ISS-YORK

The ISS-York track specializes in topics revolving around Governance and Development. If ‘Governance’ entails a process which goes beyond the realm of nation states in policy making, then thinking about formal and informal ‘institutions’ and the manner in which they are formed, defined, changed, maintained and /or evolved allows applicants to situate and understand better the various logics of political and economic reforms operating across the implementation of various good governance related policies in the developing world. Similarly, analyzing how public policies are designed, formulated, implemented and evaluated across a variety of development related fields such as environmental governance and fiscal decentralization enables applicants to acquire the necessary policy analysis skills needed in these domains. As such, the ISS’ situational analysis of governance in development, which draws on approaches in policy studies, international relations and international political economy, is combined with York’s problem solving analysis of governance related policies in development drawing on the interdisciplinary linkages between public administration, governance and organizational studies. From this perspective, an applicant wishing to study public policy in the context of developing countries with the objective to work for an international organization in the future may well be attracted to this specific track.

Governance and Development track students will study at the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands in the first year, and continue their studies at the University of York in the UK in the second year.