Undergraduate Course: Public Policy: Agenda-Setting (PLIT10100)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course introduces the field of agenda-setting within public policy research. Agenda-setting as the name suggests focuses on how and why some issues receive political attention when others do not. This is central both to understanding policy change and political competition. The course makes use interactive datasets designed to familiarize students with statistical analyses. |
| Course description |
Agenda-setting as the name suggests focuses on how and why some issues receive political attention when others do not. This is central both to understanding policy change and political competition. Studies of agenda-setting continue to make progress building on early discussions of conflict expansion, the power of keeping items off the agenda, path dependence, bounded rationality and the importance of policy windows just to name a few. Newer comparative studies have also focused on the dynamic nature of political agendas more and more in recent years. These studies not only look at what is and what is not on the agenda, but how the agenda changes after long periods of stability.
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the agenda-setting literature as it relates to public policy as a bridge into quantitative methods training. To accomplish this classic and new works in the field of agenda-setting will be discussed and students will use the knowledge gained in the class to analyze policies that interest them through a final essay. The course will makes use of demonstrations and data from the Comparative Agendas Project Database (This tool will be released along with many different datasets this summer. In the meantime see www.policyagendas.org for an example of what the Trend Analysis Tool will look like). It will also explain the intuition of a variety of statistical techniques covered in the course readings including linear regression, time series analysis and stochastic process methods.
No prior statistical training is necessary in order to be successful in this course which is intended as a bridge between students¿ substantive training and their understanding of quantitative political research using a variety of easily accessible comparative datasets.
Students will be expected to use graphical and/or tabular statistical evidence in their essays to help make their arguments through either a quantitative or qualitative research design.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 4 Politics/International Relations courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Section for admission to this course **
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| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 30 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
90 %,
Practical Exam
10 %
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| Feedback |
Students will receive three key pieces of feedback prior to submitting their final papers namely an assessment of their project outlines, comments on their reaction papers and direct discussions in class as well as during guidance and feedback hours |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Become familiar with the Comparative Agendas Project coding system and data through the Project website¿s documentation and resources (e.g. Trend Analysis Tool, Codebooks) as a gateway between substantive knowledge and statistical skills.
- Gain an understanding of theories of power, elitism and decision-making that drive agenda-setting processes and relate these to contemporary and historical examples.
- Develop an ability to assess complex and interrelated systems that form the policy-making process
- Learn how to present and development testable hypotheses by matching theory to data and method.
- Communicate a detailed and reasoned argument through the use of the scientific method and supporting data based on qualitative and/or quantitative methods
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course will teach students to be independent learners and researchers that take responsibility for the arguments they put forth.
Students will learn a variety of both new and old ideas theories as well as methodologies throughout the course and combined introduction to statistics.
Through their final papers students will need to make careful decisions on the basis of rigorous and independent thought in order to present a well-reasoned argument.
In class discussions as well as each aspect of the course assessment will require careful debate and argumentation.
Many of the theories and methods discussed in the course will be unfamiliar to students and test their ability to adapt to new ideas and situations.
Students will be expected to have a clear plan and goal for their final paper working towards it throughout the course and its various assessments.
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| Keywords | Agenda-Setting,Public Policy,Comparative Politics,Institutions,Data,Statistics |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Shaun Bevan
Tel:
Email: Shaun.Bevan@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Alexander Dysart
Tel: (0131 6)51 5197
Email: v1adysar@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
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