Public policy schools in the global south: a mapping and analysis of the emerging landscape

Abstract

Public policy education in the Global South has mushroomed in the past 2 decades, concomitant with governance models that provide an alternative to liberal Western democracies. However, not much empirical evidence exists on the drivers and implications of this trend, with few exceptions that point toward a form of internationalization in the policy sciences. This study aims to fill this scholarly gap by comparing 46 public policy schools on various dimensions including degree offerings, institutional establishment and status, and mission. Further, to determine whether a unique model for public policy education is emerging that extends beyond mimicry of longstanding programs in the USA and Western Europe, we surveyed the senior management of the schools in our sample. We find that less than 25% have been directly modeled after a Western school. We discuss the implications of our findings for the practice and study of public policy education. © 2021, The Author(s).