POLS20008: Public Policy Making

Oddly enough, this is the first review of a politics subject on ATAR Notes. I guess it shows the audience here. This is apparently one of the more popular politics subjects, and is taken by both arts students doing the politics major, and is a pretty common breadth subject (I took it as a science student.)

Scott, who takes the lectures, is a good, innovative lecturer. Lectures are interactive and Scott makes extensive use of technology (especially videos, news reports, etc.) It's not just him talking for two hours. As a science student, attending arts lectures is unusual - in science, lectures mainly present content which must be thoroughly learned and recalled in exams, in arts, lectures are more about giving context for assessment tasks and tutorials. The lectures do this extremely well. You also get to watch an episode of the Hollowmen, which is almost worth taking the subject for in itself. The lectures cover basic politics (only for about half a lecture,) theories of policy making, policy implementation and the role of various groups in the policy making process (the government, students, lobbyists, the public service, etc.) They are reinforced by the readings, which basically involve working through a public policy textbook.

Of special note are the guest lecturers. Nicholas Reece (who also teaches in the first year subject Australian Politics,) gives a lecture on communication and the role of political staffers. Reece was a senior staffer in Gillard's office and has a lot of stories to tell - his slide on the 'day of the life of a political advisor' almost completely turned me off the role. John Brumby, the former Premier of Victoria, also gives a lecture about the role of political leaders. A former Liberal senator, Prof. Russell Trood gives a lecturer on foreign policy. Again, his stories are worth attending the lecture for.

The tutorials involve discussion of the textbook readings and the lecture content. Scott also uploads some items to act as discussion pieces (often a recent-ish news article.) I won't comment too much here, as your experience will largely depend on your tutor (other then saying my tutor was great.) They're fairly typical Arts tutorials.

Finally, the assessments. The first assessment, the "Policy Brief" involved writing a 1500 word paper on an issue in the Victorian election. You were expected to compare and critique the policies of both major parties, and provide a statement on how important the issue would be in the election. This year it was challenging - the essay was due in mid-September (so well before the election campaign had gotten started,) so finding media and resources was a challenge. Last year (2013) the assignment was to do the same but with the Federal election. I'm not sure how they'll do it next year with no Federal or state election. The writing style here was similar to a newspaper op-ed, but could be formatted as an argumentative essay.

The second assessment, the "Policy Research Paper," involves writing a 2500 word paper on a policy of your choice. You had to prepare a (federal) Cabinet submission, a media release and a literature review. This year, you could choose the policy you wrote on, in previous year the topics were restricted. There's, again, sample assignments on the LMS which should help with formatting the cabinet submission and media release. The literature review is similar to an essay, but not really. You have to use the academic literature to provide evidence for your policy. Both assessments are innovative and relevant - it's much more fun and relevant writing a cabinet submission or an op-ed compared to writing yet another essay...

Like the review below this one, I'd like to address the question, present with any breadth subject, about the value of the subject. A good breadth subject will teach you something new and useful, and the reason I took BA breadths through my degree was to maintain and improve my writing skills, something which I really don't think is emphasised enough in the BSc. Plus, it allowed me to build on my already present interest in politics. I've considered undertaking a carrier in the public service after Honours (probably though one of the absurdly competitive grad programs,) so this was also to get a feel for what that would be like.

The handbook suggests "Politics at Level 1" to take the subject. This isn't entirely necessary if you're doing the subject as a breadth student. If you know your House of Representatives from your Senate, your PM&C from your DFAT, your states from your federal government, and your public service your ministerial staffers, you'll be fine. I've done the first year subject Australian Politics, and the third year subject American Politics. American Politics was a fantastic subject, but a very different subject. Public Policy Making is a great choice if you're looking to go into the public service or into policy analysis, or if you just want to learn more about the way policy is made in Australia.

Highly recommended.

Yes, but lecturer makes extensive use of videos which aren't recorded for copyright reasons.

Dr Scott Brenton

No exam. Lecturer put up good (H1 quality) past assessments.

4.5/5

Althaus, C., Bridgman, P. & Davis, G. (2012/13) The Australian Policy Handbook (Fifth edition.) Pretty much all the readings come from the textbook, so you do need to buy it (although it's also available at the library on overnight loan). Fortunately, it's not too expensive ($50.) And yep, you'll be lining our Vice Chancellor's pockets even more.

• One two hour lecture a week for 10 weeks
• One one hour tutorial a week for 10 week

Must attend 7/10 tutorials.

2014 Semester 2