Ethics in Public Policy (Coursera)

This course draws upon classical writings in political theory and contemporary cases on ethical dilemmas in public policymaking. It will enable you to debate various ethics themes such as justice, equality, fairness, individual liberty, free enterprise, charity, human rights, and minimising harm to others. It will also help you grasp how these themes integrate into various decision-making models, such as the utilitarian approach, fairness and justice approach, and rights approach. This course will help you examine these models in a real-life context to help balance competing interests to make the best decision.

In this course, you will gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges that stand at the crossroads between moral and practical decision-making as a real-life practitioner. You will find answers to questions such as if tolerance is a virtue in public policies that risk challenging constitutional norms, what could be the ethical implications of state violence in the name of national interest, and if it would be a good ethical policy to building dams to generate electricity for more people by displacing the inhabitants of that area. With the help of case studies, this course will help you dive deep into the dilemmas faced by the policymakers (both elected and appointed). It will also help you find some middle-ground that is morally just and optimizes social purpose.

What you'll learn

- Identify the moral and ethical dimensions of politics and public policy.

- Describe the complexity of ethical decision-making.

- Develop practical skills in policymaking as real-life practitioners.

Syllabus

Utilitarianism and Libertarianism

Module 1

This module introduces you to the theories that form the very first strand of ethics – consequentialism. It will help you take an ethical approach to choose between gun or butter, war or peace, organ transplant or primary health care, equality or discrimination, and abortion or stem cell. It will allow you to use positive results as a basis for evaluating human actions. You will dive deep into the consequentialists’ theories, for example, Utilitarian, and learn about the greatest possible increase of pleasure over pain and the maximum possible satisfaction of preferences of welfare economics.

Justice as Fairness

Module 2

This module introduces you to the views of philosophers like Rawls and Marx in achieving justice and fairness in public policy. It will help you understand fairness and deal with questions such as how fair is affirmative action, are the electoral constituencies drawn to be fair, and how fair is our method of funding schools. This module also focuses on the fundamentals of justice as the central core of morality. You will discern how questions of justice and fairness inevitably arise when decisions are made regarding the distribution of benefits and burdens amongst various groups. This module refers to the Supreme Court judgment on contemporary cases, like Narmada Sagar Dams to build upon the concepts.

Ethics and Economic Policy

Module 3

“Modern high-tech warfare is designed to remove physical contact: dropping bombs from 50,000 feet ensures that one does not 'feel' what one does. Modern economic management is similar… from one’s luxury hotel, one can callously impose policies about which one would think twice if one knew the people whose lives one was destroying.” – Joseph Stiglitz. In this module, you will gain an in-depth understanding of ethics and its role in economic policy-making. You will discover the role that policymakers play in planning and formulating ethical economic policies. You will delve into how ethical policy-making can promote both growth and development.

Ethics and Social Security

Module 4

Is it fair to tax the young for the government to provide a generous retirement program for able-bodied seniors? Social security has come a long way from the initial moral precepts of caring for aging parents. With the government benefits supporting us from birth to death, we are slowly becoming one-issue voters with fewer concerns for the nation’s future. In this module, you will explore the various implications of social security funding, its moral groundings, and sustainability. It will help you understand the social security benefits. It will also help you examine the role of the government in providing social security benefits to the poor. You will comprehend the binds policymakers face regarding social security.

Equality of What?

Module 5

Amartya Sen in 1979 showed the world that wellbeing is not just a question of wealth or pleasure that a person has; it is a question of how people manage to live their lives and the ability to do certain things important to them. He developed the ‘capability approach’, which focuses on the people’s actual capability and freedom to live the kind of life they value. In this module, you will learn about Sen’s capability approach. It will help you understand the concept of equality and how to achieve true equality. You will analyze how to design public policies with a focus on achieving equality. You will also examine the role that policymakers play in designing such policies to promote equality.

Ethics in Global Governance

Module 6

In this module, you will gain an in-depth understanding of global and ethical governance. It will help you describe how to make governance more ethical. You will explore how thinking and acting ethically in anarchy can be difficult for all actors in the international arena, where there is no governance. You will also analyze how policymakers affect the ethical nature of governance.