Early in Governance 403/Global Studies 403 public policy will be defined as a course of action or inaction taken by the state to deal with a problem or set of problems on the public agenda. This is a rather formal way of saying that public policy is what governments do. Public policy is the decisions and actions of our governments. Since there are few important dimensions of life that are not, in some way, touched by the decisions and actions of government, the consequences of public policy are pervasive.

In this course we will employ a social scientific approach in our study of Canadian public policy. This means that our goal is to understand and explain the character and content of Canadian public policy. However, before introducing students to the concepts, theories and methods of analysis that scholars use to explain public policy, the first two units of the course will introduce students to the Canadian policy-making process and the “globalized” context in which policy-making now occurs.

Unit 1 defines public policy, offers students a three-stage model for conceptualizing the policy process, reviews the actors and institutions that are significant to policy-making and, finally, outlines in some detail the policy formation process. Students with a background in political science may find this material familiar. All the same, this “foundational knowledge” is worthy of attention whether you are being refamiliarized with material you have encountered before, or introduced to entirely new information, ideas and concepts. The purpose of this introductory unit is to ensure that everyone is confident in their understanding of the policy process at the national level in Canada.

Unit 2 shifts the focus from the processes of policy-making to the context of policy-making. This context will be described as “globalized.” A detailed introduction to the economic, political and cultural dimensions of globalization will demonstrate the extent to which policy-making is characterized by economic restructuring, cultural change, and the popularization of new approaches to governance. Although it is easy to take context for granted and ignore its implications for policy-making, students are encouraged to keep the globalized context of policy-making in mind as they progress through Governance 403/Global Studies 403. Quite simply, context matters, and because we live in a global era we must keep an eye on the various dimensions of globalization to understand Canadian public policy.

Units 3 and 4 review a number of traditional and contemporary theoretical perspectives on the state and public policy. Following an introduction to “explanatory theory” in Unit 3, these two units examine three theories that are characterized as “society-centred” and three that are characterized as “state-centred.” Students with limited background in tackling theoretically abstract readings may find a systematic review of the various perspectives found in the Study Guide useful.

Feminist contributions to policy studies are taken up in Unit 5. Students will be introduced to feminism and feminist analysis, and then encouraged to reflect on the insights that flow from feminist critiques of more traditional approaches to policy studies. While it is clear that some policy scholars believe it is possible to take feminism on board as something like a “corrective” to their traditional approaches, it will also be evident that feminist contributions raise some rather fundamental questions about our approaches to understanding and analysing public policy.

While many of the theoretical perspectives discussed in Units 3 to 5 make some reference to the way ideas influence the course and content of public policy, Unit 6 is devoted to the specific task of understanding the importance of ideas to social scientific policy studies. The notion of “governing paradigms” is introduced, and the current neo-liberal governing paradigm is linked to both the processes of globalization and the “ideology of globalization.”

Unit 7 returns students to the task of considering globalization and the globalized context of Canadian public policy. But this time around the focus is on what has come to be known as the “internationalization” or “globalization” of public policy. Student will examine how globalization has affected policy goals, policy discourse, the influence of various policy actors, and the role of competing state institutions in the policy process.

As students work their way through Governance 403/Global Studies 403 they will encounter numerous readings that discuss Canadian social policy. In sum, the first of these readings provides an overview of Canadian social policy (Unit 1). Subsequent readings tackle a variety of tasks: they attempt to “explain” the course and content of social policy (Units 3 and 4); they analyse the impact of social policy change on women (Unit 5); they explore shifts in the ideological content of the dominant social policy “paradigm” (Unit 6); and, finally, they examine how the context of globalization has affected the course of social policy change in the 1980s and 1990s (Unit 7). The final unit of Governance 403/Global Studies 403 encourages students to reflect on the future of Canadian social policy. Students will be asked to consider competing social policy options for the new millennium, and then reflect on where they would like to see social policy go and where it is likely to go.

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