Centre for Financial & Management Studies (CeFiMS) - University of London

Postgraduate Diploma in Policy Studies

Structure and Syllabus

Four courses from the following:

Public policy and management: perspectives and issues [C200]

Public Policy and Management: Strategy [C212]

The International Monetary Fund and economic policy [C213]

Decentralisation and local governance [C204]

Privatisation and public-private partnerships [C211]

Detailed Syllabus

Public policy and management: perspectives and issues [C200]
· The state, public policy and management
· Understanding the state: democracy, authoritarianism, clientelism
· The state and economy, the state and welfare
· The construction and deconstruction of ideal types
· Policy analysis and evaluation
· 'New institutional economics'
· 'Public choice theory'
· Policy transfer and management reform

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Public Policy and Management: Strategy [C212]

* A critical understanding of policy-making processes in a variety of settings
* The ability to assess whether a proposed policy is likely to be successful
* Knowledge of international policy-making settings
* An understanding of how some of the world’s major policy decisions were made
* Facility with the methods of strategic management used in different types of public sector organisation.

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The International Monetary Fund and economic policy [C213]
Few countries have complete autonomy in macroeconmic policy. For many, policy is conducted in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or supervised by the IMF. The course examines the changing roles of the IMF, the nature of economic policies it encourages countries to pursue, and some of the effects these policies have on the economic environment of business, on the financial sector, and on social conditions. The course gives a simple introduction to the basic IMF economic policy framework, ‘financial programming’. Using different types of countries, including transition economies and developing countries as case studies, it enables students to study issues such as the role of capital controls and the problems of highly indebted countries.

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Decentralisation and local governance [C204]
· Decentralisation: what and why?
· Economic theories of decentralisation
· Globalisation and localisation
· Designing decentralisation
· Decentralisation and participation
· Assessing decentralisation in practice
· Case studies in economic decentralisation
· Decentralisation and poverty

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Privatisation and public-private partnerships [C211]
The purposes of this course are:

• to set out theoretical foundations for the different forms of relationship between public, private and voluntary sectors.
• to enable students to do the analysis necessary to make the choices among the many options for the delivery of public services.
• to introduce the practical steps to be taken to ensure the best possible outcomes form the process.
• to develop practical skills of evaluation of the outcomes of different forms of institutional arrangements for service delivery.
• to present case studies illustrating the strengths and weaknesses of privatisation and public-private partnerships.

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