Course Catalogue

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This course examines the ongoing crisis in policymaking within established liberal democracies, in the North Atlantic region as well as in the Global South, alongside the broader crisis of liberal governance. It explores contemporary authoritarian threats to policy frameworks, such as the expansion of lawless power, ethnonationalist ideas, suppression of free speech, and the legitimisation of conspiracy theories in policymaking (e.g. anti-vaxx denialism during the Covid-19 pandemic, Post-Brexit and immigration control policies such as the Rwanda Deportation Scheme).

Through case studies, the course analyses the resurgence of ethno-nationalist policies targeting the welfare state, active citizenship, human rights, and evidence-based policymaking. Additionally, it highlights how policymaking can be permeable to unaccountable governmental power, rather than grounded in deliberative and participatory forms of governance (e.g. participatory budgeting and the role of social movements in actively influencing the policy process), where key social groups, including citizens themselves, are intentionally marginalised from decision-making processes.

Ultimately, this course challenges the notion of policy as a neutral ideological process. Instead, it argues that policymaking is inherently political, constantly contested, and embedded in the contradictions of the liberal order-subject to both democratic and autocratic tendencies competing to shape its direction.

One hour lecturer.

One hour tutorial.

Entry to Honours Social & Public Policy normally requires a grade point average of 12 (grade C3) over Social & Public Policy 2A and 2B (formerly Public Policy 2A and 2B) as a first attempt.

None.

Students will submit a LEARNING JOURNAL (40% - 2000 words) of short weekly entries (200 words) based on the readings and lecture materials (40%). The Learning journal will include evidence of the learner reflective account and how they relate, as learners and citizens, to the contents of lectures, tutorials and readings.

Students will design a REFLECTIVE E-PORTFOLIO (60% - 2500 words) based on their learning journey throughout the course. The portfolio will include an exploration of one of the concepts covered, a critical analysis of a past or present policy, and the ways in which it was and is contested by the civil society.

This course equips students with critical analytical skills to address authoritarian challenges and interference in democratic policymaking. Designed to foster analytical skills, the course enables students to critically evaluate policies that threaten the liberal democratic order, that is, policies that discriminate populations based on race, gender and class, amongst other factors. Students will develop transferable skills applicable to real-world contexts where policymaking may be undermined by undemocratic forces. The assessment practice emphasises a reflective and active citizenship ethos at both formative and summative levels, with tutorials serving as collaborative spaces valued equally alongside lectures.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Discriminate the typologies of authoritarianism such as totalitarianism, fascism, post-fascism, and populism and their ongoing influence on liberal polities.

2. Critically analyse the ways in which policies, designed and implemented without democratic scrutiny, may exclude certain segments of the population.

3. Recognise authoritarian shifts in policymaking by critiquing policies that undermine the constitutional order through legal exception and conspiracy theories.

4. Explain the politicisation of social policies and how policymaking shapes and is shaped by ideological values that may undermine the liberal democratic order.

5. Discuss the key role of civil disobedience in the policymaking process of the liberal democratic order.