Undergraduate Course: Public Policy: Agenda-Setting (PLIT10100)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | How and why some policy areas like the environment, the economy, or healthcare receive political attention while others do not is both a core political question and an essential competent for understanding decision-making. Focusing on prominent theories and findings from the broad range of agenda-setting research this course lays out the decisions and patterns that drive policy processes. |
| Course description |
Agenda-setting focuses on how and why some issues receive political attention when others do not. This is central both to understanding policy decisions and political competition. Studies of agenda-setting cover topics like the effects of widening political debates, the power of keeping items off the agenda, path dependence, limited resources, and the importance of timing just to name a few. This course not only looks at what is and what is not on the agenda, but how agendas can change over time, sometimes to surprising degrees.
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to findings, theories, and methods of agenda-setting research. Students will use the knowledge gained in the course to analyse policies or policy outcomes that interest them using graphical or tabular evidence to support a quantitative, qualitative, or theoretical research design for their final paper. Just like agenda-setting research itself, students are encouraged to draw on outside theories, their experiences, and on insights from other disciplines throughout the course and its assessments.
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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 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 45 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
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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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
A combination of a final research paper (60%), reaction paper (30%) and student participation (10%). |
| Feedback |
Assessment for this course will include a final paper based on theories, data and methods covered in the course (research project 60%), a reaction paper based course readings aimed at improving writing skills (written assessment 30%) and in class participation marked by the level of involvement in course discussions (practical exam 10%).
Students are free to choose any policy area(s) or dataset(s) that interests them for use in their final project subject to my approval. In addition, the content of student¿s reaction papers are also chosen by students based off the themes and readings in the course. Combined the reaction and final papers are designed to assist students in writing original evidence based research similar to a dissertation project.
Formative assessment: Students will be asked to submit a general topic and dataset in the middle of the course via e-mail. While unmarked, I will offer feedback and suggestions to the best of my ability to help develop their final papers.
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| 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 James Heitler
Tel:
Email: jheitler@ed.ac.uk |
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