PUBLIC POLICY EDUCATION: GLOBAL TRENDS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE SWAPNA S. PRABHU AND NIRANJAN MOHAPATRA Public policy affects almost every aspect of our life. Living in a liberal democratic welfare state, in our everyday lives, we are directly or indirectly affected by an extensive array of public policies. Public policy education teaches people how to seek and use specific, relevant facts and information to influence and create public policy in ways that benefit the public good with enlightened self-interest. The main thrust of this article is that although public policy education is a relatively newcomer in the world of professional graduate education, it has already started flourishing in the mainstream and well established educational institutions across the globe. However, there is a need to develop new programmes and courses in public policy education along with the existing ones in order to have a sustained understanding of the public practices in different parts of the world. PUBLIC POLICY research and education gained significance with the emergence of modem society and industrialisation. Prior to the 17th and 18th Centuries, most polities were consumed with self-survival and potential threats from foreign enemies. There were few decisions to make, and those who made them were dictators, monarchs, small bands of rulers, or unrepresentative legislative bodies. During the 19th Century, representative government began to evolve in some parts of the world. With increased political participation by larger portions of the public, government decisions assumed greater importance and legitimacy. The shifting focus of political scientists towards the problems of citizens in the overall study of political phenomena saw the emergence of policy sciences - a discipline that specifically focused on the process of public policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. During the 1960s and 1970s a distinctive area of study termed as 'Public Policy' developed that was concerned not just with the issues of efficiency