Insegnamento a.a. 2026-2027

This course introduces students to key theoretical and practical approaches to public governance and examines the public policy questions that arise within governance processes. In particular, the two parts of the course cover:
1. theoretical approaches and debates about governance, including local governance, multilevel governance, meta governance, as well as practical tools and skills to design and contribute to public governance and policy-making processes, including stakeholder analysis, policy writing, and framing of policy proposals.
2. public policy questions that arise within governance processes, including the role of authority and law, interpretation, implementation and the characteristics of bureaucracy, expertise and evidence, democratic legitimation, and policy change. 
Throughout, the course emphasizes argument, analysis, and the capacity to relate conceptual debates to the organization and justification of public action.

•    explain the evolution of the models of governing
•    explain major approaches to public governance and their implications for collective decision-making
•    distinguish public policy from government action in general, and understand policy as an authoritative framework of rules, standards, commitments, and decisions
•    identify recurring policy problems of authority, implementation, expertise, democratic justification, and public response

•    analyze public problems in light of stakeholders, institutions, and multilevel governance settings
•    design and organize participatory decision-making processes
•    assess how interpretation, bureaucracy, discretion, and institutional context shape policy in practice
•    develop and defend analytically grounded arguments in oral and written form

• Lectures
• Collaborative Works / Assignments
• Interaction/Gamification

The course combines lectures, guided discussion, group work with various in-class exercises and case studies, and student presentations. The course combines theoretical perspectives and various real-life examples of public governance. Throughout, the course emphasizes argument, analysis, and the capacity to relate conceptual debates to the organization and justification of public action.

50% Group assignments
50% General exam based on slides and class discussions
In the first part of the course group work, which takes place entirely in the classroom, ask students to apply a practice-oriented perspective to real-world governance challenges.
In the second part of the course, student groups will prepare a final presentation that develops and defends an argument about one recurring problem in public policy. Presentations must be argumentative rather than merely descriptive. Each group must use course readings to formulate a clear thesis, to identify competing positions, and to defend its interpretation through careful textual and analytical reasoning.
 

100% based on final written exam that requires preparation of slides and all readings.

All slides and readings will be available through Blackboard and the Library Course Reserve.