SGIA40N15: Making the Leap from Evidence to Policy

• None

• None

• None

• To explore a range of theoretical ideas related to the behavioural predictors of the decisions of policy makers
• To understand how and why evidence-based policy might not always prevail.
• Identify and explain how persuasion works and how it can affect public policy creation
• Understand the principles that underpin influence and develop effective strategies to build support and consensus.

• Indicative content may vary from year to year but could include:
• Economic models of policy making
• The role of norms in policy making
• The role of incentives in guiding policy makers
• The role of interest groups in policy making
• Writing persuasively
• Translating evidence to context
• The effects of corruption on policy maker behaviour.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Advanced knowledge of how literature in Public Policy, at the current limits of knowledge, can inform (our understanding of) policy making.
• Advance knowledge of rational-choice models of behaviour and its application to policy making.
• Advance knowledge of models of behaviour drawing on behavioural science, and their application to policy making.
• Advance knowledge of different kinds of persuasive techniques, and their application to policy making.

Subject-specific Skills:

• To be able to make a leap between theoretical insight into policy maker behaviour, to a practical understanding of policy making outcomes, in a variety of public policy issue areas and (country) contexts.
• To critically assess failures in policy making and understand how and why decisions contrary to existing evidence were taken.
• To be able to analyse and critique different persuasive techniques and their influence on policy audiences.

Key Skills:

• Problem-solving skills: the ability to address failures in decision-making.
• Communication skills: the ability to convey information or arguments effectively to others.
• Communication skills: the ability to craft persuasive communication.
• Research skills: the ability to do independent research.

• Teaching and learning are through a series of 1-hour lectures and seminars.
• Lectures will familiarize students with latest literature in topics related to the art of persuasion, communication and behaviour of policy makers, and furnish students with examples of how these theories can be applied to answer questions in the sphere of public policy.
• Seminars will allow students to practice applying insights from these topics to a variety of public policy issue areas and contexts.
• Summative assessment is a 2,500-word strategy document that builds upon the formative. Students will be expected to take a policy issue that has been largely characterised by non-evidence-based policy making, to come up with a series of arguments that explain why failures in decision-making occurred and draw up a strategy to get policy makers to agree to an evidence-based policy proposal.
• Formative assessment is a 1,000 word mapping exercise of a policy issue. Students will be expected to map actors and their competing interests in a case of non-evidence-based decision-making. This supports the summative assessment.

If you have a question about Durham's modular degree programmes, please visit our Help page. If you have a question about modular programmes that is not covered by the Help page, or a query about the on-line Postgraduate Module Handbook, please contact us.

Prospective Students: If you have a query about a specific module or degree programme, please Ask Us.

Current Students: Please contact your department.