90-449 Elective Politics and Policy-Making

6 units, Carnegie Mellon University

Significant proposals in public policy at the local, state and federal level of the U.S. require usually require legislation to become a reality. Enter politicians, politics, and political processes. Elected politicians, both representatives and executives, are the ultimate arbitrators and decision-makers in public policy change. The political process can be very messy. Nonetheless public policy change can be successfully "engineered" from an idea to a reality. This course will explore past cases involving elected officials from the Pittsburgh region and Pennsylvania to illustrate the people, politics and processes involved in policy change. Students will then be required to apply what they learn from these cases to a contemporary policy challenge facing the Pittsburgh region.

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Spring 2027, Spring 2026

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