Energy in the Executive is a leading character

in the definition of good government

~ Alexander Hamilton

POLS 104 Introduction to Public Administration

University of Southern Indiana, Department of Political Science

COURSE SYLLABUS

Fall 2016

Class Time: T/Th 10:30-11:45
Instructor: Trent Engbers, Ph.D.
E-mail:
Phone: 477-1432 (Home) / Office: LA 3065
Mailbox: 3rd Floor Liberal Arts Building
Classroom: LA 2004
Phone: 465-1130 (Office)
Office Hours: T/Th 9:00-10:00
I am of the tradition that office hours are an antiquated concept. My preference would be to be more widely available to you. Please feel free to reach out at any time to schedule a meeting. My goal is to be very flexible in making myself available to you.

Course Description:

Examination of the organizational dynamics and external pressures that affect the administration of government institutions in the United States. Theories and concepts are discussed that pertain to a number of the administrative practices in national, state, and local government organizations. This includes an examination of the history of public administration and the accountability mechanisms present today along with consideration of a wide factor of policy implementation considerations such as budgeting, decision making, ethics and reform. No prereq.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, you will understand how public administration has emerged in the United States and its current role in the implementation of government policy. Specifically, you will be able to:

·  Explain the role of public administration in a historical context

·  Develop a system of accountability for a pressing public policy concern

·  Create recommendations for improving the performance of public organizations and implementation of public policy.

Required Texts/ Materials:

1.  Kettl, D. ( 2015). The politics of the administrative process, 6th Ed. Washington DC, CQ Press.

2.  Additional readings as assigned

Blackboard:

I encourage you to use blackboard to share and collaborate with your classmates. I will use it to post required readings not found in the textbook. I will also use the grade book function to communicate with you some but not all of your grades. Class announcements will also be distributed through blackboard. All assignments should be submitted to me in hardcopy and questions should be directed to me through phone (preferred) or e-mail.


Classmates:

I encourage you to take time during the first class to gather the names and phone numbers of at least two of you classmates and write them below. If you miss class, this should be your first step in catching up. Though I am happy to sit down with you and reteach the information AFTER you have received notes from a classmate.

Class Policies:

1.  Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. These infractions found in the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities. If I determine that you have violated the universities standards of academic honesty. Your name will be forwarded on to the Provosts Office and you will receive a 0 on the assignment with no opportunity to redo it. Copying without citation any portion of your work from other students work, the internet, or textbooks and the use of electronic devices for storing information to be used in a dishonest way are particularly serious offenses. This does not preclude you from working with others to discuss your projects and course material. Two common problems include:
*Working together (which is encouraged) and submitting answers with identical or near identical answers (which is cheating) & Coping from the internet without citation.

2.  Laptops and Electronic Devices: In Spring 2010, The Department of Political Science and Public Administration passed a classroom ban on laptops, cell phones, and other electronic devices. All electronic devices must be turned off and stowed in your backpack or briefcase at the start of class, unless approved for a scheduled class activity. In exceptional circumstances, you may leave your cell phone set to “vibrate” during class. However, you must clear this with your instructor prior to the beginning of class. There are few things that I found more rude than ringing cell phones. If you cell phone rings during class, you will be asked to leave for the remainder of class, you risk the loss of participation points and you will insight my ire.

3.  Late assignments will be penalized one letter grade per business day (10%) unless given PRIOR approval by the instructor for extenuating circumstances.

4.  Attendance is not required but the course will feature 5 pop quizzes (See below). If you are not present during these quizzes, you may not make them up. Likewise, you will not be able to make up the labs. If you know you will be absent from class, please let me now to work out an alternative arrangement.

5.  There will be no incomplete grades except under extraordinary circumstances with the appropriate documentation, in accordance with the University of Southern Indiana Academic Handbook.

6.  Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance: If you have a disability, you are encouraged to register for disability support services in the Counseling Center. If you require an accommodation, please advise the instructor by the end of the first week of class. You may be required to provide written documentation to support these accommodations. The instructor will work with you to provide reasonable accommodations to ensure that you have a fair opportunity to perform and participate in class.

7.  USI does not tolerate acts of sexual misconduct, including sexual harassment and all forms of sexual violence. If you have experienced sexual misconduct, or know someone who has, the University can help. It is important to know that federal regulations and University policy require faculty to promptly report incidences of potential sexual misconduct known to them to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure that appropriate measures are taken and resources are made available. The University will work with you to protect your privacy by sharing information with only those who need to know to ensure we can respond and assist. If you are seeking help and would like to speak to someone confidentially, you can make an appointment with a counselor in the University Counseling Center. Find more information about sexual violence, including campus and community resources at www.usi.edu/stopsexualassault .

8.  Course Evaluations: Course evaluations are an integral part of the teaching and learning process. At the University of Southern Indiana, course evaluations are used for many purposes. These purposes include curriculum and assignment review, course structure changes, changes in instructional delivery as well as the university’s evaluation of, and continuous improvement efforts for, faculty and faculty development initiatives. Please complete the course evaluations for this course with care, thought and attention toward the improvement of the class, the faculty and the university community overall.

9.  Grades posted on blackboard are not the official records of your grades, but can be used to confirm that the grade that I hand back to you matches the grade in my personal grade book. Please save all assignments in case there is a discrepancy.

10.  This syllabus is our contract and will only be changed with explicit consent of the majority of students.

Assignments/ Grading:

Course grades will be assigned based upon the following distribution:

Assignment / Points
Pop Quizzes / 100
JIT / 100
Class Participation and Homework / 100
Final Lab / 100
In Class labs (Best 2 or 3) / 100
Course Project
Policy Overview / 100
History of the Administrative Change / 100
Current Accountability Mechanisms / 100
Implementation Steps in the Policy Change + Revisions / 200
Total / 1000

Quizzes:

Five surprise quizzes will be given throughout the semester. Your top four quizzes will count toward your final grade. Missed quizzes can not be made up. Each quiz will directly address that week’s readings and assignments, but will also build on previous weeks work. They will be 5 questions each worth 5 points. Answers are objective and will be graded as either right or wrong. You will have 10-15 minutes to complete the quiz.

JIT – Just in Time Teaching:

For each reading assignment, you will have the opportunity to complete a JIT. There are 13 opportunities throughout the semester and you must complete 10 of them (10 points each for a total of 100 points). The JIT must be completed by 11:59 PM on the night before the class when the reading is due. If the reading is discussed on Thursday then it is due on Wednesday at 11:59 PM. If the reading is due on Tuesday, then the JIT is due Monday at 11:59 PM. This is the only assignment that will be submitted through blackboard. The JIT is a short assignment. You will answer 3 questions. The answer to each question will be anywhere from 1 sentence to a paragraph. For each reading question, you need to answer the following 3 questions:

1.  What is/are the most important 1 or 2 points that you would take away from the readings?

2.  What areas do you not understand or would you like to discuss further in class? (nothing or I don’t know isn’t a sufficient answer)

3.  How might the information in this chapter be relevant for your life now or after college?

Participation and Homework:

Throughout the course, we will engage in class discussions, small homework assignments and small group work. Some of this work will have deliverables that are turned in at the end of the class. Your involvement in these projects will contribute to this portion of your grade. Your participation grade will benefit from active behaviors such as raising your hand, answering questions, and engaging your classmates in discussion (related to course content). Inversely, distracting behaviors (sleeping, coming in late, ringing phones) will negatively impact your participation grade. Students will be called on randomly to report back on the days readings.

Course Project: Policy Overview

Choose a state/federal rule or local administrative policy (not a law) that you would like to see changed. Investigate this policy. In order to help you better understand the policy, please answer the following questions:

What is the official policy language? Include the code or policy number if applicable.

Where is the policy recorded?

Which administrative agency propagated the policy?

What is the mission and functions of the agency?
How is the agency staff? Give some considerations to the union and civil serve influences in the agency and how this might affect the application of the policy.

Who does the policy affect (both internal and external to the agency)?

What is the problem that the policy is designed to address and what is the rationale for the current policy

Write up your answers to these questions in essay format. In order words, this should not be formatted as a question and answer paper, but rather as a coherent policy brief to inform a policy maker about a public problem and how the bureaucracy is acting to address it. That said, headers are strongly encouraged to make your paper readable to help identify important sections

Course Project: History of Administrative Change

Our discussion of history includes two elements. First, we explored the evolution of America as a stateless society to the development of a large contemporary democracy. Second, we have learned about the major approaches to public administration ranging from early organizational theories and scientific management to the current focus on governance and new public management. Your response in this essay should connect the policy you selected for part 1 to these two strands of history. Describe when the policy/rule was first enacted and how the state of America’s bureaucratic evolution at that time influenced the policies enactment. Speculate as to how the policy might have been different (and why) had the policy been address during a different period of history. Next, explain which approaches to public administration (scientific management, human relations, simon, Waldo, New public management, New public administration, constitutionalism, etc) are seen the administration of this policy. This is not an answer where you need to discuss every mechanism. Rather, the goal is to get you to understand the approaches sufficiently to determine which are relevant and which are not. Lastly, consider how the policy might be administered in a different way (as informed by a different approach to public management). A future paper will ask you to develop a specific policy proposal for change. Don’t feel locked into the approach you suggest for this paper. Rather, I just want to get you thinking about how policies might look different.

Course Project: Current Accountability Mechanisms

This essay asks you to complete two tasks. First, you should explore the accountability mechanisms for the policy/rule that you selected. Second, you should make a recommendation for improvement bureaucratic accountability. In both cases, you need to attend to both the mechanism of accountability (e.g. legal, hierarchical, political) and the actor responsible for enforcing accountability (executive, courts, popular). Be sure you discuss each of the accountability mechanisms within the paper so that it is clear to me know you know what they are and how they work

Course Project: Implementation Steps in the Policy Change and Revisions

Identify a change that you would like to make in the policy/rule. This may be the same change that you identified in paper 2 or a different change. Clearly describe the change that you would like to see take place and draft the legal language that you would suggest in creating the proposed rule. Once you have identified the change, describe how the policy/rule should be implemented. In particular, you should discuss the use or lack of use of intergovernmental administration and inter-sectoral administration. Describe what action is needed to institute the change. This includes identifying who has the authority to make the change and the process or processes needed to influence that/those actor(s) to change. This may be legislative action or a bureaucratic process. In other words, how would you get the organization to adopt your policy/rule? Lastly, describe the effect of this policy on the budget and what it means for how the organization budgets (there may be no effect) and what revenue is required.

This assignment also requires you to revise the past 3 papers that are part of this project. Integrate all four parts into 1 coherent paper. Make all of the revisions requested based on feedback and add additional information that you think is relevant based on what we have covered since that time. The paper should show significant revision.