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Public Policy

PLCY 050 [006E]: Environment and Labor in Global Economy
Social & Behavioral Science/Other (SS) [GC Social Science]
Richard N. L. Andrews
The recent rapid globalization of manufacturing and finance raises important public policy issues concerning impacts on the environment, labor, and communities. Does the globalization of business harm the environment, working conditions, and human rights and well-being, or improve them? Under what circumstances, and what public policies are needed to assure that these values are protected? How does the recent global financial crisis affect the implications of global trade for environment and labor, and how should we assess the solutions that have been proposed? How do these issues affect us as individuals, and what responsibility do institutions such as universities bear, as well as businesses and governments, in responding to them? And depending on the answers to these questions, what kinds of actions should citizens advocate – by businesses, by governments, by consumers and investors and others – to make sure that economic globalization creates a better rather than a worse world? This seminar will explore these issues as challenges for public policymakers and for each of us as citizens, consumers and investors, and members of the university community.

PLCY 055 [006E]: The American University: Policy and Practice
Social & Behavioral Science/Other (SS) [GC Social Science]
David D. Dill, Margaret Jablonski
First year students enrolling in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill become members of a distinctive institution - a research university - whose policies and practices are informed by norms, beliefs, laws, and regulations that have been evolving since the twelfth century. The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to the policy issues at research universities and at Chapel Hill in particular. We will use history, case analysis, legal decisions, national and state policy decisions, and local UNC decision making processes to examine policy issues in higher education. Topics will include admissions, financial aid, curriculum issues, free speech, learning and social responsibility, athletics, and other current issues. Student assessments will include an in class group presentation, two short papers, and a case study project.

PLCY 055H: Crisis/University
Social & Behavioral Science/Other (SS) [GC Social Science]
Margaret Jablonski
This course introduces students to core values of a research university through analysis of university history, case discussions of university policy issues, computer simulation of university decision making, and an original case study.

PLCY 060 [006E]: The Business of North Carolina
Social & Behavioral Science/Other (SS) [GC Social Science]
Michael Luger
This course is intended as an overview of the many issues involved in "making business work" to create jobs, income, and wealth. The primary focus is on businesses since they are the basic building blocks of economic development. But the course places business in a geographic context, under the assumption that "place matters." The course uses North Carolina as a convenient laboratory, but the lessons should be more broadly applicable. This course is divided into five modules: mapping the business landscape; what do businesses need to be successful? What do places need to prosper? The chicken and the egg, jobs and people - what follows what? And industrial policy is a dirty word, but it always lurks in the shadows. The course is designed to be interdisciplinary, drawing on concepts from economics, political science, sociology, planning, geography, and industrial and organizational theory. It is also meant to be experiential: students will do a considerable amount of fieldwork as a way to understand more about businesses and the communities in which they operate.

PLCY 065 [006E]: The Politics of Numbers: How Do We Know How Many People Are Poor?
Social & Behavioral Science/Other (SS) [GC Social Science]
Michael Stegman
The policy process would fail miserably if the flow of official statistics-on consumer prices, the unemployment rate, lagging and leading economic indicators, incomes and housing, reading scores, crime, and immigration-was cut off. While official statistics hold a mirror to reality, and reflect presuppositions and theories about the nature of society, we must not forget that they area also products of social, political, and economic interest. This seminar deals with the politics of numbers, and how they are used and abused in the policy process. In addition to participation in seminar discussions, final grades will be based upon the student's performance on a variety of assignments that emphasize different skills. Assignments include at least on analytical exercise using census data (perhaps, to describe you hometown and the neighborhood you grew up in), a formal seminar presentation, written policy memos, and a final examination.

PLCY 070: National Policy: Who Sets the Agenda?
Communication Intensive (CI), North Atlantic World (NA), Social and Behavioral Sciences/Other (SS)
W. Hodding Carter
The United States is governed by democratically elected leaders. According to theory, they both represent the people and lead them, setting and implementing policies to further prosperity and justice at home and security abroad. But who and what actually sets the nation's policy agenda? The President? Congress? The media? Special interests? Dramatic and unexpected events---9/11, for example---or carefully calibrated long-term plans? Variable public opinion or inflexible ideological zeal? These are some of the questions with which we will wrestle in a freshman seminar that will combine close attention to current events and policies with a deeper look at specific case histories drawn from the past three decades.

Each student will be required to take fact-based positions and defend them publicly. We will be reading extensively and writing regularly. There will be no "right" positions required in this course, but intellectual rigor and an open mind will be prerequisites.

PLCY 075 [006E]: Two Nations: The Growing Divide in American Society
Social and Behavioral Sciences/Other (SS) [GC Social Science]
Joel Schwartz
The divisions in American society and politics, those of region, race, religion, and ethnicity, that historically were central lines of conflict are today decreasingly less important. They have been replaced by class differences. Furthermore, class status is being transferred intergenerationally, thus making social and economic mobility more difficult to achieve. In the past, an expanding economy, democratization of education, and the struggle against various forms of discrimination created a country of great opportunity although African-Americans were not able to share in this open society. For most however, the United States was the most broad-based middle-class society ever. Despite this growth, the past 25 years have been years of economic stagnation and regression for all but those at the top. Income and wealth disparities have widened. Public school, housing, and health care systems are becoming increasingly separate and unequal. We are becoming two distinct societies-one affluent and the other increasingly marginalized and characterized by many of the attributes of a third world country. In this class we will examine the public policies that first created a broad-based middle class and then the policies that have undermined the existence of this same middle class.