This major textbook presents for the first time a thoroughly modern introduction to policy studies - one of the fastest growing areas in the academic curriculum.Public Policy provides a lively, clear and highly accessible introduction to the theory and practice of public policy. Interdisciplinary and comparative in scope, this text covers agenda setting, and problem definition, policy making, implementation and evaluation. The book has been designed to be used with a wide range of policy oriented courses.
Wayne Parsons surveys the development of the policy sciences over the past fifty years and focuses on the key ideas, thinkers and concepts which have shaped the field. His authoritative narrative draws on a wide range of policy disciplines - including political science, psychology, sociology, economics, and management. A central theme of the book is its emphasis on taking a multi-framed approach to analysing the increasingly complex policy problems and processes of industrial societies.
Unique features include case studies, guides to further reading, background notes and numerous graphics to support and illustrate the main text. Public Policy will be welcomed as a comprehensive examination of the models and methods needed to understand policy making in the modern state. Comprehensive, critical and up-to-date, this textbook promises to define the field for a new generation of students and teachers.
Contents: PART I 1.1 Introduction 1.2 'Public and 'Policy' as Concepts 1.3 The Development of the Policy Approach 1.4 Kinds of Policy Analysts and Policy Analysis 1.5 Varieties of Analytical Frameworks 1.6 Philosophical Frameworks 1.7 Analysis and the Policy Process 1.8 Models, Maps and Metaphors 1.9 Paradigms Lost and Found: Sifts in the Focus and Frameworks of Policy Analysis 1.10 Stages and Cycles: Mapping the Policy Process 1.11 The Arrangement of Parts Two, Three and Four PART II 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Social Problem Approaches 2.3 Public Opinion and Public Policy 2.4 Theories of Agenda Control 2.5 Typologies of Policy Issues 2.6 Pluralism, Non-Decision-Making and the Third Dimension of Power 2.7 Neo-Marxist and Critical Approaches 2.8 Knowledge and the Policy Agenda 2.9 Policies and Problems as Symbols 2.10 Networks, Streams, Advocacy Coalitions and Punctuated Equilibrium 2.11 Analysing the Boundaries 2.12 Globalization and Policy-Making: The International Parameters PART III 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Decision-Making: Frameworks and Disciplinary Contexts 3.3 Power Approaches to Decision-Making 3.4 Rationality and Decision-Making 3.5 The Public Choice Approach to Decision-Making 3.6 Institutional Approaches 3.7 Personality, Cognition and Information Processing in Decision-Making 3.8 Policy Analysis and Public Decisions 3.9 Rational Decision-Making and the quest for Knowledgeable Governance 3.10 Critiques of Policy Analysis PART IIII 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Arrangement of Part Four 4.3 Implementation 4.4 Delivery Systems 4.5 Evaluation 4.6 Change and Continuity in Policy-Making 4.7 Promise and Performance: Evaluating Impact and Outcomes 4.8 Conclusion: Beyond Delivery and Towards Democratization Index
