"Speaking Truth to Power"
Admissions
Frequently Asked Questions About Public Policy or GSPP
What is Policy Analysis?
Public policy analysis aids problem solving in the public and non-profit sectors. People have analyzed policies for centuries, while policy analysis as a systematic, formal undertaking is still a fairly new field of endeavor and thoughtful people differ about exactly what it is.
In their standard text book Policy Analysis Concepts and Practice (third edition), Professor David Weimer ’75 Ph.D. ’78 and Professor Aidan Vining ’78 Ph.D. ’80 offer a good definition: public policy analysis is “client-oriented advice relevant to public decisions and informed by social values.”
Policy analysts provide information and advice to public officials, the press, policy advocates, nonprofit and private sector decision-makers, and citizens generally to help them choose, design and implement better as against worse public policies. To do this well requires a series of skills: skills that constitute the core curriculum of GSPP.
How do public policy and public administration programs differ?
Public administration, developed in the early 1900s, is a special field of study within the academic discipline of political science. It emphasizes the structure and operation of bureaucracies and organizations, including budgeting, personnel, and formal and informal internal controls. Some public administration programs include study of the special management skills required in governmental (as distinct from private) organizations.
Public policy is a newer field, developed in the late 1960s, whose theories and methods draw upon a variety of disciplines, such as economics, political science, statistics, and other social sciences. Its central focus is on the environment, substance, and effects of policies. Within that context, bureaucracies and organizations are examined as major sites for policy formulation, advocacy and implementation. Both public policy and public administration programs are relevant to the broad profession known generally as public management.
More information about career opportunities and employers of GSPP graduates is available in Career Services.
Does the GSPP program train generalists or specialists?
The School first aims to train generalists, in the sense of providing basic policy skills needed in a variety of policy positions and across a wide range of policy issues. Having learned and applied the basic skills in the School’s program, graduates are able to familiarize themselves rapidly with the details of a specific policy area relevant to their particular job. It would not be easy, however, for policy area specialists who lacked these technical skills to develop them once on the job. Feedback from alumni and employers confirms the soundness of providing an education for generalists.
The variety of positions reflects the multidisciplinary skills possessed by MPP graduates and the different types of policy roles sought by individual graduates.
Can a GSPP student give special attention to a specific policy area?
All first-year students take the core curriculum, which provides basic analytical approaches and skills. In contrast the second year consists mostly of electives, with students able to choose from among the rich offerings of the academic disciplines and professional programs on the Berkeley campus as well as from those at GSPP.
Depending on individual preferences, students elect courses to deepen or extend their analytical skills and/or to familiarize themselves with the substance of a specific policy area (energy, health, income redistribution, international affairs, environmental protection, education, racial or gender policy, etc.). In addition, the student’s major project during the second year treats a policy problem of the student’s own preference. Similarly, a student may concentrate his or her efforts to secure a summer internship in specific policy areas of personal choice.
Is a master’s thesis required?
In the second year, each student completes an Advanced Policy Analysis (APA) project, which is an intensive study of a significant policy issue of his or her choice. The APA study, which is typically done for a real client, provides students with the opportunity to apply concepts and skills learned in the School’s program.
Students often develop their APA projects from the recent experience of their summer policy internships. Sometimes students receive pay from their client for undertaking and completing the APA project. An APA study is performed under the close supervision of a GSPP faculty member, and its satisfactory completion meets one of the requirements for award of the MPP degree.
How does the GSPP program treat the political dimensions of public policy?
The School believes that to be effective in the policy world, the evaluation of policy choices should take closely into account the political setting for the making and implementation of policy. To have significant impact, an analyst of policy options often must go beyond technical competence and include sensitivity to the political environment of the policy issue and of the client. Hence the GSPP program stresses such concerns as the political feasibility of policy alternatives, value and ideological conflicts, and the dynamics of organizational behavior as they affect policy implementation.
Useful preparation for GSPP’s core curriculum would include some familiarity with microeconomics, the American political process, statistics, and computers. One of the core courses is a full year’s work in economics which assumes some knowledge of calculus. Entering students without that knowledge or who want to refresh their applied mathematical skills are urged to take an intensive brush-up course given by the School just before the fall term.
Have a Question?
If you have specific questions about the adequacy of your academic preparation for the program, please contact the Coordinator of Admissions and Student Affairs at (510) 642-1940 or via email gsppadm@socrates.berkeley.edu.
Last Updated: 02/08/2005