Comparative Public Policy taught me how to better understand the process of policy creation, implementation, and termination.  When looking at public policy, there are frameworks that can be used to better understand policy creation and goals.  The involvement of various actors can strengthen a policy's ability to succeed in adoption and implementation.   Understanding the various elements that do or do not go into a specific policy can help us identify how to make better policies, how to push policy forward, and when policy needs to be adjusted or terminated. Using a scientific and comparative lens when evaluating policy is important for anyone interested in and involved in public policy. 

This class related to all the core competencies outlined by the MPA program:

• Identify and apply relevant legal issues and regulations for state and local governments.  

Policy is the way that regulations and born and that issues are taken from a problem to a law.  Understanding the policy process and various ways to evaluate policy is critical to Public Administration.

• Demonstrate ability to manage state and local government resources and programs in an effective and ethical manner.

Resources and programs are managed through policy.  Often policy needs to be adjusted or changed to be more effective and understanding how that process works is key.

• Communicate and coordinate between different levels of government, the private sector, and the general public.

Understanding the actors, formal and informal, are the first step to communication and coordination of all parties who should be involved in a policy discussion.  Collaboration makes for better policy.

Administrative Law is directly related to Comparative Public Policy as so often policy is decided through the judicial system.  What cases have set the precedent for specific policies?  Without understanding the law, a policy could be doomed from the very start.  Theory of Public Administration helps to understand the cultural readiness for adopting policy and what ideologies are in play when it comes to support or opposition to a policy.  

Better understanding the policy process as a whole is helpful when it comes for advocating for specific policy creation, termination, or change.  As a Prevention Specialist working within a coalition framework, I am asked for my expertise and often put in a position to advocate for specific policies.  With a better understanding of the process and a more scientific lens in which to evaluate the many moving parts of policy, I will be more effective, and more careful, in my advocacy work.  Bureaucrats do have a large role to play when it comes to public policy.