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Course Info for PBPL - 387 - 01, Spring 2026
Class number: 2949 Title: Political Leadership & Policy Department: Public Policy & Law
Career: Undergraduate Component: Seminar Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: No Grading Basis: Regular Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 7 Current enrollment: 4 Available seats: 3
Start date: Tuesday, January 20, 2026 End date: Friday, May 8, 2026 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: TR: 6:30PM-7:45PM, SH - S204 Instructor(s): Greenberg, Jack
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Social Sciences Requirement
Course Description:
What does political leadership entail in American governance and public policy? This course examines the kinds of leadership different political and policy contexts incentivize and how various leaders “meet their moment,” exploring the practical and ethical considerations guiding consequential decision-making in the policymaking process. Leadership has long been an all-or-nothing proposition. “The history of the world is but the biography of great men,” argued Thomas Carlyle, to which Herbert Spencer replied, “the genesis of societies by the actions of great men, may be comfortably believed so long as, resting in general notions, you do not ask for particulars.” In this course, we will resist both essentialism and existentialism, tending away from the biographic and toward an appreciation for leadership's distinct role in American institutions.