SPOL41110

What does it mean when politicians and the media describe policy decisions as being ‘ideological’ rather than evidence-based? Is evidence always objective? Is it possible to ever be ‘non-ideological’? What are the implications for how we understand public policy? This module addresses these questions through engaging with the role of ideas and ideology in public policy. It does this by taking tools developed as part of the ideational and argumentative turns, which prioritise language, ideas, deliberation and interpretation.

This approach maintains that ideologies – systems of ideas and beliefs the guide decisions and practice in the political and social worlds – can significantly influence the processes of designing, promoting and implementing public policies. It argues that despite the importance and explanatory power of EBP, utility-maximising approaches, or rational-actor theory, these approaches do not tell the whole story. We also need to understand political and policymaking processes as being enabled and constrained through language and competing interpretations of problems and solutions. This includes considering and sometimes questioning the bases upon which the development, implementation and evaluation of policies take place.
The module achieves this through a two-strand approach:

1. Understanding the role of ideas and ideology throughout the six stages of the policy cycle, using real-world examples where appropriate.
2. Considering the ways in which we can analyse public policy using tools associated with the ideational and argumentative turns.