B.P.A. in Public Administration

UNDERGRADUATE

Fall Semester

Strategy and Management 3

Spring Semester

Administration and Public Policy 3

COURSE DESCRIPTION

PAD 101: Introduction to Public Administration:

Origin and development of public administration as a discipline and profession. Citizen and the administrative state; rise of professionalism; growth of executive branch in federal government and the states. Public service within an environment of democratic, legal, ethical, political, and economic considerations.

PAD 110: Foundations of Government Information Strategy and Management:

Introduces the interaction of policy, management, and information technology in the design, operation, and evaluation of government operations and public services. Relies heavily on case studies to illustrate how these domains play out in multiple settings and across sectors-public, private, and not-for-profit.

PAD 104: Introduction to Public Policy:

Provides students with a basic understanding of the public policy process. Models of policy agenda setting, adoption, implementation and evaluation are considered with reference to specific substantive policy areas such as economic, energy, environmental, intergovernmental, social welfare, health and civil rights policy.

PAD 105: Principles of Public Economics:-

How do markets allocate resources in an economy? How do firms operate in both the sort run and the long run? What effect do taxes have on markets? What are the key rationales for governments to intervene in the economy? This class surveys microeconomic theory, with particular emphasis on principles most relevant for government and applications to policy or management. Prerequisites:

PAD 107: Foundations of Public Management:-

An introduction to the theory and practice of public management. Topics include individual, group level, and organizational issues such as creating productive work environments, working within human resource systems, developing a learning organization, facilitating innovation, and managing across organizational boundaries. Cases and exercises will focus on practical applications of concepts covered. Prerequisite: Institutional Foundations of Public Administration.

PAD 108: Introduction to Legislative Administration:-

Introduces relevant literature in political science and public administration bearing directly upon legislative administration. Basic theoretical assumptions and methodological approaches will be discussed for understanding of current trends and issues. Includes legislative structure, organization and management, legislative relations with constituents, the executive and civil society.

PAD 120: Public Management:

An introduction to fundamental issues that underlie the field of government and nonprofit management. Topics include a history of the discipline, federalism, ethics in public service, leadership, strategic management, human resources and public budgeting.

PAD 123: Public Financial Management I:

Covers budgeting, both operating and capital, in federal, state and local governments. Attention to the individual and the organizational factors which influence budget making in a political environment. Explores financial, analytical, and management techniques such as cash and debt management, accounting, and auditing.

PAD 124: Statistics in Public Administration:

Introduces the student to the statistical procedures and computer skills that are used in policy and management settings. Covers descriptive statistics, measure of central tendency, measure of association and analysis of variance. Topics are presented with related computer techniques.

PAD 126: City and Regional Planning:

Principles and practices of city and regional planning; including origins, community design, comprehensive plans, zoning and land use controls; court decisions, administrative organization, and political concerns; sprawl, sustainable growth, and economic development.

PAD 127: Comparative Administrative Systems:

Comparative study of administration systems across different cultures, with emphasis on administrative practices, structures, and processes.

PAD 128: Accountability in Public Policy and Administration:

Presents an integrating perspective for understanding accountability in public service organizations and issues confronting professionals. Analytical examination of political/democratic, legal, socio-economic and ethical theories of accountability.

PAD 129: Organizational Change in Public Service:

How does public service organizational become more efficient, effective and innovative to meet customer and citizen needs? Examine improvement methods such as flattening the organizational structure, teamwork, quality management, performance management, budgeting, and re-engineering. Covers the role of leadership in transforming the culture to create high performance organizations.

PAD 102: Nonprofit Management:

Examines policy and management aspects of nonprofit organizations. Includes nonprofit environment, organizational roles and processes, interagency relationships, problems of change, leadership, strategic planning, board-staff relationships, fundraising, human resources and volunteer development. Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing or permission.

PAD 121: Public Administration Internship:

Professional experience in state government, non-profit agency, healthcare agency, etc. Some opportunities exist through the Maine State Government Internship Program. Open to selected students. Reports and readings required.

PAD 122: Intergovernmental Relations:

Study of federalism in the United States, including federal-state, federal-local, state-local and interstate relationships. Emphasis on politics of present-day intergovernmental administrative arrangements. Prerequisite: Graduate student or permission.

PAD 201: Public Financial Management II:

Students prepare and analyze expenditure and revenue trends; examine the costs and benefits of instituting new programs or expanding existing ones; present revenue projections; explain expenditure proposals; and propose a budget document. Practical budgeting experience by creating a local government budget from scratch to gain insight into the process and tools of budgeting.

PAD 211: Foundations of Public Management:

PAD 213: Introduction to Foundations of Public Administration:

This course focuses on tensions and trade-offs between important values in public administration and the institutional foundations of the public service in political, bureaucratic, and legal settings. Major topics include dimensions of the public sector, characteristics of institutional settings, history of the field, environmental context, and functions, roles, behaviours, and structures.

PAD 214: Accounting for Governmental and Not-For-Profit Entities:

Financial accounting for not-for-profit and government entities and hospitals, voluntary health and welfare organizations. Includes fund accounting. GASB statements.

PAD 215: Introduction to Health Policy and Politics:

Analysis and description of the health policy processes, with very strong focus on public health problems, including medical care; nature of the public policy process, especially for health issues; and employment in written work of differing models for analyzing health problems.

PAD 217: Fundamentals of Securities Law:

This course examines the history, rationales, and structures of securities laws in the United States, focusing mainly on the federal level but touching on issues pertaining to the states. Topics include public requirements governing the issuance of securities; mandatory public disclosures; legal requirements governing corporate mergers and acquisitions; primary and secondary markets for securities; exemptions from full coverage of laws, the reasons for exemptions, and how technology and market changes have affected these exemptions over time; and the basic structure of securities market regulation. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.

PAD 218: Political Violence, Insurgency and Terrorism:

This course examines the relationships among, and differences between the following activities in the international political system: political violence, insurgency, and terrorism. The course will include a consideration of the causes of these activities, their effects on national and international politics, and an evaluation of governmental responses to them.

PAD 200: Police and the Community:

Covers police administrative practices including leadership, organization, management and human resources. Controversies and issues such as under-enforcement, brutality, impact of technology, training, hiring and performance assessment, liability, community policing, crime and domestic violence. Best practices in municipal, county and state settings.

PAD 212: Technical Writing and Communication in Public Service:

Develops writing skills applied to public, nonprofit and health organizations. Students write memos, new releases, reports and position papers (multiple submissions required). Features communication skills to convey results and ideas. Covers use of references.

PAD 219: Professional Applications I:

This course emphasizes the early development of professional skills, the ability to work in teams, career planning, and an awareness of trade-offs in modern administration.

PAD 221: Basic Governmental Accounting:

Survey of governmental accounting principles and procedures for persons without prior formal instruction in accounting. Included are such topics as account classification, cash and accrual accounting, appropriation and program accounts, cost estimation from accounts, development and analysis of financial statements, and the uses of accounting information for managerial decision making.

PAD 223: Nonprofit Management:

Examines policy and management aspects of nonprofit organizations. Includes nonprofit environment, organizational roles and processes, interagency relationships, problems of change, leadership, strategic planning, board-staff relationships, fundraising, human resources, etc

PAD 224: Public Administration Internship:

PAD 225: State Administration:

Analysis of the place of the state executive in the politics of the American states and other international states. Emphasis on the role of the governor and administration in policy formulation.

PAD 227: City and Regional Planning:

PAD 228: Principles of Public Economics:

How do markets allocate resources in an economy? How do firms operate in both the sort run and the long run? What effect do taxes have on markets? What are the key rationales for governments to intervene in the economy? This class surveys microeconomic theory, with particular emphasis on principles most relevant for government and applications to policy or management.

PAD 229: Comparative Administrative Systems:

PAD 200: Urban Community Development:

Examination of policies and programs designed to reduce social and economic distress. Focuses on local and neighborhood-based efforts to address problems of inadequate housing, unemployment, lack of community services and facilities, crime etc. Considers role of government, private sector, and non-profit organizations in community revitalization.

PAD 222: Plan Implementation and Development Management:

Examines a wide range of tools for managing development and implementing plans. Methods of public infrastructure finance and capital budgeting are examined in terms of their effects on land use and the pace, direction, nature and density of development. Alternative ways of paying for infrastructure, including methods for privatizing and shifting costs to private developers, are also scrutinized and compared to more traditional financing methods. In addition, regulatory, financial, legal, and programmatic tools, as well as tax policies, that influence development and can help put plans into action are examined. Finally, mechanisms for managing publicly owned real estate, and for acquiring, managing, packaging and disposing of tax-forfeit, abandoned properties are evaluated.

PAD 226: Professional Applications II:

This Module normally is taken during the later half of a student's core curriculum. It continues the focus on skill development introduced in Professional Applications I and synthesizes material presented throughout the core. Using simulations and other exercises, it requires students to address a significant, multifaceted managerial or policy problem career development.

PAD 301: Accountability in Public Policy and Administration:

PAD 311: Community Power, Leadership and Administration:

Examination of the location of public and private sources of power and influence in large and small communities; professional and amateur leadership patterns, uses and abuses of bureaucratic authority, administrative opportunities and concerns; cases of development and service delivery decisions.

PAD 312: Program Analysis and Evaluation:

Examines design and implementation of evaluation methods to assess and improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of programs. Quantitative and qualitative approaches. Political constraints to effective evaluations. Provides basic knowledge required for writing evaluation.

PAD 314: Environmental Policy and Management:

This course covers the policy, management, and administrative questions associated with public sector involvement in environmental control. Key questions include the relative responsibilities of the public and private sectors; the appropriate degree of federal, state, and local responsibility; regulatory efficiency and equity; and appropriate policy mechanisms to improve environmental quality in the next decade.

PAD 315: Philosophical and Ethical Issues in Public Policy:

This course is concerned with the examination of some of the methodological and normative assumptions involved in the formulation and implementation of public policy. Topics may include epistemological issues such as the nature of rationality, justification, evidence, and relativism; and moral and political issues such as nature of liberty, equality, and justice. The significance of these issues will be discussed in connection with concrete problems such as punishment, affirmative action, welfare legislation, reproductive liberty, and the right to life. Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

PAD 316: Organization and Leadership Theory for Public and Nonprofits:

Theories of organizational management and behavior including leadership, culture, structure, and communication. Organizational theories of learning, growth, and change.

PAD 318: Historical Analysis and Public Policy:

The class introduces master’s students to the unique approach of historians who tackle contemporary policy issues. It aims to demonstrate how historical analysis can be useful in understanding policy challenges. Students will see that the historical approach is especially suited to particular challenges, such as discovering long-term patterns in government institutions that are likely to shape policy outcomes.

PAD 317: Nonprofit Organization Management:

Surveys the nonprofit sector in the U.S., their structures, history and values, roles in the economic system, and selected public policy issues.

PAD 319: Minorities and the Politico-Legal System: Selected minority problems that appear in connection with the politico-legal system. Legislative, administrative, and judicial responses and exploration of alternative public policy options.

PAD 320: Public and Nonprofit Financial Management:

This course focuses on teaching students how to use financial information to make decisions in public and not-for-profit organizations. The first half of the course focuses on developing, implementing and controlling agency financial plans. The course covers an introduction to financial management, the development of operating budgets, tools for short-term decision-making, capital-budgeting decisions, and the analysis of long-term financial options. The second half of the course focuses on summarizing, reporting on and analyzing an organization’s financial position, and the results of its operations.

PAD 321: Principles of Public Economics:

PAD 322: Ethics in Public Administration:

The ethics of managerial behavior in government and organization, ethics codes and their implementation, ethical issues arising from the influence of administrators on public policy. Course procedures include readings, discussion, and student projects to relate ethics concepts to case studies or research findings.

PAD 324: Topics in Information Resource Management:

Workshops provide students with an intensive focus on information resource systems, issues, practices and policies at the state and local levels of government. The emphasis will be on the most current research and practices in this rapidly changing environment. Individual workshop topics could include making information technology choices, managing records, information sharing, issues of intellectual property rights, information security, developing and managing web sites, and intergovernmental relationships in IT management.

PAD 325: Philosophical and Ethical Issues in Public Policy:

This course is concerned with the examination of some of the methodological and normative assumptions involved in the formulation and implementation of public policy. Topics may include epistemological issues such as the nature of rationality, justification, evidence, and relativism; and moral and political issues such as nature of liberty, equality, and justice. The significance of these issues will be discussed in connection with concrete problems such as punishment, affirmative action, welfare legislation, reproductive liberty, and the right to life.

PAD 326: Implementation and Impact:

Examination of the process by which policies are put into effect; alterations during that process; effects intended and unintended; and feedback into further policy making. Implementation and impact of legislative, administrative, and judicial policies in particular policy areas.

PAD 327: Implementation and Impact:

PAD 328: Metropolitan Governance and Planning:

Physical, social and economic conditions in selected metropolitan areas in Africa are examined, and the role of institutions of governance and planning in producing and reinforcing current conditions is explored. Pros and cons of competing models of metropolitan governance are examined, and evidence that highly fragmented units of government intensify economic and fiscal disparities, and undermine regional competitiveness and efficiency, is scrutinized. Strategies capable of moving toward greater regional cooperation in planning and governance are considered.

PAD 329: Information Technology, Globalization and Global Governance:

Examines the role of information technology in globalization, democratization, diplomacy, security and international development. Reviews previous episodes of transformative changes in communications to place contemporary changes in a broader historical context and considers theoretical explorations of the relationship between information technologies and global politics.

PAD 330: Global Governance:

The organization of world politics in the context of globalization. Overview of international organizations such as the United Nations and regional organizations such as the European Union. Examination of the historical and current international legal frameworks. Analysis of international cooperation beyond the confines of formal organizational structures with particular emphasis on international regimes, institutions and norms that govern state practices in particular issue areas – from trade and weapons proliferations to the environment and refugees. Also examines transnational relations of non-state actors such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and multinational corporations as well as trans-governmental relations of sub-national governments and government agencies that shape policymaking at a global level.

PAD 400: Administrative Law:

Introduces students to the legal/constitutional issues arising from the relationship between public administrative agencies, legislative bodies and the courts. Through a review of significant court cases the course explores issues concerning the separation of powers and delegation, sovereign immunity and the scope and limits of administrative discretion in administrative rule making.

PAD 401: Organizational Change in Public Service:

PAD 413: Urban Community Development:

Examination of policies and programs designed to reduce social and economic distress in the African communities. Focuses on local and neighborhood-based efforts to address problems of inadequate housing, unemployment, lack of community services and facilities, crime etc. Considers role of government, private sector, and nonprofit organizations in community revitalization.

PAD 414: Plan Implementation and Development Management:

PAD 415: Planning for Jobs, Housing and Community Services in Third World Cities:

Reviews the potential for community development and the improvement of physical, social and economic conditions in the poor urban neighborhoods of countries characterized by mass poverty. Focuses on shanty-town upgrading, sites and services, job-creation programs, and micro-enterprise promotion. Discusses the roles of local and national governments, community participation, business, non-profits, and international aid.

PAD 416: Field Experience:

Enables a student to participate in a political or governmental organization. Readings and reports required. Six credit hour maximum for any single field experience registration.

PAD 417: Policy Studies:

Examines approaches to the study of public policy such as public choice theory, implementation analysis, systems analysis, and impact analysis as they are applied to policy areas such as health, welfare, education, and criminal justice. Students participate in seminar discussions and complete a research project.

PAD 418: Citizen Participation and Public Policy:

The historic origins of the increasingly used statutory mandate for “citizen participation” as a requisite test of legitimacy, both in the formulation and implementation of public policy; a survey of applications in federal and state law and impact on the subjects and objects of public policy.

PAD 419: Inequality and Public Policy:

This course addresses the formulation and implementation of public policies that seek to end inequalities based on gender, race, class, sexual identity and/or other categories of marginalization. Theoretical and case study readings focus on the challenges, paradoxes and successes of a variety of social change initiatives.

PAD 420: Politics of Migration and Membership:

Surveys dilemmas faced by local, national and international policymaking bodies addressing population movement. Attention on the political and policy dimensions, including debates about national identity, immigration policy, political rights of immigrants, and integration (assimilation) policies. U.S., international and comparative contexts examined.

PAD 422: Information Technology and Public Policy:

Impact and design of information systems in public and nonprofit organizations. Prerequisite: Graduate student or permission

PAD 423: Sustainable Economic and Community Development:

Analysis of institutions, procedures and problems associated with achieving sustainable economic and community development both domestically and international. Focuses on administrative and political implications.

PAD 424: Methods of Analysis in Public Administration and Public Policy:

Review of research process, literature, qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis, writing reports for different audiences, displaying data related to a project.

PAD 425: Advanced Methods of Analysis in Public Administration and Public Policy:

Project development from theory development, research hypotheses, methodology development, data analysis methods, human subject review.

PAD 426: Directed Research:

Individualized research course for graduate students in public administration, which involves an advanced, specialized research topic that explores in greater depth a sub-topic raised in a previous course.

PAD 427: Topics in Public Administration:

Major topics have included collective bargaining in the public sector, current issues in health policy, human services policy, or growth management.

PAD 499: Graduate Research Project