Syllabus
HKS101A_4 U.S. Public Policy: Social, Economic, and Foreign Policies
Instructor: Thomas Patterson
In this course, we’ll examine the American political system focusing upon its public policies. This course will focus on the “big picture.” What are the driving forces and persistent tendencies of American politics? Who governs America--how, when and why?
The lectures will highlight main features of American politics, while asking you to think critically about key issues. Why are American elections awash in money? Why has the power to start wars shifted from Congress to the president? Why does the United States have more people in poverty and yet spend less on social welfare than other major democracies? What accounts for the party polarization that characterizes today’s politics? Why is income inequality on the rise in America? Why has global trade become a controversial foreign policy issue? In the process of addressing such questions, you will engage in analytical reasoning—an important life skill that is strengthened through repeated use. Case studies will be used to prompt you to think critically about what you have learned.
It is strongly recommended that you read an introductory American government text as a supplement to the lectures. Such a text will improve your knowledge of the subject and fill in details that the lectures—given the limits of time—do not address. One such text is my own (Thomas Patterson, We the People, 12th edition). Pages from the text are listed in the readings for each session. You are welcome to use a different introductory text if you prefer. In that case, you should identify the pages related to each session’s topic.
Three other U.S. Government courses are also available. You are invited to enroll in these courses as well:
HKS101A_1 American Government: Constitutional Foundations
HKS101A_3 Citizen Politics in America: Public Opinion, Elections, Interest Groups, and the Media
Welcome to the course! I look forward to being with you.
Tom
Thomas E. Patterson
Bradlee Professor of Government & the Press
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Grading
In order to earn a certificate, you must complete at least 70% of the course requirements, which includes watching the lecture videos, doing the readings, answering the quizzes, participating in the discussion, and completing the writing assignments, each of which is worth 20% towards your final grade. Completion of lectures, readings, and discussion participation is self-reported in the ’Self-Assessment’ component at the end of each unit. You can track your progress throughout the course in the Progress tab.
The breakdown is as follows:
Reading 20%
Viewing Lecture 20%
Quizzes 20%
Discussion 20%
Writing Assignments 20%
You can complete the course requirements at anytime until the end of the course, but for your own benefit, we encourage you to work through the material and assignments in a timely manner.
Writing Assignment - Essay
There will be a single writing assignment in the course. You will be given a prompt and asked to write no more than 600 words in response. You will be given a rubric which you will use to grade your peers using the edX peer grading tool.
The essay is due on of before the course closes. All dates can be found on the course landing page.
U.S. PUBLIC POLICY
Course Schedule
Social Policy
Social issues refer to disputes over values and how we should live our lives. Social issues end up pitting people against people, which is the case today for social issues such as immigration, charter schools, police practices, gun rights, legalization of marijuana, environmental protection, and discrimination of all kinds.
Over the course of American history, no aspect of society has played more directly into social issues than religion. Social issues arise out of differences in values, and religions are founded on values. Not surprisingly, the intersection of religion and politics has been a persistent source of conflict within the American system. This session will concentrate on that intersection, historically and currently. We will explain how issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage have played out in ways that have aligned religious conservatives with the Republican Party and religious liberals and seculars with the Democratic Party.
Fiscal & Monetary Policy
Since the Great Depression, the U.S, government has taken responsibility for promoting and sustaining economic growth and stability. This effort takes the form of fiscal policy, which refers to the government’s taxing and spending policies, and monetary policy, which refers to government efforts to control the money supply.
This session examines fiscal policy and monetary policy—what they are, what tools they involve, and what political divisions they create. The nature of these policies will be illustrated through several cases, including the policies enacted in response to the economic downturn that began in 2008.
Welfare & Income Policy
Few issues of U.S. politics are more contentious than those relating to welfare and income. America’s individualistic culture and federal system of government have resulted in welfare policies that are distinct from those of virtually all other Western democracies. As regards income policy, the issue has come to the forefront in recent years as a result of the widening gap between the income level of most Americans and that of the country’s wealthier individuals.
This session will describe and explain these developments, relating them to both the nature of the U.S. economy and the nature of U.S. policy. The structure and politics of the U.S. welfare system and the U.S. tax system will be points of emphasis.
Regulatory Policy
Since the 1930s, the U.S. government has been actively engaged in regulating the economy, intervening to promote economic efficiency and to protect the public from harmful business activity. This session will examine four regulatory situations and their related policies: restraint of trade, which refers to anti-competitive business practices; inequity, which refers to unfair business transactions; moral hazard, which occurs when one party engages in risky economic behavior but passes the risk on to another party; and negative externalities, which result when firms fail to pay the full costs of production activity.
Although the primary emphasis will be on policy, the session will also address partisan divisions over regulatory policy, and the basis for those divisions. Several cases, most notably the politics and policies of climate change, will be used to illustrate key points.
Foreign Policy
Unlike other policy areas, foreign policy rests on relations with actors outside rather than within the country. As a result, the chief instruments of foreign policy differ from those of domestic policy. Previous sessions examined some of these instruments, notably diplomacy and military power. This session will touch on those instruments, but focus on one that has not yet received much attention—international trade. National security is increasingly more than an issue of military might. It is also a question of maintaining a strong position in the global economy.
This session will trace the evolution of America’s position as a trading nation during the post-World War II era, concentrating first on the factors that made America in the immediate post-war period the world’s unquestioned economic power and then on the factors that weakened that position. The session will conclude with an examination of the politics and policies of trade agreements, including adoption in 1993 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the rejection in 2017 of the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Dynamics of American Politics
This session will serve as an overview of the course, concentrating on major tendencies within the American system, such as its fragmented power structure. The importance of these tendencies will be explained by showing how thoroughly each of them affects American politics. The purpose of this session is to reinforce, and clarify, the “lessons learned” during the course.