SOCS3100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Eval, Relate
25 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOCS3100
Policy Development, Program Management, and Evaluation
February 28, 2018
WEEK 1
Why study?
• Nuts and bolts of how organizations function
• Have greater impact within the organizations/sectors/systems in which we work if
we understand
o How the work they do is conceived, developed, funded, implemented, and
evaluated
▪ Public policy – actions of governments
o The political/social/economic forces and pressures directing what they do,
how, and why they do it
▪ How did diff policies get put on the agenda?
o Where our influence can most be effectively exerted
• So that it can inform our future career moves
o Deciding if we want to join and organization or not
o Knowing what to emphasize in our applications
o How to orientate, establish ourselves in a new role
o How to promote causes/issues you care about within the organization
• And fundamental to the creation of public policy which affects us from before our
conception until long after we are gone
• Tools by which whole nations pool their human and material resources to
achieve national objectives
Why can’t we do it for everyone?
To have an impact on the world takes a collective effort, and how we organize ourselves
affects the outcome
• We’re on top of food chain is because when we work collectively, we’re the most
powerful organisms on the planet
Concepts and Definitions
Politics
Acquisition and exercise of power
• Official / parliamentary / legislative
• Personal / social/economic
• Influence over collective decision
making
• Macro politics – national / state
• Micro politics – community agency,
local level
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Policy
Expressed intention of action in relation to
an issue(s)
• What we want to do (aims,
objectives)
• All organizations have this
Public policy
Policies intended for governments or their
official agencies to carry out
• May be conceived/advocated by
governments, political parties,
pressure groups, media, etc.
• Aim of having them adopted at an
official government level
• Types
o Legislation (acts of
parliament), regulations
o Formal policy statements
o Budgets
o Other significant decisions
o Cumulative small decisions,
not just one big decision
• Forms
o Non-action / Action –
conscious decision no to
adopt a policy
o Saying but bot doing –
election platforms, election
speeches, policy
announcements not
implemented/tokenistic
o Doing but not saying –
official actions carried out
without informing the public,
no records kept/records
kept secret
Program
Detailed plan of action which are directed
at addressing an issue(s)
Specifies the resources, operational
guidelines, reporting and eval systems
used to produce its intended outcomes
Management
Directing and coordinating processes of
policy/program development and
implementation
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Acquisition and exercise of power: official / parliamentary / legislative, personal / social/economic. Influence over collective decision making: macro politics national / state, micro politics community agency, local level. Expressed intention of action in relation to an issue(s: what we want to do (aims, objectives, all organizations have this. Detailed plan of action which are directed at addressing an issue(s) Specifies the resources, operational guidelines, reporting and eval systems used to produce its intended outcomes. Directing and coordinating processes of policy/program development and implementation. Macro exerts significant influence on micro: funding guidelines, program specifications, who is funded and who not. Micro affects macro: state and national programs often have germinated from a pioneering activist organization at a local level. Is policy/program development shared by research/evidence: power and pressure interrelation of both. Directing funding to researchers known to support funding agency"s political objectives. Directing researchers to devise (cid:1688)empirical(cid:1689) justifications for decisions already made.
