Winter Quarter 2022

How does social and political change happen in Washington? What strategies and techniques do underdogs use to take on entrenched and established powers in the nation’s capital? Making real change is difficult. Yet, there are several examples of successful social movements in American history and politics that came to Washington and effectively changed the course of the nation's politics and history. This class will explore the history and stories of grassroots mobilization and advocacy on the national stage. By observing advocacy events and interacting with guest speakers, students will learn about the successes—and failures—of social groups’ efforts to make lasting change in American politics and society. The class will read about, discuss, and debate the dynamics of protest and advocacy and meet with advocacy leaders and activists to discuss the strategies used to pressure decision makers—sometimes successfully and sometimes not— for political outcomes. They will learn about agenda setting and messaging; as well as techniques used to influence the debate such as protests, advocacy campaigns, petitions, and electoral lobbying. Students will learn about and discuss which types of groups and 2 leaders engage in which strategies, and at what stage of the policy process they are most likely to be effective based upon the context of their particular policy or political goals. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to identify the actors who participate in grassroots action and how their efforts can translate into policy. Students will also meet with advocacy leaders directly to better understand the various sides of important social and political issues, and assess the effectiveness—or not—of individual social movement.

Past (Remote) Syllabus

About the Instructor: Professor Crowell is the Congressional Liaison for the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC. In that capacity, he advises the Organization’s leadership on strategies to engage and communicate with the U.S. Congress to ensure that its priorities are understood by decision makers on Capitol Hill. Before that he managed press and media relations for the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, directed public relations for Bethesda-based Honest Tea, and served as the communications director for a member of Congress. He has also managed USAID and State Department-funded international development projects for various non-profit organizations promoting social, political, and economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean. He was a McNair Scholar, an APSA Minority Fellow, and is a PhD candidate in American Politics. Dale earned his MA in Congressional and Presidential Studies at the Catholic University of America and his BA in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland. 

About the Instructor: For the last decade Professor Jessica Gresko has been a reporter for The Associated Press, first in Miami and now in Washington. As a legal reporter, she covers court cases at all levels, both local and federal. She has been at the Supreme Court for many recent high-profile decisions including cases on gay marriage, healthcare and the death penalty. Professor Gresko earned her B.A. from Columbia University in New York and a M.S.L. (Master’s in the Study of Law) from Georgetown University Law School. She grew up in Southern California and took her first journalism class at UCLA.

Past Syllabus

About the Instructor: Professor Jennifer Diascro is Associate Director at the University of California Washington Program (UCDC) and a political scientist. She earned her BA in political science from the University of California, San Diego (1990) and her PhD in political science from the Ohio State University (1995). She was on the faculty at the University of Kentucky (1995-2002) and American University (2002-2010). In 2000-01, she was a Supreme Court Fellow at the US Sentencing Commission in Washington, DC. Before coming to UCDC, Professor Diascro was a senior director at the American Political Science Association (2011-2015). She's authored or coauthored peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and books, on topics related to American judicial politics, and was CO-PI on an NSF award for a workshop on success and failure in the academy.

This course provides an introduction to key federal social programs—in the areas of health care, education, housing, labor markets, racial equity and income support—in the United States. The course begins by discussing the goals of social programs, principles of program design from public economics, and approaches to evaluating policy alternatives. The course then covers one substantive policy area each week, discussing the history and purpose of programs in that area, what research shows about their effects, and/or current debates or proposals for reform.

Previous Syllabus 

About the Instructor: Dr. Reber is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, visiting UCDC for the term. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 2003. From 2003 to 2005, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research at UC Berkeley. She is currently a visiting fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. Her research in education focuses on understanding the educational, social, and fiscal effects—both intended and unintended—of some of the most important policies of the 20th century: school desegregation, the Civil Rights Act, and the massive expansion of federal aid to K-12 education that Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act represented. In addition, she is conducting a randomized field experiment of two interventions designed to increase college enrollment among disadvantaged students. Her research in health economics examines the advantages and disadvantages of promoting competition in health insurance markets.