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Politics 135: Policy Implementation
Pomona College, Fall 2026
Prof. David Menefee-Libey

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11:00-11:50am
Hahn 107

Office: Carnegie 4
Office Hours: Mondays 1:30-3:30, Tuesdays 10:00-noon. Sign up for time-slots on the sheet outside my office door. If these times don't work for you, talk with me after class and we can find a workable alternative.
e-mail: DML@pomona.edu or DJML4747@pomona.edu (Mail sent to either of these goes to the same inbox.)

A live version of this syllabus is available online at this link: https://DML.sites.pomona.edu/Implementation.html

Table of Contents for This Syllabus:
Go to Course Requirements, Evaluations, and Deadlines
Go to Class Schedule and Assignments

Course Description and Goals

This course has three purposes. First, as a core course for the Public Policy Analysis major, it introduces students to more rigorous approaches to the study of public policy in the United States. Second, it focuses on one sub-field of policy analysis -- the study of policy implementation -- and gives students an opportunity to explore and apply elements of that scholarly literature in some depth. Third, it provides an opportunity for students to design and carry out a small case study research project. These are challenging tasks, and this is the most difficult course I teach, but past students have found it to be worth the effort and I've structured plenty of time into the syllabus schedule for you to do the necessary work.

This course begins with the premise that politics and policy-making do not end when "a bill becomes a law." Political struggle and policy development continue after enactment and throughout implementation (and even after that). These complex processes are what we're going to study, and what you're going to talk and write about. I'll assume enrolled students have already taken an introductory course in American politics, and that they have a general understanding of how policy is enacted by governments in the United States.

The course readings focus mostly on the U.S. federal government's domestic policies, on the assumption that similar frameworks and analyses apply to all levels of government. (In fact, most of the ideas in the course apply to non-governmental institutions like business corporations or non-profit organizations like Pomona College.) The course also focuses mostly on policies enacted by legislatures and executives. Most course readings will ignore policies enacted by courts or ballot measures, as well as international policies and policies enacted outside the United States, though all of those are of course important. Students should feel free to pursue case studies of ballot measures or judicial policies if they wish.

This is a social science class. I will expect you to learn several theories about how the development and implementation of public policy tends to actually work in the real world. Further, I will expect you to develop your ability to derive and test empirical hypotheses from those theories with observations and data about the real world. Social science is of course also a normative field: I will expect you to learn some theories about what is valuable and important in public policy, and to develop your ability to apply those theories rigorously to evaluate the observations and data you encounter this semester, especially in your own case study. We will sometimes consider legal and constitutional aspects of public policy as well, but these will not be our main focus. Our policy discussions will often rely heavily on quantitative and qualitative data gathered by researchers, you, and your fellow students, so I'll presume that all enrolled students will comfortably and carefully analyze such data in a disciplined way. You should have (and continue to develop!) a low tolerance for bullshit, even bullshit you find comforting or that you'd like to agree with. Conversely, you should show respect for reliable data you find discomforting or that you'd like to disagree with. If you do not want to do those things, you shouldn't take the class (or do policy analysis, tbh).

The following required course books are available for purchase through the Huntley Bookstore:

*I have also placed several readings on the "Files" tab of Claremont Colleges' Canvas site set up for this course. I have marked those readings with an *asterisk in the daily schedule below.

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Politics 135: Policy Implementation
Pomona College, Fall 2026
Prof. David Menefee-Libey

Requirements, Evaluations, and Deadlines

Assignments and Grading: This course requires that you complete a variety of assignments, and I will evaluate you in a variety of ways throughout the semester.

1. Class participation (ungraded). The success of the course will depend in part on active participation in our discussions. I want you to do the assignments and prepare yourself to discuss them in class. Being a student in a liberal arts college means you have a responsibility not only to learn for yourself, but to engage and teach each other through observation, questions, comments, constructive criticism and analysis. I will therefore especially value contributions to our discussions which: 2. Daily questions (15%). At the beginning of most classes I will ask a question about the readings for the day, then hand out slips of paper for you to write and submit an answer. You'll earn 3 points for simply writing your name, 4 for a minimal or long-winded answer to the question, and 5 for an on-point answer in 50 words or less. Each person can choose two days during the semester when they take a free 5-point pass by writing their name and "pass" on the paper. Daily questions cannot be made up after absences, but I will excuse students for legitimate reasons and give them their semester-average score for days when I've excused them.

3. Project-based papers and presentation (85% in all). You will complete several different papers for the course and make a presentation at the end, all linking your case study project with theories and methods you'll encounter in the course readings. Your papers and presentation should (1) show clear knowledge and understanding of the policy you're working on, and (2) explain that policy using concepts and theories from the course readings. Your papers will build from one to the next:
I will post detailed prompts, research guides, and evaluation rubrics for each of these papers in the Files folder of the course Canvas site.

All papers must be uploaded to your dropbox as DOCX or PDF files by 11:59 pm on the day the assignments are due. (Please don't send me an email notifying me of your submission.) Important: the file name of your uploaded paper matters because I'll download them to my computer and I don't want to lose them. Format it like this: Imp.Paper#.LastName.docx or Imp.Paper#.LastName.pdf, as in Imp.Paper1.Kaba.docx. This may seem picky and trivial, but I'll really appreciate you doing it. Please, also don't submit your papers as Apple Pages, Google Docs, or links to something in the cloud. Any word processor you use will let you save your file as a DOCX or PDF file.

Academic collaboration and academic honesty: I hope you study with other people in the class and discuss the substance of the course with them. As you do that, I encourage you to read each other's paper drafts and to give advice to each other. When you do that, acknowledge in a footnote those who have helped you. If you draw on a specific idea from someone else, cite them specifically in a footnote, just as you would cite any source you find helpful.

I also encourage you to read Pomona College's Academic Honesty Policy, which (I hope!) you learned about in your ID1 class and which you can find online at in the college catalog. We actually do have a kind of honor code, it's important, and it applies to generative Artificial Intelligence.

Major Milestones:

Note: I will only grant extensions by negotiation at least one week in advance. Beyond that, you have three grace days this semester. That is, you have three extension days (including weekend days) to use any time you choose during the term. These will operate on an honor system: I will trust you to put a note at the top of a paper when you use one or more, and to keep track yourself of how many you have used. Once they are used up, I will penalize assignments 10% for each day they are late unless I have granted an additional extension. All the assignments take some time to put together. Plan for that: be sure to start as early as possible, and pace your work.

Resources

1. Friday Afternoon Study Space: I have reserved Carnegie 11 from 2:00 to 4:00 every Friday afternoon for the whole semester beginning September 11. Partly, it's a help session: I'll meet on a first-come-first-served basis one-on-one with students in my classes about their papers, research, thesis projects, and internship issues. Partly, it's just a supportive study space: all students are welcome, you don't even need to talk with me, and you can stay any or all of that time to work on your projects and classes with other PPA and Politics students.

2. The Library: Though most students do most of their research online alone and unassisted, the Claremont Colleges actually has a library with amazing resources and a staff of trained research librarians who can be of tremendous assistance to you in your work. One of these librarians, Mary Martin, has kindly created an entire resource page on U.S. government at https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/government. Dieter Mackenbach, another librarian there, has created one resource page on public policy at https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/PublicPolicyAnalysis, and another for political science courses at https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/PoliSci. If you're ever interested in doing research on US politics, I urge you to start there, and to make an individual appointment with Ms. Martin, Mr. Mackenbach, or one of their colleagues. They can help you find things you would never otherwise find, and they can save you countless hours of unnecessary wandering on the Internet. Librarians can also help you with Zotero and with citation challenges.

3. Zotero: Zotero is free, open-source, public domain bibliographic and citation software that works in most browsers and word processing programs. You can download it from https://zotero.org, where you can also find links to instructional videos, faqs, problem-solving threads, and access to free cloud storage for your own bibliographic archive. The Claremont Colleges Library also offers extensive support for students installing and learning to use Zotero at https://library.claremont.edu/zotero/. If you haven't already installed Zotero on your own computer and started using it for research projects and papers, I'd strongly urge you to do it immediately. It will help you immensely with this class and any other research project you do, including your PPA senior thesis.

4. From the Center for Speaking, Writing, and the Image: CSWIM "is one of the most widely-used academic resources on campus and is a fantastic, free resource for all students. CSWIM Partners meet one-on-one with students to talk about their work and provide feedback at any stage of their preparation process, from brainstorming to outlining to final draft. Trained to think deeply about written, oral, and visual rhetoric and communication, these student peers facilitate conversations about everything from ID1 papers to senior theses, lab reports to creative writing, and help students to develop strategies for reading and engaging more deeply and confidently in class discussion. To make an appointment with a CSWIM Partner, please visit https://pomona.mywconline.com/. We can also pair you with a regular CSWIM Partner for weekly or bi-monthly appointments over the course of the semester. Contact us at: cswim@pomona.edu. We offer in-person appointments, and we have regular drop-in hours in Smith Campus Center 148."

5. From The Quantitative Skills Center: "The QSC is here to help you get a handle on those quantitative methods, concepts, and questions that many Pomona College courses cover. What do we mean by quantitative skills? We mean those skills related to empirical inquiry via mathematical, statistical, or computational data gathering and analysis. In other words, the ability to take data (numerical, categorical, or ordinal), or scientific concepts, and make sense of them. The QSC employs a team of peer tutors, our QSC Partners, who have been recommended by faculty members as students with a firm grasp of the course material and an ability and desire to teach their fellow Sagehens. Study sessions are offered free of charge to all Pomona students on a first-come, first-served basis. If you would like to make an appointment to meet with one of the QSC Partners or check out the drop-in study session schedule, please visit the QSC Scheduler page. The QSC is located in Smith Campus Center suite 228. We hold study sessions, workshops, and even fun study breaks at the center. The QSC is a great place to study, or to just take a break."

6. The Sage Fellows Program is available in SCC 228 to help all Pomona students become more effective and efficient learners. This program offers individual academic coaches, weekly drop-in office hours (no appointment required), and workshops designed to help students achieve academic success. Sage Fellows can assist students with: time management; organization; study habits and strategies; reading and note-taking skills; motivation and procrastination; stress management and wellness strategies; and more fully accessing campus resources. Pomona College students may apply to meet with a Sage Fellow by completing the Sage Fellow Meeting Request Form. The Sage Fellow website is: https://www.pomona.edu/administration/sage-fellows-peer-academic-coaches.

7. Accommodations and Disability Services (ADS): I try to do my best to welcome every student into my classroom, and to be committed to the full inclusion of anyone who may need an accommodation based on the impact of disability including mental health, chronic or temporary medical conditions. Given the current state of the world, I recognize that the challenges facing students vary widely and student accommodation needs may even change during the course of a semester. I encourage Pomona students who may need some accommodation in order to fully participate in this class to contact Pomona College's Accesibility Resources and Services office. Email: disability@pomona.edu. The following guide provides more information: https://www.pomona.edu/accessibility/student-accessibility/accommodation-policies-and-procedures. Additionally, students can receive assistance and resources from the 7C Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC). The SDRC hosts events, loans assistive technology, and offers student accommodation support. The ARS website is: https://www.pomona.edu/accessibility.

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Politics 135: Policy Implementation
Pomona College, Fall 2026
Prof. David Menefee-Libey

Class Schedule and Assignments

Notes:
-- Readings for a day are listed below that day's date
-- I may change some details of this as the semester progresses, but I promise not to move any deadline to an *earlier* date.
-- An asterisk (*) means the a copy of the reading is available on the "Files" tab in Canvas. Please let me know if you do not have access to the Canvas site for this course.

Week 1: August 31-September 4
Monday: Introductions
» Readings: this syllabus.
» I'll pass around some policy examples in class today.
Wednesday: Norms for the semester
» *Bartholomae & Petrosky, "Reading With and Against the Grain," Adapted from David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky, eds., Ways of Reading, 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 10-12.
» *DML, Class discussion norm sheet
Friday: What is this course about? An exemplar
» Kirsten Lundberg, "When Imperatives Collide: The 2003 San Diego Firestorm," case # C16-05-1814.0 and Lundberg, "When Imperatives Collide: Epilogue," case C16-05-1814.1 from the Kennedy School of Government's Case Program
» For a YouTube video of the fire as it approached and overtook a mountain fire station, See "Cedar Fire Time Lapse" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHtXqog_cSs
» For the San Diego CBS affiliate station's 2023 news story looking back on the events, see "Cedar Fire in San Diego 20 years later" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c6GYwz_ZYM
» For the San Diego ABC affiliate station's 2023 news story looking back on the events, see "Cal Fire San Diego chief reflects on lessons learned from Cedar Fire 20 years ago" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56oZUjU_qlE
» Hand out prompt for Paper 1 today

Week 2: September 7-11
Monday: Labor Day - no class
» No assignments.
Wednesday: Continuing last Friday's conversation about the "Firestorm" exemplar
» Lundberg, "When Imperatives Collide"
» For a news article on the new technology that allows fire-fighting helicopters to fly at night, see Brian Rokos, "New helicopters help Cal Fire gain upper hand on brush fires while you sleep," Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, November 3, 2023. Online at https://www.dailybulletin.com/2023/11/03/new-helicopters-help-cal-fire-gain-upper-hand-on-brush-fires-while-you-sleep/
» For a 2025 news story on the Trump administration's efforts to shape the federal role in firefighting and prevention, see Kirk Siegler, “Trump’s Efforts to Reshape the U.S. Forest Service Face Pushback.” National Public Radio's Morning Edition, August 15, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/08/15/nx-s1-5484008/trumps-efforts-to-reshape-the-u-s-forest-service-face-pushback.
» [optional: A journalist's excellent coverage of governmental efforts to fight the 2025 Palisaides and Eaton fires in the Los Angeles basin.] *Soboroff, Jacob. Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster. Mariner Books, 2026. (excerpts)
Friday: What will you do your case studies about?
» Browse the research links on the on-line version of this syllabus, including the Claremont Colleges Library's "Public Policy Research and Analysis" study guide.
» Install Zotero on your computer, insert at least one citation into it and bring a screenshot of Zotero on your computer to the class meeting so we can pass them around. The Claremont Colleges Library has a good Zotero guide at https://library.claremont.edu/zotero/
» Come to class with information about a policy enacted at least two years ago that you want do your research project on. The more concrete, specific inforation you have about it, the better.

Week 3: September 14-18
Monday: What policy will you investigate this semester?
» Come to class ready to talk about your policy interests.
» Paper 1 due to be uploaded by the end of the day. Upload it as Imp.Paper1.YourLastName.docx or Imp.Paper1.YourLastName.pdf.
Wednesday: Finding federal, state, and local policies
» I'll bring a research guide to class.
Friday: Defining public policy: a more conventional view
» Peters, ch. 1, "What is Public Policy?"
» Peters, ch. 3, only the brief section on "The Policy Process - The Stages Model."

Week 4: September 21-25
Monday: Paper 2 workshop
» I'll bring the prompt to class
Wednesday: Defining public policy: a less conventional view
» Stone, "Introduction: Why This Book?" and Chapter 1, "The Market and the Polis"
Friday: Where does public policy happen? What organizations enact it?
» Peters, ch 2, "The Structure of Policymaking in American Government"

Week 5: September 28-October 2
Monday: What is policy for? What kinds of goals to people pursue through policy?
» Stone, ch 2, "Equity"
» Paper 2 (briefly describing your policy and its enactor) is due by the end of the day today. Upload it as Imp.Paper2.YourLastName.docx or Imp.Paper1.YourLastName.pdf.
Wednesday: Goals, part 2
» Stone, ch 3, "Efficiency"
» Stone, ch 4, "Welfare"
Friday: How do problems or aspirations get on the agenda? Where do possible policy responses come from?
» Peters, ch. 4 "Agenda Setting and Public Policy"

Week 6: October 5-9
Monday: Strategic construction of "problems"
» Stone, ch. 7, "Symbols"
Wednesday: A different way of constructing problems
» Stone, ch. 8, "Numbers"
Friday: Choosing among alternatives
» Peters, ch. 5, "Legitimating Policy Choices"

Week 7: October 12-16
Monday: The idea of public policy "tools"
» *Bardach, Eugene, and Eric M. Patashnik. “Appendix B: Things Governments Do.” In A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving, Seventh edition. Sage, 2024.
» Stone, Ch. 12, "Incentives"
Wednesday: Research design
» *Robert K. Yin, "Collecting Case Study Evidence: The Principles You Should Follow in Working with Six Sources of Evidence.” Chapter 4 of Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods, Sixth edition (Sage, 2018), 111-138. Note especially Figure 4.1 on p. 114.
Friday: Interviewing as a research method
» *Murphy, Jerome T. “Intensive Interviewing.” In Getting the Facts, a Fieldwork Guide for Evaluators and Policy Analysts. Goodyear Pub. Co., 1980. (old but still surprisingly useful.)
» [An optional newer piece with very similar content. Most helpful section begins late on p. 33, where Kaiser transitions from his example to a more general "how to" guide.] *Kaiser, Robert. Research Interviews: A Practical Guide to Qualitative Data Collection with Experts in Political Science. 1st ed. 2024. Springer Fachmedien, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-45333-6.

Week 8: October 19-23
Monday: FALL BREAK
Wednesday: After enactment of a policy, then what?
» Peters, ch. 6, "Organizations and Implementation"
Friday: Designing and doing research for Papers 4 and Paper 5
» *Yin, "Collecting Case Study Evidence" (again)
» Paper 3 (on an implementor of your policy) is due by the end of the day today. Upload it as Imp.Paper3.YourLastName.docx or Imp.Paper3.YourLastName.pdf.

Week 9: October 26-30
Monday: Thinking of implementation as part of a "system"
» *Goggin, Malcolm, Ann O’M. Bowman, James Lester, and Laurence J. O’Toole Jr. “Chapter One: A Dynamic Model of Implementation.” In Implementation Theory and Practice: Toward a Third Generation. (Scott, Foresman/Little, Brown, 1990), 29-41.
Wednesday: Implementation varies a lot. How to describe and explain what can it look like when you see it?
» *Goggin, ch. 2, "Implementation Styles and Their Consequences," pp. 42-48 only.
Friday: The challenge of clearly mapping policy "from the top down" or "forward"
» *Goggin, ch. 3, "Federal-Level Inducements and Constraints," all

Week 10: November 2-6
Monday: Looking at implementation "from the bottom up" or "backward"
» *Goggin, ch. 4, "State- and Local-Level Inducements and Constraints," 97-106 only.
» *Richard Elmore, "Backward Mapping: Implementation Research and Policy Decisions," from Walter Williams et al, Studying Implementation: Methodological and Administrative Issues (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1982), 18-29 only.
Wednesday: Policy tools, part 2
» Stone, ch. 13, "Rules"
Friday: Workshop on research and writing for Paper 4, Paper 5, and your presentation.
» no readings assigned

Week 11: November 9-13
Monday: Policy tools, part 3
» Stone, ch. 14, "Facts"
Wednesday: Policy tools, part 4
» Stone, ch. 15, "Rights"
» Stone, ch. 16, "Powers"
Friday: Do implementers have the ability or intention to do what's expected?
» *Goggin, ch. 5, "Organizational Capacity," all.
» Paper 4 (forward and backward maps of the policy you are studying) is due by the end of the day today Upload it as Imp.Paper4.YourLastName.docx or Imp.Paper4.YourLastName.pdf

Week 12: November 16-20
Monday: Evaluation as the final stage of the policy process
» Peters, ch. 8, "Evaluation and Policy Change"
Wednesday: Policy Evaluation as both technical and political work
» *Rossi, Peter H., Mark W. Lipsey, and Gary T. Henry, "Chapter 12: The Social and Political Context of Evaluation," in Evaluation: A Systematic Approach. Eighth edition. (SAGE, 2019), 291-300 only.
Friday: Peters on cost-benefit analysis as the most common evaluation approach
» Peters, chapter 17, "Policy Analysis," first half

Week 13: November 23-27
Monday: Research, paper, and presentation workshop
» No readings assigned
Wednesday and Friday: Thanksgiving break
» No reading assigned

Week 14: November 30-December 4
Monday: Student Presentations
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Wednesday: Student presentations
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Friday: Student presentations
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Week 15: December 7-11
Monday: Student presentations
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Wednesday: Our last class meeting
» Time permitting, we'll talk about what to keep and what to change the next time I teach the class.

Paper 5 (on your research findings about the actual implementation of your policy by the implementer you chose to study) is due by the end of the day Monday, December 14. Upload it as Imp.Paper5.YourLastName.docx or Imp.Paper5.YourLastName.pdf.

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Last modified: September 30, 2026