You Made It!

POSC 315 — Summer 2025

Where We Started

• Orientation & policy process overview
• Constitutional foundations + federalism
• Official & unofficial actors
• Agenda setting and policy types
• Decision‑making, design, implementation
• Failure → learning → science of policy

Five‑Week Sprint in One Slide

Your Analyst Toolkit

• Problem framing & agenda diagnostics
• Criteria design & trade‑off mapping
• Alternatives matrix & evidence synthesis
• Evaluation design — before/after, DiD, time‑series
• Policy memo writing with executive punch

Big Ideas to Keep

1. Policy ≠ politics, but never politics‑free.
2. Evidence is constructed within paradigms — be reflexive.
3. Small tweaks dominate… until a punctuation hits.
4. Coalitions matter; relationships are the currency of change.
5. Learning cycles turn failure into adaptive capacity.

Last Deliverables (Due Fri 6 / 27 @ 11:59 PM)

• Final Policy Memo (5–7 pp, Track Changes on)
• 1‑2 pp Reflection — what you learned & what’s next
• Reading Quiz 5 closes Friday night

Need anything? Ping me on Discord or email ➜ dpadams@fullerton.edu

Looking Ahead

• Apply these tools in POSC 321, 425, your internships, or city‑hall gigs.
• Consider POSC 425 for a deeper dive into policy analysis.
• Consider MPA or MS GIS pathways if you loved the analytic side.
• Keep reading Birkland — it ages well. 

Stay Connected

• Office hrs continue Tuesday slots until July 31.
• Book time anytime: dadams.io/appointments
• Follow research & blog: dadams.io
• LinkedIn network invite welcome.

Thank You

“Public policy is collective puzzlement on society’s behalf.” — Hugh Heclo

Thanks for puzzling with me this summer. Keep questioning, keep building, and, above all, keep serving the public.

— Prof. David P. Adams