementation and evaluation . Our discussion of implementation is going to start with the basic definition and a discussion of the bureaucracy but a lot of what we need to know about that part of the process are the challenges we face when trying to...

Hi all, and welcome to our fifth episode on Public Policy! This episode is going to delve into the issues around policy legitimation , or in other words getting people to support the decisions we've made about how to address or resolve a problem. I'm certain that you've experienced this in real life... think about the last time someone convinced to eat at a place you weren't sure of. How did they...

Hello and welcome back for our fourth episode on understanding public policy! In this episode we will spend time talking about agenda-setting and policy formulation . Both of these terms are pretty technical but at the core what we are covering is how we get a problem on the list of things we need to work on and the ways we come up with plans to address the problem. There are quite a few "breakdow...

Howdy all, and welcome to our third episode on US public policy! This week is a doozy as we are going to tackle what are known as the decision-making models . The models we'll be considering are basic explanations of how we make decisions on any topic... be that crime, or abortion, or healthcare, or environmental laws. This is a bit of a dense episode as it covers a total of 9 models in-depth, but...

Hi all, and welcome to our second podcast episode on understanding public policy in the US! This episode is going to delve into a few key topics that shape policy--in essence, we are talking about the larger environment in which we make decisions about things like Social Security, gun control, or healthcare. Our focus will be on a few key topics: federalism, separation of powers (briefly), subgove...

Hello everyone and welcome to our podcast on Public Policy! In this first episode, we will get an introduction to this course and in particular to the course Canvas site. Some of the most critical tools you will need to navigate this class are the Weekly Roadmap pages which are discussed early on. We will spend about 15 minutes on that (and getting a brief introduction to the instructor) and then...