Making Public Policy

Overview

This course aims to get students thinking about politics and policy as a part of their everyday life. We treat politics as a struggle among competing advocates trying to persuade others to see the world as they do, working within a context that is structured primarily by institutions and cultural ideas. We’ll begin by developing a policymaking framework, understanding ideology, and taking a whirlwind tour of the American political system. Then, we’ll examine six policy issues in depth: health care, gun control, the federal budget, immigration reform, same-sex marriage, and energy and climate change.

Skills you'll practise

Policy and Administration Political Science Social Sciences

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

The real MIT course: lecture notes, problem sets and exams, often with solutions.
Free, with no sign-up or deadlines.
Taught by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the strongest names in its field.
Completely free.
Self-paced: start any time.

Disadvantages

No certificate, no grading and no forum: you need to be self-driven.
Many courses are recordings of past semesters and some have notes only, no videos.
No certificate.

Some points apply to every course of this kind; see how we rank.

Free to learn

Free: All the materials are free to use, with no sign-up. MIT OpenCourseWare gives no certificate.

Taught by

Prof. Christopher Warshaw
Leah Stokes

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is in Tier 1: world-leading universities and India's top institutes of our institution ranking (98/100). OpenCourseWare is the gold standard for free university material.