Politics and Public Policy


Book Description

Break with convention - An original look at policymaking Policymaking is a messy business. It entails more than the traditional policy cycle discussed in most textbooks. And it involves more than presidents and members of Congress. Judges, bureaucrats, corporate leaders, journalists, and voters all influence and participate in the process, and at all levels of government. Each group practices a different kind of politics, which very often results in different policies and outcomes. By looking at six distinct, yet connected, policy domains, your students will see a more comprehensive and realistic view of policymaking: Boardroom Politics - decisions by professional and business leaders Bureaucratic Politics - rule-making and adjudication by administrators Cloakroom Politics - lawmaking by legislators Chief Executive Politics - decision making by presidents, governors, mayors, and their advisers Courtroom Politics - rulings by judges Living Room Politics - opinions expressed by and through the mass media, grassroots movements, political activists, and voters Policymakers are faced with tough choices. With this text, students are better prepared to evaluate their leaders' performance given the book'ss unique framework linking how policies are chosen with what policy is chosen. Thoroughly updated to reflect the issues of the early 21st century, this new edition also incorporates new and important scholarship. Recommended for classes in: Public Policy and American Government




Public Policy Analysis


Book Description

This is an English version of a text on public policy analysis originally written for practitioners in Switzerland and France. It presents a model for the analysis of public policy and includes examples of its application in everyday situations. This English version introduces supplementary illustrations and examples from the United Kingdom.




Policy Actors


Book Description

Policy analysis has always attended to the role of elite actors, but much less often has the policy activity of ‘street level’ actors been attended to. The ‘implementation’ paradigm has tended to caricature the level of practice in terms of ‘resistors’ or policy failure, and ignored the demanding, creative and complex processes of enacting policy. The move from policy texts to policy in action involves sophisticated processes of interpretation and translation, as well as, at times, opposition, subversion and strategic compliance. The chapters in this book, in different ways, seek to get inside the policy process to understand what policy actors really do – how they manage impossible and multiple policy expectations, how they attempt to do policy with limited resources in conditions often unimagined by those who write policy, and how they translate abstract policy formulations into things that are doable, immediate and relevant. The collection re-writes the policy process and offers new ways of researching policy and policy outcomes. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education Policy.




Patients as Policy Actors


Book Description

Patients as Policy Actors offers groundbreaking accounts of one of the health field's most important developments of the last fifty years--the rise of more consciously patient-centered care and policymaking. The authors in this volume illustrate, from multiple disciplinary perspectives, the unexpected ways that patients can matter as both agents and objects of health care policy yet nonetheless too often remain silent, silenced, misrepresented, or ignored. The volume concludes with a unique epilogue outlining principles for more effectively integrating patient perspectives into a pluralistic conception of policy-making. With the recent enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, patients' and consumers' roles in American health care require more than ever the careful analysis and attention exemplified by this innovative volume.




Knowledge Actors and Transnational Governance


Book Description

Diane Stone addresses the network alliances or partnerships of international organisations with knowledge organisations and networks. Moving beyond more common studies of industrial public-private partnerships, she addresses how, and why, international organisations and global policy actors need to incorporate ideas, expertise and scientific opinion into their 'global programmes'. Rather than assuming that the encouragement for 'evidence-informed policy' in global and regional institutions of governance is an indisputable public good, she queries the influence of expert actors in the growing number of part-private or semi-public policy networks.




Politics and Public Policy


Book Description

Getting beyond the traditional policy cycle discussed in most textbooks, the fully updated fourth edition of Politics and Public Policy offers a more comprehensive and realistic view of policymaking in the United States—one that looks beyond the jockeying between presidents and members of Congress, and explores the influence of corporate leaders, interest groups, bureaucrats, judges, and journalists. The book explores six distinct, yet connected, policy domains: Boardroom Politics (decisions by business leaders and professionals); Bureaucratic Politics (rule-making and adjudication by administrators); Cloakroom Politics (lawmaking by legislators); Chief Executive Politics (decision making by presidents, governors, mayors, and their advisers); Courtroom Politics (rulings by judges); and Living Room Politics (opinions expressed through the mass media, grassroots movements, political activists, and voters). The authors’ unique framework prepares students to evaluate the strategies of various political actors within each domain.




Foreign Policy


Book Description

This major new textbook introduces students to the dynamic and evolving field of foreign policy. The book opens with a consideration of different theoretical and historical perspectives; it then focuses on a range of actors and the goals they seek to advance; and it ends with a series of case studies involving issues and crises relating to a wide range of different countries Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases is timely given the growing significance of foreign policyin the post-9/11 world. It will be essential reading for all students new to foreign policy.The book is accompanied by an Online Resource Centre.Student resources:TimelineWeb linksFlashcard glossaryInstructor resources:Three case studiesPowerPoint slides




Global Climate Policy


Book Description

Analyses of the international climate change regime consider the challenges of maintaining current structures and the possibilities for creating new forms of international cooperation. The current international climate change regime has a long history, and it is likely that its evolution will continue, despite such recent setbacks as the decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement of 2015. Indeed, the U.S. withdrawal may spur efforts by other members of the international community to strengthen the Paris accord on their own. This volume offers an original contribution to the study of the international political context of climate change over the last three decades, with fresh analyses of the current international climate change regime that consider both the challenges of maintaining current structures and the possibilities for creating new forms of international cooperation. The contributors are leading experts with both academic and policy experience; some are advisors to governments and the Climate Secretariat itself. Their contributions combine substantive evidence with methodological rigor. They discuss such topics as the evolution of the architecture of the climate change regime; different theoretical perspectives; game-theoretical and computer simulation approaches to modeling outcomes and assessing agreements; coordination with other legal regimes; non-state actors; developing and emerging countries; implementation, compliance, and effectiveness of agreements; and the challenges of climate change mitigation after the Paris Agreement. Contributors Michaël Aklin, Guri Bang, Daniel Bodansky, Thierry Bréchet, Lars Brückner, Frank Grundig, Jon Hovi, Yasuko Kameyama, Urs Luterbacher, Axel Michaelowa, Katharina Michaelowa, Carla Norrlof, Matthew Paterson, Lavanya Rajamani, Tora Skodvin, Detlef F. Sprinz, Arild Underdal, Jorge E. Viñuales, Hugh Ward




Making Public Policy


Book Description

Mark Considine's new book explores the nature of public policy-making in a world undergoing cataclysmic change. Running through the text is the core assertion that policy-making can best be seen as a form of intervention into specific social and cultural contexts, and not as an engineered solution to universal problems. The book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to key issues and contemporary debates in public policy. The author draws on a wide range of examples from around the world to develop a framework for understanding the way social contexts, policy histories and institutional pathways generate opportunities. Separate chapters focus on public action, context, discourse, institutional pathways, networks, organizations, governance, citizen engagement and accountability. Clearly-written and compelling, this will be essential reading for upper-level undergraduate students taking courses in public policy, social policy, environmental studies, health studies, European studies and development.




Estimating the Policy Position of Political Actors


Book Description

This book gives an up to date reference on the state of the art in this highly important methodological area, which is central both to theoretical models of party competition and to empirical accounts, whether these are case studies or comparative analyses. It looks at subjects including tracking estimates of public opinion and party policy intentions in Britain and the USA; the policy space of party manifestos; and party platforms and voters' perceptions. Its panel of respected contributors reviews the refinements which have been made to established techniques as well as considering the potential and early successes of computer coding.