Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Toward A More Humane Public Policy: How The Humanities Can, And Should, Inform The Creation And Analysis Of Public Policy, Eric Celler

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This capstone investigates how the methodologies of the humanities can inform the creation and analysis of public policy. Since the mid-twentieth century, public policy has increasingly turned away from humanistic questions and toward technical questions. The result has been a public policy regime that focuses too much on manipulable variables and not on the humans that the policies are impacting. By applying humanistic methodologies to public policy, we are more likely to appreciate the inarticulable elements of human social organization and therefore devise public policy that is less harmful and more humble.