Summer School - Brasilia Edition 2024

Frank Fischer's Course

Frank Fischer (Humboldt University, Berlin)

Frank Fischer is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Politics and Global Affairs at Rutgers University in the USA. Currently, he is a research scholar at the Albrecht Daniel Thayer-Institute at Humboldt University in Berlin. He is an honorary co-editor of Critical Policy Studies journal and editor of the Handbook of Public Policy Series editor for Edward Elgar. In addition to widely lecturing around the world on environmental politics and policy analysis, he has published 17 books and numerous essays. These include Citizens, Experts and the Environment (Duke 2000), Reframing Public Policy: Discursive Politics and Deliberative Practices (Oxford 2003), Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory, Politics and Methods, co-edited with Mara Sidney and Gerald Miller (Taylor and Francis 2006), Democracy and Expertise: Reorienting Policy Inquiry (Oxford 2009), The Argumentative Turn Revisited: Public Policy as Communicative Practice, co-edited with Herbert Gottweis (Duke 2012), the Handbook of Critical Policy Studies, co-edited with Douglas Torgerson, Anna Durnova and Michael Orsini ( Elgar 2015), Climate Crisis and the Democratic Prospect (Oxford 2017) and Truth and Post-Truth in Public Policy (2021). In addition to research in the United States and Germany, he has conducted field research in India, Nepal and Thailand on citizen participation and local ecological knowledge. He has also received numerous awards, including the Harold Lasswell and Aaron Wildavsky Awards for contributions to the field.

Rosana Boullosa (Escola Nacional de Administração Pública ENAP – Brazil)

Rosana Boullosa is a professor at the University of Brasília (UnB) and the National School of Public Administration (ENAP) in Brasília, Brazil. She holds a PhD in Public Policy from the Università IUAV di Venezia in Italy. Her research focuses on critical perspectives regarding democracy and policy processes. Recently, her publications have addressed the evaluation of public policy, democracy, social activism, and social inequalities, as well as the critical tradition in Latin American thought. Additionally, she serves as the vice president of the International Public Policy Association and is one of the general editors of the Critical Policy Studies Journal.

Course: Understanding the Public Policy Process: Comparing Empirical and Critical Approaches

This course examines the dynamics of the public policy process from the perspectives of both empirical and interpretive-qualitative research. Beginning with the theory of the policy process, emphasis is placed on political, conceptual, and methodological issues, including the interplay among competing criteria, in particular efficiency, equity, and legitimacy. The discussion then turns to an investigation of specific policy issues in each phase of the policymaking process. The politics of agenda setting (emphasizing interest group competition, parties, movements and the media. This is followed by policy formulation (focused policy advice, cost-benefit analysis and epistemic policy communities). The role of implementation follows (concerned with bureaucratic politics, and the delivery of programs). Finally, the course turns to policy evaluation and learning. Along the way, the ability of the multiple streams model, the advocacy coalition framework, and the discourse-deliberative approach to explain policy are examined. Throughout, the course pays special attention to the kinds of knowledge and modes of inquiry—empirical and interpretive-qualitative--appropriate to each phase of policymaking.