Download or read book Top Down Policymaking written by Thomas R. Dye and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his eye-opening work, Dye explodes the myth that public policy represents the “demands of the people” and that the making of public policy flows upward from the masses. In reality, Dye argues, public policy in America, as in all nations, reflects the values, interests, and preferences of a governing elite. Top Down Policymaking is a close examination of the process by which the nation’s elite goes about the task of making public policy. Focusing on the behind-the-scenes activities of money foundations, policy planning organizations, think tanks, political campaign contributors, special-interest groups, lobbyists, law firms, influence-peddlers, and the national news media, Dye concludes that public policy is made from the top down.
Download or read book Great Policy Successes written by Paul 't Hart and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Or, a tale about why it's amazing that governments get so little credit for their many everyday and extraordinary achievements as told by sympathetic observers who seek to create space for a less relentlessly negative view of our pivotal public institutions."
Download or read book Narrative Policy Analysis written by R.A.W Rhodes and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-05-24 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Narratives or storytelling are a feature of the everyday life of all who work in government. They tell each other stories about the origins, aims and effects of policies to make sense of their world. These stories form the collective memory of a government department; a retelling of yesterday to make sense of today. This book examines policies through the eyes of the practitioners, both top-down and bottom-up; it decentres policies and policymaking. To decentre is to unpack practices as the contingent beliefs and actions of individuals. Decentred analysis produces detailed studies of people’s beliefs and practices. It challenges the idea that inexorable or impersonal forces drive politics, focusing instead on the relevant meanings, the beliefs and preferences of the people involved. This book presents ten case studies, covering penal policy, zero-carbon homes, parliamentary scrutiny, children’s rights, obesity, pension reform, public service reform, evidence-based policing, and local economic knowledge. It introduces a different angle of vision on the policy process; it looks at it through the eyes of individual actors, not institutions. In other words, it looks at policies from the other end of the telescope. It concludes there is much to learn from a decentred approach. It delivers edification because it offers a novel alliance of interpretive theory with an ethnographic toolkit to explore policy and policymaking from the bottom-up. Written by members of the Department of Politics and International Relations of the University of Southampton, with their collaborators at other universities, the book’s decentred approach provides an alternative to the dominant evidence–based policy nostrums of the day.
Download or read book Living the Policy Process written by Philip B. Heymann and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-02 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Policymaking in large bureaucracies is hardly a simple process. Even the most respected policymakers have to contend with obstacles that seemingly have little to do with the issue at hand--office politics, work structure, and shifting political environments. Yet learning to manage such complex environments is necessary for good policymaking. In Living the Policy Process, Philip Heymann outlines the complex thought processes of policymakers as they struggle to influence both foreign and domestic policy decisions from within the United States government bureaucracy. Focusing on three critical situations to illuminate the politics of policy choice-the successful attempt to sell missiles to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s; the Iran-Contra scandal; and the FDA's attempt to regulate smoking as well as the efforts to do the same by an outside lobbyist-Heymann dissects the intuitive yet rigorous framework that highly skilled policymakers follow to influence government outcomes. Throughout, he offers detailed accounts of the policy process at work in the Reagan, first Bush, and Clinton administrations, from the cabinet level down to the middle tiers of the federal bureaucracy. Heymann deftly describes the shifting real-world conditions that government officials face as they struggle to shape the policy agenda. Ultimately, Living the Policy Process offers a clear, incisive look at the complex considerations involved from all perspectives, with concrete examples, and enriches the understanding of the overall policy process for students, scholars, and practitioners.
Download or read book Gridlock written by Thomas Hale and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-07-11 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The issues that increasingly dominate the 21st century cannot be solved by any single country acting alone, no matter how powerful. To manage the global economy, prevent runaway environmental destruction, reign in nuclear proliferation, or confront other global challenges, we must cooperate. But at the same time, our tools for global policymaking - chiefly state-to-state negotiations over treaties and international institutions - have broken down. The result is gridlock, which manifests across areas via a number of common mechanisms. The rise of new powers representing a more diverse array of interests makes agreement more difficult. The problems themselves have also grown harder as global policy issues penetrate ever more deeply into core domestic concerns. Existing institutions, created for a different world, also lock-in pathological decision-making procedures and render the field ever more complex. All of these processes - in part a function of previous, successful efforts at cooperation - have led global cooperation to fail us even as we need it most. Ranging over the main areas of global concern, from security to the global economy and the environment, this book examines these mechanisms of gridlock and pathways beyond them. It is written in a highly accessible way, making it relevant not only to students of politics and international relations but also to a wider general readership.
Download or read book Who s Running America written by Thomas R. Dye and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-23 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic of American government, Who's Running America? continues to demonstrate how power is concentrated in large institutions no matter who inhabits the White House. The eighth edition of this best-selling text focuses on the Obama administration and the ways in which it is different from but also similar to administrations that have come before. Based on years of exhaustive data compilation and analysis, Who's Running America? explores the influence and impact of governmental leaders, corporate officials, and other elites both inside and outside the United States. Employing an oligarchic model of national policymaking, Tom Dye doesn't just lay out theory and data. He very consciously "names names" in describing the people who inhabit the White House, the Cabinet, the leaders of Congress, members of the Supreme Court, as well as the board rooms of the nation's largest corporations and banks including leading media lights as well as "fat cat" political contributors. Dye argues that big institutions run America, but also that these institutions are made up of real people. Who's Running America? puts the flesh and bones on the statistics and delivers the inside scoop on the Obama reign.
Download or read book Policy Problems and Policy Design written by B. Guy Peters and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-27 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public policy can be considered a design science. It involves identifying relevant problems, selecting instruments to address the problem, developing institutions for managing the intervention, and creating means of assessing the design. Policy design has become an increasingly challenging task, given the emergence of numerous ‘wicked’ and complex problems. Much of policy design has adopted a technocratic and engineering approach, but there is an emerging literature that builds on a more collaborative and prospective approach to design. This book will discuss these issues in policy design and present alternative approaches to design.
Download or read book Understanding Public Policy written by Paul Cairney and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-08 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fully revised second edition of this textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to theories of public policy and policymaking. The policy process is complex: it contains hundreds of people and organisations from various levels and types of government, from agencies, quasi- and non-governmental organisations, interest groups and the private and voluntary sectors. This book sets out the major concepts and theories that are vital for making sense of the complexity of public policy, and explores how to combine their insights when seeking to explain the policy process. While a wide range of topics are covered – from multi-level governance and punctuated equilibrium theory to 'Multiple Streams' analysis and feminist institutionalism – this engaging text draws out the common themes among the variety of studies considered and tackles three key questions: what is the story of each theory (or multiple theories); what does policy theory tell us about issues like 'evidence based policymaking'; and how 'universal' are policy theories designed in the Global North? This book is the perfect companion for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying public policy, whether focussed on theory, analysis or the policy process, and it is essential reading for all those on MPP or MPM programmes. New to this Edition: - New sections on power, feminist institutionalism, the institutional analysis and development framework, the narrative policy framework, social construction and policy design - A consideration of policy studies in relation to the Global South in an updated concluding chapter - More coverage of policy formulation and tools, the psychology of policymaking and complexity theory - Engaging discussions of punctuated equilibrium, the advocacy coalition framework and multiple streams analysis
Download or read book Lobbying and Policymaking written by Ken Godwin and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the impact of lobbying on the policymaking process? And who benefits? This book argues that most research overlooks the lobbying of regulatory agencies even though it accounts for almost half of all lobbying - even though bureaucratic agencies have considerable leeway in how they choose to implement law.
Download or read book Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning written by Carl Patton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-26 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Updated in its 3rd edition, Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning presents quickly applied methods for analyzing and resolving planning and policy issues at state, regional, and urban levels. Divided into two parts, Methods which presents quick methods in nine chapters and is organized around the steps in the policy analysis process, and Cases which presents seven policy cases, ranging in degree of complexity, the text provides readers with the resources they need for effective policy planning and analysis. Quantitative and qualitative methods are systematically combined to address policy dilemmas and urban planning problems. Readers and analysts utilizing this text gain comprehensive skills and background needed to impact public policy.
Download or read book The Public Policy Process written by Michael Hill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-12 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Public Policy Process is essential reading for anyone trying to understand the process by which public policy is made. Explaining clearly the importance of the relationship between theoretical and practical aspects of policy-making, the book gives a thorough overview of the people and organisations involved in the process. Fully revised and updated for a sixth edition, The Public Policy Process provides
Download or read book I Citizen written by Tony Woodlief and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a story of hope, but also of peril. It began when our nation’s polarized political class started conscripting everyday citizens into its culture war. From their commanding heights in political parties, media, academia, and government, these partisans have attacked one another for years, but increasingly they’ve convinced everyday Americans to join the fray. Why should we feel such animosity toward our fellow citizens, our neighbors, even our own kin? Because we’ve fallen for the false narrative, eagerly promoted by pundits on the Left and the Right, that citizens who happen to vote Democrat or Republican are enthusiastic supporters of Team Blue or Team Red. Aside from a minority of party activists and partisans, however, most voters are simply trying to choose the lesser of two evils. The real threat to our union isn’t Red vs. Blue America, it’s the quiet collusion within our nation’s political class to take away that most American of freedoms: our right to self-governance. Even as partisans work overtime to divide Americans against one another, they’ve erected a system under which we ordinary citizens don’t have a voice in the decisions that affect our lives. From foreign wars to how local libraries are run, authority no longer resides with We the People, but amongst unaccountable officials. The political class has stolen our birthright and set us at one another’s throats. This is the story of how that happened and what we can do about it. America stands at a precipice, but there’s still time to reclaim authority over our lives and communities.
Download or read book Policymaking for a Good Society written by F. Gregory Hayden and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-03-20 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Society, ecological systems, and technological combinations are sets of ongoing processes that are organized as integrated systems and networks. Consequently, real-world problems—whether labeled social, economic, environmental, or technical—are a result of the ongoing processes that organize and coordinate integrated parts to make undesirable deliveries to each other. Furthermore, the processes are guided by numerous policies and concomitant rules, regulations, requirements, and enforced behavioral patterns. Therefore, there is no reason to expect processes to change or problems to be solved without policy changes. The processes are ongoing, so changes in undesirable deliveries are dependent on changes in policies. One premise of this book is that too often policy analysis is conducted with knowledge bases and tools that are not appropriate for the task of analyzing and understanding complex socioecological and sociotechnical systems leading to wasted resources, policy failure, and frustration. The conjunction of the complexity of problem contexts and inappropriate policymaking that follows from insufficient analysis has left citizens frustrated and bewildered. Citizens want problems solved, yet they have lost faith in the ability of policymakers to implement solutions necessary to achieve a good society. Another premise is that it is not necessary to continue down that destructive path. In response, the purpose of this book, briefly stated, is to explain how to model, analyze, and make policy for the social fabric in which society's problems are enmeshed.
Download or read book Local and Regional Development written by Andy Pike and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-11-22 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Local and regional development is an increasingly global issue. For localities and regions, the challenge of enhancing prosperity, improving wellbeing and increasing living standards has become acute for localities and regions formerly considered discrete parts of the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ worlds. Amid concern over the definitions and sustainability of ‘development’, a spectre has emerged of deepened unevenness and sharpened inequalities in the development prospects for particular social groups and territories. Local and Regional Development engages and addresses the key questions: what are the principles and values that shape definitions and strategies of local and regional development? What are the conceptual and theoretical frameworks capable of understanding and interpreting local and regional development? What are the main policy interventions and instruments? How do localities and regions attempt to effect development in practice? What kinds of local and regional development should we be pursuing? This book addresses the fundamental issues of ‘what kind of local and regional development and for whom?’, frameworks of understanding, and instruments and policies. It outlines what a holistic, progressive and sustainable local and regional development might constitute before reflecting on its limits and political renewal. With the growing international importance of local and regional development, this book is an essential student purchase, illustrated throughout with maps, figures and case studies from Asia, Europe, and Central and North America.
Download or read book Politics and Public Policy written by Donald C. Baumer and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Studying Public Policy written by Michael Howlett and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Studying Publisc Policy develops an analytical framework of the subject for students in public policy course. Instead of focussing on the substantive policy of a particular policy area, the book examines the theoretical and conceptual foundations of, and approaches used in, the policy sciences."--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Agenda Setting written by David Protess and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-22 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The role of the news media in defining the important issues of the day, also known as the agenda-setting influence of mass communication, has received widespread attention over the past 20 years. Since the publication of McCombs and Shaw's seminal empirical study, more than one hundred journal articles and monographs have appeared. This collection exemplifies the major phases of research on agenda-setting: tests of the basic hypothesis, contingent conditions affecting the strength of this influence, the natural history of public issues, mass media influence on public policy, and the role of external sources from the president to public relations staffs on the news agenda.
