Message from the Executive Director
The history of public policy is a history of failure.
This statement might seem bleak, but I find it rather an expression of hope.
Public policy is usually enacted in the pursuit of some ideal end, some future state that is better than the status quo. What we understand as the modern welfare state was created to address the “five giants” that bedevilled industrial society—want, ignorance, squalor, idleness, and disease. After 75 years of policy making intended to slay these giants, they persist. In some cases, the solutions have created new problems.
And yet, we are likely better off. Policy failure is a feature, not a bug, in the work to continuously reframe and refine our approach to the challenges that emerge from our collective lives together. When we fail, we learn and we try something new. As Samuel Beckett, the craggiest of all Irish writers, observed:
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
In our disrupted and demanding age, the challenges are more complex. The rate of technological change is exponentially faster. The impact on our economic, political, and social institutions is simultaneously profound and unpredictable. These factors elevate the need for innovative solutions while increasing the likelihood that these policies will fail. Creating meaningful change in this environment requires a special kind of policy leader.
They must be ambitious, in their belief that change is both desirable and possible, and that they can make a positive contribution to that change. A policy leader must also embrace risk, with an appreciation of how failure can be as useful as success. They must also be humble, fully aware that there are no easy answers and that the answers they develop will necessarily be incomplete and fragile. They must also have a deep appreciation of the fact that public policy ultimately affects real people in real places. With faith in public institutions at their lowest ebb in living memory, policy leaders must continue to deliver for citizens.
At the McMaster MPP, we are training the next generation of policy leaders to respond to the challenges of the digital age. Through our 12-month program, you will learn the core skills needed to work in public policy from leading academics and professionals. You also acquire specialized knowledge that will empower you to make a transformative impact. Our Digital Society stream creates policy leaders who are also technologists, uniquely equipped to respond to the impact of emerging technologies on the public sphere. Our Housing stream equips graduates with the insight needed to respond to the urgent need for sustainable and affordable homes – something intimately linked to our societal well-being. The MPP is equally applicable in government and the private sector, or indeed anywhere touched by public policy (which is everywhere).
If this resonates with you—the combination of ambition for change, tolerance for risk, and deep knowledge and humbleness in the face of wicked problems—there is a place for you in the McMaster MPP. We are very proud to have created a degree that meets the moment and we hope you will join us to create the future, one productive failure at a time.