National College of Public Administration and Governance

University of the Philippines

Diliman, Quezon City

PA 244 Policy Process

Saturday 9:00 to 12:00 AM Room 307-A
1st Semester, AY 2018-2019
Lorena Fernandez, DPA

Course Syllabus

Course Description and Objectives

The course offers updated frameworks on the policy process, engages students in authentic
conversations, and enables them to experience the policy formulation and advocacy stages of the policy
process, gaining practical skillsets. At the end of the course, the students will appreciate the uncertainties
and complexities of the policy process and will be empowered as policy analysts, reform advocates, and
policy entrepreneurs.

Course Outline and Indicative Schedule

August 4 Introduction/Levelling off, discussion of schedule and requirements
Discussion of the syllabus, assignment of subject area expertise
Why public policy? Why analyze? Why study the policy process?
August 11 Review of PA 241
The Study and Practice of the Policy Process (Birkland, 2001)
Official Actors and Unofficial Actors and their Roles in Public Policy (Birkland, 2001;
Theodolou and Cahn, 2013)
Policy Types and Designs (Birkland, 2001)
The Policy Cycle (Jann and Weigrich, 2007 in Fischer, 2007)
August 18 Agenda Setting and Policy Formulation (Kingdon, 1995; Birkland, 2001; Fernandez, 2016)
to be led by (2) __________
How laws are really made
Reading in class (Zittoun, 2014)
Aug 25 Policy Entrepreneurship (Kingdon, 1995; Zittoun, 2014; Mintrom and Norman in
Theodolou and Chan, 2013) to be led by (6) _______________________
Sept 1 Institutionalism and Public Policy (Ostrom in Theodolou and Chan, 2013; Peters in Peters
and Zitton, 2016, Araral and Amri in Peters and Zittoun, 2016) to be led by
(2)_____________
Submission of a policy brief
September 8 The Advocacy Coalition Framework (Weible and Jenkins-Smith in Peters and Zittoun, 2016)
to be led by (2)_______
Stakeholder Analysis (1)
September 15 Policy Implementation (Birkland, 2001) to be led by (3) _____________
September 22 Policy Evaluation (MRG, 2016) to be led by (2) ___________________
Cost Benefit Analysis (PSC, 2013) to be led by (2) __________________
 Discussion of Monitoring and Evaluation by a practitioner
September 29 Legislative Oversight to be led by (2) ___________________
Policy Termination (Theodolou and Cahn, 2013) to be led by (2) _______________
October 6 Midterms Exam
October 13 Reading in class: Democratic Governance (March and Olsen, 1996)
October 20 Individual Consultations on the Reform Idea
October 27 Individual Consultations on the Reform Idea
November 3 Online submission of Refined Policy Brief and Idea
Nov 10, 17, 24 Advocacy of policy reform ideas by presenting the narrative or info graph
Dec 1 Final Exam

Required Readings
1. Philippe Zittoun, The political process of policymaking, London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 2014
2. Thomas A. Birkland, An introduction to policy process; theories, concepts, and models of public
policymaking, M.E. Sharpe, 2001.
3. John W. Kingdon, Agendas, alternatives, and public policies, HarperCollins College Publishers,
1995.
4. Peters and Zittoun, Contemporary Approaches to Public Policy, 2016.
5. Stella Z. Theodolou and Matthew A. Cahn, Public policy; the essential readings, 2nd ed, Pearson;
2013.
6. James G. March and Johan P. Olsen, Democratic governance, NY: The Free Press, 1995.
7. Moran, Rein, and Goodin. The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy, 2006.
8. Patton, Sawicki, and Clark. Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning, 2013.
9. Frank Fischer, Handbook of public policy analysis; theory, politics, and methods
10. Lorena Fernandez, Institutional Capacities in Agenda-Setting and Policy Formulation in the
Philippine House of Representatives, Dissertation, University of the Philippines, 2016.

Course Requirements:
A. Attendance and participation =
B. Midterms Exam =
C. Finals Exam =
D. Report =
E. Policy brief =
F. Advocacy of Reform idea =

Consultations via slack