Course Syllabus

KDI School of Public Policy and Management 

O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University

 

KDIS- & SPEA-V482/V582

PUBLIC FINANCE, PUBLIC POLICY, AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE

Summer 2026 (May 12, 2026)

 

Course Instructor(s)

Class Meeting Dates: May 18-June 14, 2026

Office Location & Hours: Sejong-city and Seoul via Zoom Meetings or by appointment.

Course Materials: Posted on Canvas and Google Drive

Course Concentration: Public Finance and Social Policy; International Development

 

PUBLIC FINANCE, PUBLIC POLICY, AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE is an upper-level undergraduate and master's level course for students specializing in Public management, Urban and regional governance, Local government, and, certainly, Public finance. Other students specializing in political and international studies, as well as general economics, finance, and accounting will find this program enriching, expanding and complementing their main academic objectives. The focus is less on public finance itself as a process of resource allocation or approaches to managing public finances, but rather on how fiscal/financial management as a craft can help in various aspects and objectives of policy making at the national, subnational, and local levels. In this sense, public finance is a means towards the larger ends of democratic governance in a comparative and global perspective. 

 

A key feature of this course is its joint design between Indiana University (hereafter, IU) and the KDI School of Public Policy and Management (hereafter, KDIS). We plan to recruit approximately 12~15 students from IU and pair them with an equivalent number of KDIS students. The course pairs one IU student with one KDIS student for class activities and research deliverables, encouraging close collaboration and joint learning. The main rationale is to provide an immersive learning experience to IU and KDIS students by blending the classroom learning process with real world examples of fiscal/financial practices in a robust democratic context. 

 

Week 1 will introduce students to the craft of resource allocation, through a lens of democratic participation, for select topics such as: budgeting and financial planning for development and financial sustainability, equity and citizen rights, community resilience and development, social priority budgeting and budgeting for social impact. These are all examples of cutting-edge themes in public finance that equitable societies must engage directly to maintain and improve the quality of lives for the citizenry. South Korea is an excellent example and context for exploring such topics as the country invests industriously in fiscal/financial reforms to achieve numerous governance objectives in its international aid assistance programs, in its national and regional fiscal/financial systems, and in allocating resources for urban programs and non-for-profit organizations. 

 

Weeks 2 and 3 will pair IU and KDIS students into joint research projects on topics of mutual interest, which will be completed and submitted during Week 4. The project themes will be shaped by lectures from invited experts and by immersive, field-based learning sessions integrated into the course. These on-site sessions at government agencies, local organizations, and nonprofit institutions will provide structured opportunities for students to engage directly with practitioners and connect course concepts to real policy processes. South Korea offers rich cases for this applied learning approach. Its international development programs—active across Southeast Asia, Mongolia, and Central/North Asia—illustrate effective models of global assistance. The national budgeting system and the National Budget Office likewise demonstrate successful examples of participatory budgeting at the central government level.

 

To support these themes, the course will include field-based and on-site classes at institutions such as the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the National Research Council, the National Budget Office, the Tax Policy Office (and National Tax Service), the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Additional field-based classes in Sejong City Government, Daejeon Metropolitan City Government, the capital of Chungnam Province, the Ulsan Metropolitan City Government, and with local nonprofit organizations will allow students to analyze subnational public financial governance in a developmental context.

 

During Week 4, further practitioner-led sessions at the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Cheonggye River and Arts District redevelopment sites, and nonprofit organizations engaged in social impact finance will broaden exposure to local public finance and urban governance. Each on-site module will focus on how public finance tools support governance objectives at the urban, community, and project levels, and students will incorporate insights from these sessions into their final deliverables. Additional non-educational, but cultural activities in both Sejong and Seoul will introduce students to the globally influential landscape of K-culture, enriching their understanding of Korean contexts and how cultural dynamics interact with public policy and urban development.