Curs 2014-15
Comparative Public Management
(The Challenges of Collaborative Management)
Titulació/estudi: Grau en Ciènces Politíques i de l'Administració
Codi: 21704
Trimestre: 1r
Nombre de crèdits ECTS: 4
Llengua de la docència: Anglès
Professorat: Kenneth Hanf
1. Presentation of the course
The course will examine developments in the patterns of intergovernmental relations within contemporary states against the background of changes occurring in the international and national context of these countries. It will look closely at the impacts of these changes on the manner in which political space is organized and managed.
Two themes will serve as the analytical thread running through the course: the future of the traditional nation state and the alternative forms of organizing space for political action. In this connection, we are particularly interested in the impacts of the changes in the international and national environments of states on their capacities for performing the functions on which their legitimacy is based.
Against this general background we will look at the way in which the increasing Europeanization of political life is contributing to the transformation of traditional systems of intergovernmental relations into complex arrangements for multi-level governance.
It will be argued that the reconfiguration of the modern state, as a results of developments in the international and domestic contexts of contemporary political systems, creates a new set of challenges for public managers, i.e. the development and management of systems of collaboration through which the joint capacities, needed for dealing with complex social problems, can be generated. The examination of the emergence of multi-level governance forms the context within which public managers increasingly operate in and through networked settings. In this sense, the course is concerned with describing and analyzing the broader institutional (and political) context within which public managers work, and with considering some of the implications of this situation for what it means to manage public policy.
2. Learning Objectives
General Objectives:
The course intends to improve the students' capacity to
- think critically and systematically about political problems
- recognize general patterns in the details of specific events
- apply general analytical concepts to concrete problems
Specific Objectives:
- Appreciate the importance of understanding the spatial dimensions of political organization
- Undersand and apply the concept of "governance" to the analysis of the dynamics of cooperative action in dealing with collective problems
- Recognize emergent new forms of territorial governance at the sub-national level
- Be able to recognize and analyze the dynamics of networks of public and private actors in the management of public affairs.
- Appreciate the way in which the t ransformation of the state is redefining the role of public managers.
3. Content of course
- Presentation of basic concepts for analyzing the dynamics of collective problem-solving in multi-level systems of governance.
- Examination of different forms of multi-level governance that are emerging under the impact of globalization and European integration.
- Consideration of the extent to which the incorporation of both the global and European level of governance - but also the increasing important of the sub-national, regional, levels of governance - has resulted in a reconfiguration of the structures and processes of the traditional nation state.
4. Evaluation of student performance
The final evaluation will take the form of either a final exam or a final essay and will count for 60% of the course grade. If the final essay is selected, a number of suggestions for topics and for the structure of the essay will be presented during the course. Before the essay is started, the topic and the general focus will be discussed with and approved by the professor.
Presence and active participation in the general lecture classes and the seminar activities will count for 20% of the final grade. Furthermore, individual and group presentations, to be prepared on the topics covered in the seminars, will make up the remaining 20% of the evaluation.
Opportunities will also be provided for continual feedback between students and the professor throughout the course.
Those students who do not receive a passing grade for the course will be given an opportunity to retake the final examination between the third and fourth week of the third trimester. If the student has been evaluated as "unsatisfactory" for the seminar activities, she will be given a chance to submit a literature review essay during this re-examination period. In order to be re-examined, it is necessary that the student have participated in at least one half of all the class sessions and submitted at least half of the presentations assigned. Moreover, the student must have presented himself for the written final exam.
NOTE: Since the overall evaluation of student performance consists of a substantial amount of participatory activities in class, it is not possible to obtain a passing grade by taking the final examination alone. If you cannot attend the class sessions, do not enroll in the course.
5. Basic Bibliography
The required readings consist of
- A Reader containing articles on the different topics covered in the course will also be available.
- Insofar as possible, all these readings will be posted in the Aula Global.
6. Class Meetings
There will be two kinds of class activities
- General lecture sessions for all students: during these classes the general concepts and basic information will be presented and applied to the different topics covered in the course. Active dialogue with the students will be encouraged and it will be assued that the students have read the materials assigned for the particular class sessions. These sessions will provide an opportunity for making sure that the reading materials have been understand and "digested."
- In addition, part of each class meeting will be used for "seminar-like activities" which are intended to an opportunity for more direct and intense participation by students in the discussions of the material to be examined. The seminars will also be used for group presentations on the different topics to be deveoped in these sessions. Preparation of the seminar sessions will be done by the students, individually and in groups, on the basis of material assigned.
- It is assumed that the time outside the general lecture and seminar sessions will be used by the students for reading and preparation of the different forms of participation during the class contact hours.
- The working language of the course will be English. However, the power point presentations will be in Spanish and there will be Spanish summaries of the main points of the lectures posted in the Aula Global. Written work can also be in either of the two languages.
7. Program of class activities
Week 1: Elaboration of the focus of the course: Public Management in the Collaborative State
Week 2: The analytical framework: the dependent variable (IGR) and the independent variables (changes in the external and internal context of the sovereign state).
Week 3: Understanding the "nation state as the political-administrative institutional framework and point of reference for modern political life
Week 4: External changes: globalization and the reconfiguration of traditional institutions
Week 5: Internal changes and the structural reorganization of the Welfare State
Week 6: Internationalization as Europeanization: the reality of the UE for the Member States
Week 7: The EU as a "fused policy system": access to and influence in new decision arenas
Week 8: Regions and the rediscovery of territoriality
Week 9: Territorial Cohesion and new forms of territorial cooperation
Week 10: Review: Public Management through Collaborative Systems