Course Title: Designing Policy

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Designing Policy

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
POLI1089	City Campus	Undergraduate	365H Global, Urban and Social Studies	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2007, Sem 1 2008, Sem 1 2009, Sem 1 2010, Sem 1 2012

Course Coordinator: Peter Norden

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 3823

Course Coordinator Email: peter.norden@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 37.4.12

Course Coordinator Availability: by appointment

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None

Course Description

This course is a third year core social science course that introduces you to the role played by key values and ethical ideas like justice, individual rights, respect, fairness, and truth-telling, in both making and implementing public policy. The course is designed to introduce you to something of the traditions of ethical debate in the West, the key vocabulary deployed in rational value analysis, the discernment and critical evaluation of the role played by certain values in a range of contemporary policies and the development of innovative policy ideas that draws on alternative values to those currently informing social and public policy.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

By the end of this course you will be able to: use the vocabulary of a number of ethical traditions and to identify, analyse, evaluate and compare the role played by a number of values (like ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘justice’, ‘respect’, deliberative democracy’, ‘truth-telling’ and ‘equity’) in a longer tradition of ethical and political debate and discussion in the West; to identify this values and ethical vocabulary at work in contemporary policy making and programs and to understand and show how these values shape the kind of policies under examination, and/or be able to identify the issues involved in a policy or professional dilemma where competing values and interests are at stake, such as a case of organisational malfeasance and the risks associated with ‘whistleblowing’.

Overview of Learning Activities

You will be able to engage in a variety of lectures and smaller classes.

Overview of Learning Resources

You will be able to use a prescribed text.

Overview of Assessment

You will be able to prepare assessment tasks with a total word length or equivalent of 4,000 words.