Course Descriptions
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BUSH 601: Leadership and Public Administration
Examines alternative theories of leadership. These are compared with administrative leadership in practice as interpreted by a series of guests in various public leadership positions. The course also considers the relationship between leadership, management and administrative roles in public service. MPIA and MPSA core course.
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PSAA 602: Tools of Leadership and Survival in Organizations
Focuses on techniques and practices that executives employ to get their work done through politicians, bureaucrats, the media, lobbyists, governing boards, and their supervisors and staff. The course explores the important issues that arise from conflict with policy makers, moral and ethical concerns, and professionalism in public service.
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PSAA 611: Public Policy Formation
Considers public policy and its formulation in light of the traditional and changing roles of public managers in a democracy. Students are introduced to effective diagnostic, analytical and evaluation tools and strategies for public leadership. MPSA core course.
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PSAA 615: Policy Analysis
Provides students with a solid working knowledge of the techniques involved in public policy analysis; gives students both the theoretical frame work and practical experience necessary for a public manager to analyze public policy effectively. MPSA Public Policy Analysis Track core course.
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PSAA 616: Public Organization in a Pluralistic Society
Examines how public policy issues are contested and shaped by major cleavages in American society such as race, ethnicity, economic, and social class and gender. It also examines how social diversity affects the management of public-sector organizations.
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PSAA 617: State and Local Government and Policy
Provides a practical working knowledge of the institutions and processes through which state and local policy is made and implemented. It also introduces students to the empirical and theoretical tools used to evaluate policy at the state and local levels.
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PSAA 621: Economic Analysis
Presents and develops the tools of microeconomic analysis and illustrates their use via applications to current issues. Students also explore the methods of macroeconomic analysis of government growth and stabilization policies. The course pays particular attention to the role of competition in generating social welfare and to the impact of government on consumers, firms and markets. MPSA core course.
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PSAA 622: Public Finance
Identifies the principles that guide optimal government expenditure and taxation programs. The student examines the structure, functioning and effects of government actions with particular emphasis on the role of market forces in delivering public services. The tools of public finance analysis are developed and applied to current policy issues. MPSA Public Policy Analysis Track core course.
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PSAA 623: Budgeting in Public Service
Course designed to introduce students to selected topics in public administration and political science literature on the politics of public finance and budgeting. Course will introduce students to the practice of budgeting by learning language and issues common to budgeting in government. MPSA Public Management Track core course.
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PSAA 630: Program Evaluation in Public and Nonprofit Organizations
Explores the increasing demands for accountability within organizations, which come from an increasingly sophisticated public, clientele, and from funding sources including government foundations and corporations. The course introduces theories, research, and practice for program evaluation and systems that support the organization's information needs.
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BUSH 631: Quantitative Methods in Public Management I
Introduces and develops the basic tools of quantitative analysis necessary to informed public management decision making. Students gain experience with data collection, analysis, and interpretation through their practical application to a variety of public service problems and challenges. MPIA and MPSA core course
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BUSH 632: Quantitative Methods in Public Management II
Adds depth and breadth to the student's understanding of the tools and skills necessary for informed public management decision making. The course pays particular attention to the use of quantitative methods in the evaluation of public service programs. MPIA International Economics and Development Track core course and MPSA core course
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PSAA 633: Philanthropy: Fundraising in Nonprofit Organizations
Examines the theory and practice of fundraising strategies and techniques, and of how they relate to the achievement of organizational goals. It also focuses on ways of integrating various fundraising activities into an effective fundraising program.
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PSAA 634: Public Management
Addresses three critical aspects of public management; the role of management in the public sector, validity of the argument that government should be run like a business and the tools public managers need to be effective. Application of organizational theory concepts applied to case studies. MPSA Public Management Track Core Course.
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PSAA 635: Social Welfare and Health Policy
Explores the historical development and impact of US public welfare, child welfare, employment, and health social service programs. Course analyzes values and assumptions that formed the foundations of social welfare policy and explores the social, economic, political, and cultural context in which these policies developed and their potential future.
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PSAA 636: Grant and Contract Management
Examines the use of contracts and grants in providing social services. Explores the theoretical background of government contracts and grants; the management of third-party services from the perspectives of government agencies, private sector contractors, and nonprofit organizations; and the skills needed to write effective grant and contract proposals.
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PSAA 637: Decision Making in Government and Administration
Introduces students to the study and practice of judgment and decision making processes in government and administrative settings. The course content is firmly grounded empirically-based theory and research but with a practical slant - the course is designed to help students to develop and improve their own decision making skills.
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PSAA 638: Health Economics Policy
Provides introduction to the economic analysis of health care markets. The course examines microeconomic models, empirical findings, and public policies, including: the production of and demand for health, moral hazard and adverse selection in insurance markets, information asymmetries in physician-patient relationships, regulation and payment systems for providers, Medicare, Medicaid and other public programs, and comparisons to other countries.
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PSAA 640: Energy Policy and Security
Examines policy and economic issues related to increasing global reliance on fossil fuels, including the resulting impact on security concerns and global warming. The course utilizes competitive and non-competitive market theories, non-renewable resource analysis, and cost-benefit analysis. Students should have course experience in microeconomics and quantitative modeling.
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PSAA 641: Organizational Theory for the Public Sector
Provides an overview of leading perspectives on organizations. It includes an examination of how factors such as structure, culture, and internal conflict can shape organizational performance.
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PSAA 642: Ethics in Public Policy
Focuses on some of the many ethical and moral dilemmas facing public service professionals. It provides students with the conceptual tools that will enhance their capacity to understand those dilemmas and potential strategies and means for coping with them.
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PSAA 643: Foundations of the nonprofit Sector provides
An overview of the origins, size, scope and composition of the nonprofit and voluntary sector in American society today. An introduction to the historical, political and religious foundations of the nonprofit sector will also be examined. Additionally, students will examine the theoretical and conceptual frame work in this course.
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PSAA 644: Management & Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations
Focuses on the distinctive nature and role of nonprofits in providing public services. Topics include: comparison of nonprofit organizations with government and private organizations; leadership in nonprofit organizations; the role of the nonprofit organizations in policy development; fundraising strategies employed by nonprofit organizations; and issues of accountability surrounding the use of nonprofit organizations to perform government functions.
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PSAA 645: Networks and Inter-organizational Collaboration
Provides an introduction to the knowledge base pertaining to inter-organizational relationship and the management environment of network-based organizations. It also focuses on the important characteristics and dynamics that are encountered when operating as one actor in a collaborative environment.
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PSAA 646: Bureaucracy in a Democracy
Designed to provide students with a general understanding of the institutional and political environment within which public organizations operate. As such, it includes a consideration of administrative due process and of executive and legislative oversight. It also focuses on key concepts used to describe the relationship between government organizations and their policy making environments.
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PSAA 647: Risk and Public Policy
Focuses on how concepts of risk are used to shape public policies and introduces primary methods for analyzing and managing potentially risky policies. The course explores cases involving environmental, energy, and security concerns, including nuclear energy and waste disposal, elimination of chemical weapons, global climate change, and the threat of terrorism in the United States.
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PSAA 648: Performance Management in the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
Focuses on figuring out how people who run and work in public agencies perform. It explores the concepts of performance management, including strategy, performance measurement, performance budgeting, and management accountability, as well as the various aspects of performance management through theoretical and applied views. Theory presents statements about the interrelationships between concepts that allow prediction and explanation of various processes and events.
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PSAA 661: Human Resources in Public Administration
Examines the organization and operation of public personnel (civil service) systems. While some technical matters are considered, the primary emphasis is on the public personnel function as a whole, especially from the perspective of line managers.
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PSAA 663: Natural Resource Economics
Focuses on how concepts of risk are used to shape public policies. It introduces some of the primary methods for analyzing potentially risky policies and managing risk. Cross-listed with ACEG 604.
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PSAA 664: Business and Public Policy
Role of business organization in the United States and other countries; topics pertaining to the external political and social environment of business and the implications for business managers including market failures and political failures as well as equity and ethical issues; case studies with business/government problems. Cross-listed with MGMT 610.
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PSAA 666: Advanced Public Management
Provides an overview of the field of public management. It gives special attention to managerial techniques and reforms and to the distinctive environment within which public management takes place.
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PSAA 669: Legal Environment of Nonprofit Management
Laws, policies, and ideals affecting the creation and governance of nonprofit organizations; includes medical, education, cultural, social, religious, and advocacy organizations; considers these organizations' contributions to society, how they cooperate with or rival for-profit entities, and how they should be governed.
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PSAA 671: Science and Technology
Provides an overview of the role of science and technology in the public policy process, and to explore the impact of public policy on science and technology. The course considers the issues of science and technology policy and politics from theoretical and conceptual perspectives and the substantive issues of importance to stakeholders in the science and technology policy domains.
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PSAA 672: Markets and Government
Examines the role of business organization in the United States and other countries; topics pertaining to the external political and social environment of business and the implications for business managers including market failures and political failures as well as equity and ethical issues; case studies with business government problems.
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PSAA 673: Conflict Resolution in Public Management
Examines the conflicts that arise in policy domains driven by high salience, dominated by moral value, or where scientific data are sparse. This course is designed to broadly address the topic of conflict resolution within the public sector with the intent to enhance leadership in the policy process.
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PSAA 674: Political Economy of International Development
Course examines aspects of international development and underdevelopment, including lack of sustained economic growth and the prevalence of income inequality. Course designed to provide leaders in public service areas with basic knowledge of development and development assistance in cross-national and regional perspectives and the tools to analyze information in the future.
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PSAA 675: Public Service and Administration Capstone Seminar
Course provides a capstone experience for students as they operate in teams to address an important policy and administrative issue. Students draw on the coursework and experiences of their PSAA education to develop specific recommendations for design, implementation and evaluation of this project task. MPSA Core Course.
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PSAA 676: Public Service and Administration Capstone Seminar II
Course provides a capstone experience for students as they operate in teams to address an important policy and administrative issue. Students draw on the coursework and experiences of their PSAA education to develop specific recommendations for design, implementation and evaluation of this project task. Continuation of PSAA 675. MPSA Core Course.
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PSSA 689: Homeland Security Policies, Strategies, and Operations
Provides an in-depth examination of the framing of homeland security before and after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Coverage will include the initiation and evolution of homeland security policies, strategies, and operations in the United States. Specifically, the examination will include the definition of homeland security problems, identification and evaluation of current and emerging policies and strategies to address those problems, and critical assessment of selected operational activities (such as partnerships, program coverage, and shared accountability) to implement the policies and strategies. The United States' homeland security approach will be contrasted with selected strategies in other democratic countries.
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PSAA 689: Strategic Planning and Financial Management for Nonprofits
Introduces students to the underlying fundamental principles and concepts of strategic planning and financial management that apply to the nonprofit sector and how they are related. It will cover planning and financial management methods and tools, and risk management concepts.
