Public Policy Preliminary Exam Field
The study of public policy focuses on describing, analyzing, and evaluating the policy choices, the programmatic outputs, and the societal outcomes associated with governmental action.
Graduate students testing in this area will be expected to be able to analyze and critique the models, theories, and frameworks that have been postulated as ways of describing, explaining and understanding the activities that occur in the various stages of the public policy making process.
The faculty at Washington State University embraces problem-driven theoretical approaches, empirical rigor, and methodological diversity. The department has 6 faculty members whose core research and teaching efforts are in the field of public policy: Nicholas Lovrich, David Nice, Steven Stehr, and Edward Weber in Pullman, and Dana Baker and Mark Stephan in Vancouver. In addition, other faculty members teach and do research in closely affiliated fields.
Typically, graduate students in our program combine their study of public policy with that of public administration and/or American politics, and some apply lessons of public policy studies to comparative or international politics. Many students also combine the study of public policy with that of criminal justice, a program housed within the Department of Political Science.
Requirements
Students should consult the Department of Political Science Graduate Student Handbook, the graduate studies director, and faculty members who specialize in this field regarding the appropriate course work required for taking preliminary examinations in this field. The following list includes some possible choices:
- Pol S 512: Seminar in American Institutions
- Pol S 513: Seminar in American Political Behavior
- Pol S 514: Seminar in Public Policy
- Pol S 530: Environmental Policy
- Pol S 533: Psychology of Political Leadership
- Pol S 536: Special Topics
- Pol S 537: Concepts and Methods in Comparative Politics
- Pol S 542: Topics in Administration, Justice and Applied Policy Studies
- Pol S 543: Topics in Public Administration and Policy
- Pol S 544: The Politics of the Policy Process
- Pol S 404: The Judicial Process
- Pol S 416: Policy Analysis
- Pol S 417: The Electorate
- Pol S 424: U.S. National Security Policy
- Pol S 428: Introduction to Political Psychology
- Pol S 430: Politics of Natural Resources and the Environment
- Pol S 432: Comparative Public Policy
- Pol S 450: The Legislative Process
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