Teaching

Energy politics (and policy) is about “who gets what energy, when, and how.” Neither do we rarely ask this question nor should we answer it in our daily lives as long as we enjoy continued access to energy. Yet, energy gets into our hands through convoluted supply chains with various political actors and a myriad of regulations. We engage in a part of this longstanding process mostly when we face a problem (e.g., when you experience a blackout, you may start thinking about where to file a complaint). This course will help you unpack it through the lens of comparative public policy. We will examine how different countries have formed different energy governance structures (e.g., the U.S. versus Germany) based on what energy-related problems they attempt to resolve. Most importantly, external shocks like climate change or war often pressure country governments to change their current energy mix. We will zoom in on these “energy transition” times as major case studies with relevant theories of energy politics and policy to understand how energy is produced, distributed, and consumed in each country (and between countries too).  

Tackling the global environmental problem, often characterized by its transboundary nature, is difficult due to the "tragedy of the global commons" and (somewhat transient) sovereignty principle. After all, state governments should create and implement policies to contribute to global efforts, but there is no world government above them that can coordinate and coagulate these policies to be effective and consistent. Perhaps this is why the global environmental problem is still rampant, but global environmental policies such as international environmental agreements, organizations, and programs proliferate. Are these hopeless efforts? This course examines how global environmental governance has emerged and worked to elicit various actors' responses to tackle the global environmental problem, actors being not only state governments but local governments, (multinational) corporations, and NGOs. 

It is now scientific consensus that anthropogenic (i.e., human-induced) greenhouse gases are the main drivers of climate change. But why is climate skepticism still rampant? Why is the world not making satisfactory progress in tackling it? This course investigates why sometimes individuals and various organizations (private firms, political parties, local governments, etc.) “cannot take climate science into their heart.” In fact, they have pretty good reasons not to. With theories and real-world examples, we will address puzzles like why some governments lead in climate mitigation and adaptation but others remain laggards; why some individuals believe in climate science but do not support carbon pricing; and why historically marginalized communities suffer the most from not only climate risks but also policy responses to climate change. After all, climate change is a political issue that we as political scientists have much to say about.  

PSC 750 is a 3-credit graduate-level seminar that surveys the field of public policy with a focus on the policymaking process. This area of study is grounded in theories and empirical evidence about (1) how public problems are identified and characterized, (2) how the policies that attempt to respond to them are devised, debated, and enacted, (3) and how past and existing policies affect one another. Studying the process through which policies are made and implemented allows us to investigate questions central to the broader study of politics and political science, such as: Why do certain issues rise on the political agenda (but not others)? How do groups of actors and institutions influence policy change? How do earlier and existing policies shape future ones?

Policy analysis aims to achieve two things: assessing policy problems and alternatives that (aim to) solve them. But in the real world, there are few policy reports or briefs that complete both tasks. Why is policy analysis in "textbook" so different from how it is done in "practice?" Based on a bounded rationality framework, this course helps students obtain commonly used tools and skills to produce a policy product that commonly appears in the textbook, but also exposes them to political, social, cultural, and cognitive constraints that further condition the scope and depth of a policy product.