Public Policy
in a Global Era
Governance 403/Global Studies 403
Course
Outline
Unit 3
Interests, Power and Policy:
Society-centred Theories
Unit 3 is the first of four units of Governance 403/Global Studies 403 that discuss the major theoretical approaches to explaining and understanding Canadian public policy. In this unit we will contrast the way in which three society-centred theories explain the relationship between political interests, power and public policy. While considerable emphasis is placed on abstract theorizing, each unit will include a reading that examines changes in Canadian social policy since the processes of globalization became most evident in the 1980s. In this unit, for example, the assigned reading by Robert Mullaly builds an argument in favour of linking the restructuring of Canadian social policy to the class-based agenda of the New Right.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed Unit 3 you should be able to achieve the following learning objectives.
- Define ‘explanatory theory’ then distinguish between explanatory and normative theories.
- Discuss how the following theoretical perspectives explain state and public policy: liberal pluralism, elite theory, and class analysis.
- When reading an article that employs one of the society-centred explanatory theories, identify which perspective is being used.
- Form an opinion (even a tentative one) on which society-centred theory you find most convincing and useful.
