The basic idea which runs right through modern history and modern
liberalism is that the public has got to be marginalized. The general
public are viewed as no more than ignorant and meddlesome outsiders, a
bewildered herd.
Noam Chomsky (b. 1928), U.S.
linguist, political analyst. Interview in Guardian (London, 23 Nov.
1992).
Where mass opinion dominates the government, there is a morbid
derangement of the true functions of power. The derangement brings about
the enfeeblement, verging on paralysis, of the capacity to govern. This
breakdown in the constitutional order is the cause of the precipitate
and catastrophic decline of Western society. It may, if it cannot be
arrested and reversed, bring about the fall of the West.
Walter Lippmann (1889–1974),
U.S. journalist. The Public Philosophy, ch. 1, sct. 4 (1955).
What is to be done?
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924),
Russian revolutionary leader. What Is to Be Done? (1902).
Our government does lots and lots of things, good, bad, and
indifferent. Public policy might be defined as what the government does
on purpose. This class is an introduction to the policy-making process.
The course will identify the actors who form public policy, consider the
limits of rational policy analysis, examine moral issues in policy
making, and explore several policy areas in depth.
GVB 290
