Professor Busch Examines Domestic Policy in Summer Session

Professor Andrew Busch will be teaching Govt 191 this summer. It is a six week course titled Public Policy since the New Deal.
This course will examine the development of American public policy starting with the Great Depression and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. While offering a broad overview of economic and social policy in this era, the course will focus particular attention on the New Deal of the 1930's, the Great Society of the 1960's, and the Reagan Revolution of the 1980's. The course material will also illuminate how policy is the product of the interaction of people, ideas, politics, and events.
Professor Busch, who has a scholarly track record that covers just about everyone in American politics from the Founding Fathers to Ronald Reagan, took some time to answer a few questions about his forthcoming Summer Session class. CMC: What is the essence of the course titled - Public Policy since the New Deal? Busch: The essence of the course is to provide students with a solid overview of the development of domestic public policy since the New Deal, as well as a better understanding of how policy is made. CMC: What do you expect students to gain from taking this course? Busch: I hope that students will gain the historical background necessary to understand where current policy came from and to assess policy proposals in the future. I also hope they will have a better appreciation for the dynamics of policy making, particularly how different factors interact to either facilitate or inhibit new policy. CMC: How could the programs such as those implemented as Roosevelt's response to the Great Depression help us in our most recent recovery? Busch: Of course, one of the great public policy debates is whether Roosevelt's policies were economically good, ineffective, or even counterproductive. Understanding that debate helps us place the current debate in context.
Summer Session courses such as this embody the college's unique focus on leadership and thoughtful engagement in the world and in the liberal arts and are designed to appeal to a broad array of college, graduate and post-baccalaureate students from Claremont and beyond.
For a full listing of summer session classes, go to: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/summer/courses2012.php