Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3274: Money, Lobbying, and Policymaking

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

This module is intended to improve both (1) your understanding about politics and the forces that result in implemented public policies, and (2) your ability to critically evaluate research, news reports, and advocacy efforts. The aim is to enable you to assess for yourself the effects of pressure group money on politics and policymaking, having portrayed lobbyists and legislators in simulations, and analysed real data on the topic.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. critically assess the influence of lobbyists' direct and indirect expenditures on US policymaking; 2. demonstrate understanding of the role pressure groups and lobbyists play in policymaking, particularly in the US;
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. use simple statistical methods to analyse data and model political behaviour; 4. critically evaluate political science research according to its assumptions, methods, and conclusions;
Personal and Key Skills	5. increase confidence in approaching professional colleagues with ideas and suggesting collaborations; 6. improve writing skills through multiple iterations, peer review, and practice writing in the role of a professional, rather than a student; and 7. demonstrate an ability to be persuasive.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics: the purpose of interest groups, what lobbying is and how it is done, laws that regulate lobbying and money in the US and other countries, current research on lobbying and policymaking, case studies of lobbying and policymaking, and related topics.

Assignments include strategic memos, a research note (a short essay of your original research), a bit of data analysis using a statistics package, and an in-class simulations of lobbying and policymaking.

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	128	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled learning and teaching activities	22	11 x 2 hour seminars
Guided independent study	44	Preparing for seminars: Reading and research
Guided independent study	84	Completing assessment tasks: Reading, research and writing

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).