Moral Theory and Public Policy
Philosophy 355
Public Policy Studies 402/836
Fall Semester 2000


Instructor: Maurice L. Wade
Office: McCook 318
Office Phone: 2417
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3:00 - 5:00 and by appointment
McCook Administrative Assistant: Mrs. Gay Weidlich, extension 2472
Office Hours for Mrs. Weidlich: M - F 8:00 - 12:00 and 1:00 - 4:00

Messages can be left for me on voice mail, e-mail, at the campus Post Office (Box 702555), or in my mailbox in the McCook Administrative Office (McCook 202). (I must confess to being a great deal better at responding in a timely fashion to e-mail messages. So, if you can do so, using e-mail to get messages to me is best.)

Course Description
The first third or so of the course will be devoted to some of the essays in The Moral Dimensions of Public Policy Choice: Beyond the Market Paradigm edited by Gillroy and Wade. The content of this volume challenges the dominant consensus in public policy thinking that economic efficiency ought to the paramount or sole normative basis for public policy choice. It argues, in various ways, that other normative bases, at least some of the time and on at least some occasions, are superior to economic efficiency as the metric of public policy choice.
The middle third or so of the course will be focus upon the issues discussed in Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making by Deborah Stone. This volume attempts to show that public policy analysis can not be fashioned into the sort of scientific enterprise that many scholars and policy makers have hoped for. It argues that politics is an ineliminable and ultimately healthy dimension of public policy and that policy is better understood and made when this fact is accepted.
The final third or so of the course will center upon Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s, 2nd edition, by Michael Omi and Howard Winant and Color Class Identity: The New Politics of Race edited by John Arthur and Amy Shapiro. These two volumes provide ways of thinking about the public significance of race in the contemporary United States.
Each of the volumes referred to above should be available for purchase at the College Bookstore in the Mather Campus Center.

Course Requirements
Different instructors have different views about the importance of what happens in class. Some regard that as an optional portion of their courses. I do not. Accordingly, attendance is required and will be recorded. And, attendance means for the full 3 hour session. Individuals who miss classes or significant portions of classes will find their final grades reduced accordingly.
You will be required to complee one take-home exam and write two 15 page essays. Instructions concerning the essays will be detailed well before their due dates.
I would very much like the material that we are reading this semester to be covered as much as possible by discussion between you and me and between you and your fellow classmates rather than by straight lecturing by me. I will, of course, have things to say that I hope will be helpful and interesting concerning the topics, arguments, questions, etc. in our assigned readings. But, I expect that you will as well and so will come to each class having done the readings and prepared to engage in active and critical discussion of them. I will do what I can to foster that sort of classroom atmosphere and you should do your part as well.
This is both an upper level undergraduate course and a graduate course. Although it does not require prior experience with its subject matter, it does require that you read sophisticated materials, write sophisticatedly about them, and engage in reflective and intelligent discussion about them. There is no difference in the material to be covered by graduate students but graduate students will have more rigorous grading standards applied to their work. A graduate grade of Pass is the equivalent of a B- undergraduate grade. Low Pass is equivalent to a C+. High Pass is equivalent to B/B+. Distinction is equivalent to A-/A.


Reading and Assignment Schedule for Moral Theory and Public Policy Semester Fall Semester 2000

9/12--Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 of The Moral Dimensions of Public Policy Choice
9/19--Chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15 of The Moral Dimensions of Public Policy Choice
9/26--Chapters 16, 19, 21, and 22 of The Moral Dimensions of Public Policy Choice
10/3--Take--home exam due at the beginning of class
10/3--Parts I and II of Policy Paradox
10/10--Trinity Days--class does not meet
10/17--Parts III and IV of Policy Paradox
10/24--Part IV and Conclusion of Policy Paradox
11/7--12-15 page paper due at the beginning of class
11/7--Parts I and II of Racial Formation in the United States
11/14--Parts II and III of Racial Formation in the United States
11/21--Thanksgiving (no class)
11/28--Parts I and II of ColorClassIdentity
12/6--Parts II and III of ColorClassIdentity
12/17--12-15 page paper due at my office no later than 7:00 pm