BUREAUCRACY AND PUBLIC POLICY
IRGN 407
Winter Quarter, 1997, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00–2:20 p.m.
Professor Matthew Shugart
Office: RBC 1311
Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00–11:00 a.m., and
Thursdays, 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Phone: (53)45016
E-mail: mshugart@ucsd.edu
Readings: There is a reader available from university Reader Printing Service, and the following book may be purchased at the University Bookstore:
Barbara Geddes, Politician's Dilemma: Building State Capacity in Latin America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).
Assessment: Student performance will be assessed in three ways:
1. There will be a final research paper of approximately 4500–6000 words on a topic relevant to bureaucracies and public policy. The topic must be approved in writing by the instructor no later than February 18. We will have an open discussion about possible topics on February 13. The research must be presented to the class on March 11 or 13. Final versions will be due March 19. Worth about 70% of final grade.
2. Short papers. At least twice during the quarter, each student must submit a short (1000 words maximum) essay on the reading for a given day's session, drawing comparisons or points of disagreement with at least one other reading from a previous session. These should be more than just summaries. They should take up some theme and assess it critically. For instance, someone might turn in a paper on February 6 about why politicians prefer state-owned enterprises in some industries and discuss this matter in the light of our reading from January 16 on the conditions underlying effective state intervention in the economy. These papers should also raise questions suitable for discussion in class, and the student presenting such a paper should be prepared to make a short presentation. The papers will be graded simply High Pass, Pass, or Marginal Pass (of course, No Pass is also possible, but unlikely). Students who do three or more can have their lower grades thrown out, so a student who turns in four, receiving grades of one Marginal Pass, two Passes, and a High Pass, would receive final credit for one High Pass and one Pass. Worth about 30% of final grade. Due no later than 10 a.m. on the day to be discussed.
3. Participation in class. This course will be run on a seminar format. Students will be expected to be prepared every day to discuss materials read and their applications to real-world situations. Students who do not participate actively or who appear not to be keeping up with readings will not receive top grades no matter how good their papers are.
schedule of readings and discussions
I. CONCEPTS FOR THE STUDY OF BUREAUCRACY AND PUBLIC POLICY
1. January 7. Course introduction
No reading assigned
2. January 9. Overview of problems in the study of bureaucracies
Mark F. Nadel and Francis E. Rourke, "Bureaucracies," in The Handbook of Political Science, ed. by Fred I. Greenstein and Nelson W. Polsby (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1975). Note: You may skip pp. 399–411.
3. January 14. Bureaucratic decision-making
Graham T. Allison , Essence of Decision (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1971), pp. 1–9, 32–6, 78–100, 162–84.
George C. Edwards III, Implementing Public Policy (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1980), chapter 5.
4. January 16. State intervention in the economy
Dietrich Rueschmeyer and Peter B. Evans, "The State and Economic Transformation: Toward an Analysis of the Conditions Underlying Effective Intervention," in Bringing the State Back In, ed. by Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschmeyer, and Theda Skocpol (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
Barbara Geddes, Politician's Dilemma, chapter 1.
5. January 21. State autonomy reconsidered
Peter Evans, "The State as Problem and Solution: Predation, Embedded Autonomy, and Structural Change," in The Politics of Economic Adjustment: International Constraints, Distributive Conflicts, and the State, ed. by Stephan Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman (Princeton University Press, 1992).
II. How political actors structure agencies
6. January 23. Forms of bureaucratic oversight: "Police Patrols" vs. "Fire Alarms"
Mathew D. McCubbins and Thomas Schwartz, "Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police Patrols vs. Fire Alarms," in, eds., Congress: Structure and Policy , ed. by Mathew D. McCubbins and Terry Sullivan(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
7. January 28. Administrative Procedures
Mathew D. McCubbins, Roger Noll and Barry Weingast, "Administrative Procedures as Instruments of Political Control," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 3, 2 (Fall 1987).
8. January 30. Comparing presidential and parliamentary systems
Terry M. Moe and Michael Caldwell, "The Institutional Foundations of Democratic Government: A Comparison of Presidential and Parliamentary Systems," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 150/1 (1994): 171-95.
9. February 4. Civil service: why would politicians prefer it to patronage?
Murray J. Horn, The Political Economy of Public Administration (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), chapter 5.
10. February 6. Privatization vs. State-Owned Enterprises
Horn, chapter 6.
11. February 11. Corruption
Robert Klitgaard, Adjusting to Reality: Beyond "State versus Market" in Economic Development (San Francisco: International Center for Economic Growth, 1991), chapter 8.
12. February 13. Talk about paper topics
III. Applications
13. February 18. The Japanese Industrial Policy Debate
Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle (Stanford University Press, 1982), chapters 1 and 2, pp. 3-82.
Mark Ramseyer and Frances M. Rosenbluth, Japan's Political Marketplace (Harvard University Press, 1993), chapters 6 and 7.
14. February 20. Administrative design of the regulatory process: Telecommunications in Japan and the United States
Roger Noll and Frances M. Rosenbluth, "Telecommunications Policy: Structure, Process, Outcomes," in , Structure and Policy in Japan and the United States, ed. by Peter F. Cowhey and Mathew D. McCubbins (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
15. February 25. Civil service reform in Latin America I
Geddes, chapters 2–3
16. February 27. Civil service reform in Latin America II
Geddes, chapters 6–7
17. March 4. Personnel transfers: How the civil service itself is corrupted in India
Robert Wade, "The Market for Public Office: Why the Indian State is Not Better at Development," World Development 13, 4 (April 1985).
18. March 6. "Reform of the State" in Latin America
Stephan Haggard, "The Reform of the State in Latin America," Unpublished.
19. March 11. Student presentations
No Reading
20. March 13. Student presentations and wrap-up.
No Reading