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DPI-315: The Pandemic, Politics, and the People: Lessons for American Democracy

Semester: 

Winter

Offered: 

2022

This course will explore major public policy issues and challenges facing American democracy that have been placed in stark relief by the COVID-19 pandemic, using the pandemic and related issues as a case study for exploring the issues. Each session will consider a different theme. We will draw heavily on insights from the COVID States Project, a monthly survey of all 50 states on attitudes and behaviors around COVID and various other issues...

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DPI-150Y Seminar: Democracy, Politics, and Institutions

Semester: 

N/A

Offered: 

2018

There are five PAC seminars, each bearing the same "150Y" designation along with the relevant policy-area prefix: BGP, DEV, DPI, IGA, and SUP. While the seminars differ in the subject-area concentrations of their students, they share key characteristics: All are explicitly geared to supporting students as they produce their Policy Analysis Exercises, all meet in both the Fall and Spring terms (though usually not every week), and all are open only to MPP2 students.

Open to MPP2 students only. Please note, this is one half of a yearlong course. Students enrolled in the fall...

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GOVT S-1550 Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy

Semester: 

Summer

Offered: 

2018
Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy
This seminar surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the influence of domestic politics on foreign policy and international politics, with a primary, though not exclusive, emphasis on American foreign policy. Scholars have long recognized that domestic politics influences states' decision making in international trade and finance. Yet, in recent years we have witnessed an explosion of interest in understanding the linkage between domestic politics and international relations more broadly, including the decidedly high politics arena of war and peace. We review a variety of... Read more about GOVT S-1550 Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy

GOVT S-1362 Political Communication

Semester: 

Summer

Offered: 

2018
Political Communication
This course considers the degree to which Americans' political opinions and actions are influenced by the mass media and the influence that public opinion and the mass media, in turn, have on public policy. Topics to be covered include the history of the mass media, recent trends in the media, theories of attitude formation and change, the nature of news, the implications for political communication of changes in media (the rise of the Internet, social media, and partisan media), the ways in which the news shapes the public's perceptions of the political world, campaign communication, how the... Read more about GOVT S-1362 Political Communication

DPI-101 Political Institutions and Public Policy

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2018

This is a course about fundamental problems of participation, democratic governance, and conflict in contemporary political systems. It will provide students with an analytical toolkit for understanding and acting on the political dimensions of policy problems. The G and H sections consider these questions primarily through the prism of American political institutions and the context they create for policymaking. The I and J sections look at systematic variations across different sorts of political institutions in both advanced and developing democracies, as well as in countries that are...

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FRSEMR 41R- Freshman Seminar: Media in American Politics

Semester: 

Fall
This course considers the degree to which Americans' political opinions and actions are influenced by the media as well as the influence of the media on public policy. Topics to be covered include the history of the mass media, recent trends in the media, theories of media effects, the implications for politics of changes in media (e.g., the rise of the Internet, social media and partisan media), the ways in which the news shapes the public's perceptions of the political world, campaign communication, how the media affect the manner in which public officials govern, and the general role of... Read more about FRSEMR 41R- Freshman Seminar: Media in American Politics

API-902 Doctoral Research Seminar

Semester: 

Fall
This seminar course is designed to spur PhD students toward effective work on their dissertation and completion of an approved prospectus by the end of the academic year. There will be written assignments defining their problem area, a literature review, analytic frameworks, and data sources. It is hoped that students will complete a preliminary draft of at least one chapter of their dissertation by the end of the semester.

API-901 Doctoral Research Seminar

Semester: 

Fall

The purpose of the course is to facilitate the development of students' dissertation research ideas and to build community among Harvard Kennedy School doctoral students and faculty. Invited speakers from the Harvard Kennedy School faculty will engage students in conversations about the stages of research development (e.g., generating ideas, choosing research methods, building a research agenda). Students will generate research proposals and present them at a day-long retreat at the end of the semester.

This course is required of all first-year PhD candidates in Public Policy...

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