Instructional goals
The course aims at providing the students with a wide knowledge of major public policies pursued at the EU and national levels. For the different policies, the course will analyse the key institutional structures and policies pursued, as well as changes in these, comparing across polities and over time. The course will also analyse how different national systems adapt to supranational and international developments.
Prerequisites
BA in political science or related field
Intended learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding:
The course will offer key theoretical tools to compare public policies. This course provides advanced
knowledge and analytical resources that will enable students to understand the processes, content
and consequences of different policies across countries, their similarities and differences in the
context of European and international developments.
Applying knowledge and understanding:
The students will be able to:
apply institutionalist models to cross-national comparative case studies of policy making
such as economic policy, alteration of governance structures and Europeanisation;
examine major public policies through comparing across countries in Europe as well as
the EU level
look at how institutions shape, constrain and enable policy making, including policy
change and inertia
Making judgements:
We expect students to be able to analyze public policy and governance models to demonstrate an indepth,
critical understanding of the scope and challenges of public policies.
They are expected to be able to discuss and evaluate key policy initiatives and development in the EU
and its member states.
Throughout the whole course, students will be invited to critically analyse when, how and why certain
policies are pursued.
Communications Skills:
This course will give the students the possibility to acquire and understand major terms and concepts
in order to communicate their ideas, proposals, analysis and critical reasoning in the field of public
policy in the most effective and appropriate way.
Learning skills:
This course will contribute to empower learners giving them the tools to determine why certain public
policies are followed and others are not and to evaluate explanatory the models in an independent
way.
Course Contents
The course focuses on the reality of several public policies in several European countries,
offering information about the current discussion in the literature on public policy analysis at different
levels of government (European, national, regional and local) and its mutual relationships and
interactions. It looks at their types, dynamics, external and internal determinants, change and reform,
outcomes and its changing contents in issues like economic, social or environmental policies across
several countries. Major issues will include ‘rationality’ in public policy making, why policies are
changed or persist and the interactions between the EU and national levels of policy making.
Reference Books
Dodds, A (2nd ed 2018), Comparative Public Policy (Macmillan)
Schmidt, VA and Thatcher, M (eds) (2013), Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political Economy
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Most readings are available via LUISS on-line subscriptions. Other articles and papers in the
syllabus will be uploaded on the course’s web page.
Teaching Methods
Lectures and debates on relevant empirical issues. Students’ participation during lectures as well as debates is
strongly encouraged and will be considered in the final assessment.
Assessment Method
30%- participation in debates and classes
70%- final exam- an unseen exam, at the end of the course covering
the whole course programme. The answers must draw on the theoretical and wider literature covered in the course, while empirical examples can vary, including different European countries.
Students not attending the course will have to answer an additional exam question. Their answers must draw on the theoretical and wider literature covered in the course , while empirical examples can vary.
Debate groups and topics will be assigned. CHECK THE DEBATE TOPIC AND PARTICIPANT LIST AND ASK THE TA IF ANY DOUBTS.
Thesis assignment criteria
27 or higher in this course and others; suitable topic and clear research question
Week 1
Introduction to the course and key concepts Different approaches to comparative public policy
Key readings
Hall P. A. and Taylor, R. C. R. (1996) ‘Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms’. Political Studies 44(4): 936-57.
Dodds, A (2nd ed 2018), Comparative Public Policy (Macmillan), chs 4-6 for overview of institutions, interests and ideas as explanations
VA Schmidt (2008), ‘Discursive Institutionalism: The Explanatory Power of Ideas and Discourse’, Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 11, pp. 303-326
Further reading
Kamkhaji, J and Radaelli, C (2022), ‘Don’t think it’s a good idea! Four building sites of the ‘ideas school’’, West European Politics 45(4): 841-62
OR
Peck, J., Meulbroek, C., & Phillips, R. (2025). Ideas and ideation in geographical political economy. Progress in Human Geography, 49(3), 239-265.[lengthy overview of the ‘ideational’ literature]
Moschella, M. (2025). Ideational agency and economic policymaking: Ideas, politics, and change in European Political Economy. Stato e mercato, 45(1), 47-70.
Di Maggio, WW and PJ Powell (1991), 'Introduction' and ‘The Iron Cage Revisited’ in Powell, WW and Di Maggio (eds) The New Institutionalism in Organizational analysis.
Orfeo Fioretos, Tulia G. Falleti, and Adam Sheingate (2016), ‘Historical Institutionalism in Political Science’, in The Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism, Edited by Orfeo Fioretos, Tulia G. Falleti, and Adam Sheingate
Iversen, T and Soskice, DW (2019), Democracy and Prosperity: The Reinvention of Capitalism in a Turbulent Century (Princeton University Press)- a big book, so read what you can
Schmidt, VA (2009) ‘Putting Politics Back into the Political Economy by Bringing the State Back in Yet Again’, World Politics 61(3): 516-548.
Smith, Andy (2016) The Politics of Economic Activity – OUP, esp chs 1, 2 and 5
Hall, PA (1986), Governing the Economy (Oxford: Polity), chs 1,9 and 10
Week 2
Overall question: how can the spread of neo-liberalism be explained?
Topic of lectures and debates: What is neo-liberalism and how does it differ from social democracy
Key readings:
Schmidt, VA and Thatcher, M (eds) (2013), Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)- chs 1 and 14
Jessop, B (2014): A specter is haunting Europe: a neoliberal phantasmagoria, Critical Policy Studies, DOI: 10.1080/19460171.2014.944368
Dodds, A (2nd ed 2018), Comparative Public Policy (Macmillan), ch 8
Further reading
Crouch, C (2011), The Strange Non-Death of Neo-liberalism (Cambridge: Polity) ch 1
For brief discussions of key concepts, Matthew Eagleton-Pierce Neoliberalism: The Key Concepts, Routledge 2016
Week 3
Explaining the Debates and trial debate: can the resilience of neo-liberal ideas be explained just by the personal interests of politicians and large firms?
Topic of lectures : State ownership, privatization and the spread of liberal institutions
(
Key reading
Feigenbaum, H and Henig, J (1994), 'The Political Underpinnings of Privatisation. A Typology', World Politics 46(2), p.185-208.
[NB use mainly for the typology- the empirical material is now dated]
[[
Clifton, Judith; Comín, Francisco; Díaz Fuentes, Daniel (2006), Privatizing public enterprises in the European Union 1960-2002: ideological, pragmatic, inevitable? Journal of European Public Policy, 13(5): 736-756 [again, use for the argument and think about more recent examples and whether it still holds]
Cumbers, A., Traill, H. (2021). Public Ownership in the Pursuit of Economic Democracy in a Post-Neoliberal Order. In: Arestis, P., Sawyer, M. (eds) Economic Policies for a Post-Neoliberal World. International Papers in Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56735-4_6
On SOEs- Andrea Colli (2023) ‘State Capitalism in Western Europe’ in Wright, Mike et al (eds), The Oxford Handbook of State Capitalism and the Firm, Oxford Handbooks (2022; online edn, Oxford Academic, 19 Dec. 2022), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198837367.001.0001
Further reading
Perera, I. M., & Brown, T. E. (2025). Why States Do or Do Not Privatize: Cross-Class Coalitions in the Public Sector. World Politics, 77(1), 38-70.
Bulfone, F. (2024). Selling the jewels: patient capital, state-business relations, and the privatization of strategic utilities in Italy and Spain. Review of international political economy, 31(5), 1347-1370.
Obinger, H, Schmitt, C and Zohlnhöfer, R (2014), ‘Partisan politics and privatization in OECD countries’, Comparative Political Studies, 47(9): 1294—1323
Streeck W and Thelen, K (2005), ‘Introduction: Institutional change in advanced industrialized economies’ in Streeck W, KA Thelen (eds), Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies, Oxford, Oxford University Press
Week 4
debate: Has the spread of privatization in Europe been driven mainly by ideas?
Topic of lectures and debate: The regulatory state
Majone, G (1997), ‘From the Positive to the Regulatory State: Causes and Consequences of Changes in the Mode of Governance’, Journal of Public Policy, 17(2), 139-68 and then 2016, The Evolution of the regulatory state’ in Routledge Handbook of Risk Studies, edited by Adam Burgess, Alberto Alemanno, Jens Zinn
Cyril Benoît (2019), ‘The new political economy of regulation’, French Politics17:482–499 [overview of approaches to economic regulation]
Lepont, U., & Thiemann, M. (2024). The European Investor State: its characteristics, genesis, and effects. Competition & Change, 28(3-4), 381-396
Further reading
Schimmelfennig, Frank. "Crisis and polity formation in the European Union." Journal of European Public Policy (2024): 1-25.
Baldwin, R, Cave, M, and Lodge, M (2012), Understanding Regulation, ch 4
Stigler, G.J. (1971) ‘The Theory of Economic Regulation’, Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science 2(1): 3-21.
Peltzman, S (1976), ‘Towards a more general theory of regulation’, Journal of Law and Economics 19: 211-40
Week 5
Key reading
Thatcher, M -‘Delegation to Independent Regulatory Agencies: Pressures, Functions and Contextual Mediation’, West European Politics 25(1), pp.125-47.
Rangoni, B., & Thatcher, M. (2023). National de-delegation in multi-level settings: Independent regulatory agencies in Europe. Governance, 36(1): 81-103, published online https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12722
Martino Maggetti, Fabrizio Di Mascio and Alessandro Natalini(2022), ‘Introduction to the Handbook of Regulatory
Authorities’, https://iris.unito.it/bitstream/2318/1887439/1/Introduction%20Handbook%20Regulatory%20Authorities.pdf
Further reading
Ennser‐Jedenastik, Laurenz. "Do parties matter in delegation? Partisan preferences and the creation of regulatory agencies in E urope." Regulation & Governance 10, no. 3 (2016): 193-210.
Gilardi, F. (2005) ‘The Institutional Foundations of Regulatory Capitalism: The Diffusion of Independent Regulatory Agencies in Western Europe’. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 598: 84-101
Week 6
Debate: ‘IRAs have spread through institutional isomorphism’
Lecture and discussion: the politics of central bank independence
Key reading
Literature overview - Fernández-Albertos, J (2015), ‘The Politics of Central Bank Independence’, Annual Review of Political Science, 18: 217-37
McNamera, K (2002) ‘Rational fictions: Central bank independence and the social logic of delegation’ West European Politics 25(1) (e-journal) or: for longer treatment McNamera, K (1998) The Currency of Ideas: Monetary Policy in the EU. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Quaglia, L., & Verdun, A. (2025). Introduction: the new political economy of central banks: reluctant Atlases?. New Political Economy, 1-14.
Moschella, M (2025), ‘Governing Money’, in Regini, M (ed) Handbook of Comparative Political Economy, pp152-166 available at https://books.google.it/books?hl=it&lr=&id=B_N-EQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA152&ots=Ylm7kYnjTV&sig=fQ0LKNK1lh0U4I7gSGvUNZV5z_w#v=onepage&q&f=false
Further reading
Mabbett, Deborah and Schelkle, Waltraud (2019) Independent or lonely? Central banking in crisis. Review of International Political Economy, 26 (3). pp. 436-460
Tesche, T. (2023). Trustee strategies, politicization and de-delegation: The case of the European Central Bank. Governance, 36(1), 125–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.1275
Moschella, M. (2024). Unexpected revolutionaries: How central banks made and unmade economic orthodoxy. Cornell University Press.
Week 7
Debate: ‘The spread of central bank independence has been driven by political interests’.
Topic of lectures and discussion: Varieties of capitalism
Key reading
Hall, PA and Soskice, DW eds. (2001) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ch 1 by Hall/Soskice.
O’Sullivan, M (2005), ‘Typologies, ideologies and realities of capitalism’, Socio-Economic Review 3: 547-558
Richard Deeg and Gregory Jackson (2007), ‘Towards a more dynamic theory of capitalist variety’, Socio economic Review 5: 181-196
Independent central banks
Geoffrey T Wood and Matthew MC Allen (2020) ‘Comparing Capitalisms:
Debates, Controversies and
Future Directions’, Sociology
54(3) 482–500 [overview of the development of debates]
Further reading
Hancké, R, Rhodes, M and Thatcher, M (2007), Beyond Varieties of Capitalism (OUP 2007), esp Introduction
Hall, PA (2018), ‘Varieties of capitalism in light of the euro crisis’, Journal of European Public Policy 25:7-30
Howell, C (2003), ‘Varieties of Capitalism. And then There was One?’ Comparative Politics October: 103-24
Gregory Jackson & Richard Deeg (2012) ‘The long-term trajectories
of institutional change in European capitalism’, Journal of European Public Policy, 19:8,
1109-1125 (and for specific countries, other articles in the special issue
Week 8
Mid-term mock exam
Topic of lectures and discussion: Industrial Policy
Key reading
- Thatcher, M (2014), ‘From old to new industrial policy via economic regulation’, Revista della Regolazione dei Mercati 2 (2014): 6-22. (NB see comment/debate article- Tullio Fanelli ‘Politica industriale e regolazione in margine al saggio di M. Thatcher, From old to new industrial policy via economic regulation’, Revista della Regolazione dei Mercati (2015: 2): 269-287
Bulfone, F (2019), ‘The State Strikes Back: Industrial policy, regulatory power and the divergent performance of Telefonica and Telecom Italia’, Journal of European Public Policy 26:5, 752-771
Bulfone, F (2023), ‘Industrial policy and comparative political economy: A literature
review and research agenda’,
Competition & Change 27(1) 22–43 [literature review] OR Breznitz, D., & Gingrich, J. (2025). Industrial Policy Revisited. Annual Review of Political Science, 28.
McNamara, K.R. (2024) Transforming Europe? The EU's industrial policy and geopolitical turn, Journal of European Public Policy, 31:9, 2371-2396, DOI:
10.1080/13501763.2023.2230247
Further reading
Ben Clift & Cornelia Woll (2012) ‘Economic patriotism: reinventing control over open markets’, Journal of European Public Policy, 19:3, 307-323
Jonah Levy (2017), ‘The return of the state? France’s response to the financial and economic crisis’, Comparative European Politics, 15, Issue 4, pp 604–627
Week 9
Debate: ‘Nations can no longer pursue industrial policies in Europe’
Topic of lectures and discussion: Network industries and internationalization
Key reading
Clifton, Judith - Diaz-Fuentes, Daniel - Revuelta, Julio (2010), ‘The political economy of telecoms and electricity internationalization in the single market’ Journal of European Public Policy 17(7): 988
Andrea Colli, Sergio Mariotti & Lucia Piscitello (2014) Governments as strategists in designing global players: the case of European utilities, Journal of European Public Policy, 21:4, 487-508
Bulfone, F. (2024). Selling the jewels: patient capital, state-business relations, and the privatization of strategic utilities in Italy and Spain. Review of international political economy, 31(5), 1347-1370.
MariottiS and R Marzano (2019), ‘Varieties of capitalism and the internationalization of state-owned enterprises’, Journal of International Business Studies 50: 669–691
Further reading
Marco Di Giulio & Francesco Niccolò Moro (2016) The Internationalization of Network Industries: A Comparative Policy Analysis of Italian Railways and Utilities, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 18:1, 21-37
Bulfone, F. (2020), ‘New forms of industrial policy in the age of regulation: A comparison of electricity and telecommunications in Italy and Spain.’ Governance 33(1): 93-108
Week 10
Debate: ‘privatization has ended the state’s influence over network industries’
Topic of lectures and discussion Cultural Heritage policies in Europe
Key reading
Thatcher, M (2018), - State production of cultural nationalism: political leaders and preservation policies for historic buildings in France and Italy’, Nations and Nationalism 24 (1), 2018, 64–87.
Swenson, A 2018, Historic Preservation, the State and Nationalism in Britain, Nations and Nationalism 24(1)
Mark Thatcher & Monica Garcia Quesada (2024) Differentiated implementation and European integration: the development of EU food quality labelling, West European Politics, 47:3(2024), pp. 701-729. DOI: 10.1080/01402382.2023.2202586
Antwi, E., Thompson, J., & Poku, K. A. (2025). Art, Culture and Nation-Building: The role of Adaptive Cultural Policy Frameworks. Journal of African Arts and Culture, 8(2).
Further reading
J Pendlebury (2015), ‘Heritage and policy’,- The Palgrave handbook of contemporary heritage ., 2015 – Springer, available at http://orcp.hustoj.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ebook-2015-The-Palgrave-Handbook-of-Contemporary-Heritage-Research.pdf#page=450
Marco Causi, Culture and economy after COVID-19: selected topics for public discussion, in "Economia della Cultura, Rivista trimestrale dell'Associazione per l'Economia della Cultura" 1/2021, pp. 77-86, doi: 10.1446/101670
Swenson, A. 2013. The Rise of Heritage. Preserving the Past in France, Germany and England, 1789–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Week 11
Debate: ‘Cultural heritage policy is driven purely by nationalism’
Lecture- reconsideration of neo-liberalism
Key reading
Schmidt, VA and Thatcher, M (eds) (2013), Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)- ch 14
Vivien Schmidt (2022), ‘The power of ideas in capitalist transformations: Is the resilience of neo-liberalism finally coming to an end?’, Stato e Mercato 40(1): 3-29
Notermans, T., & Piattoni, S. (2025). From ordo-liberalism to ordo-keynesianism? the contradictory nature of eu economic governance. Journal of European Integration, 1-22.
Lavery, S. (2024). Rebuilding the fortress? Europe in a changing world economy. Review of International Political Economy, 31(1), 330-353.
Week 12
Debate:’ Neoliberalism remains dominant in policy in Europe’
Course wrap-up + discussion of major takeaways