Rent 9780131174528 | Understanding Public Policy

Summary Table of Contents

For undergraduate-level courses in Public Policy.This leading introduction to public policy is designed to provide undergraduate and graduate students with concrete tools for not only understanding public policy in general, but for analyzing specific public policies. It focuses on what policies governments pursue, why governments pursue the policies they do, and what the consequences of these policies are. Very contemporary in perspective, it introduces eight analytical models currently used by political scientists to describe and explain polit... MORE

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Preface

Policy Analysis: What Governments Do, Why They Do It, and What Difference It Makes

(10)

What Is Public Policy?

(2)

Why Study Public Policy?

(2)

What Can Be Learned From Policy Analysis?

(1)

Policy Analysis and Policy Advocacy

(1)

Policy Analysis and the Quest for Solutions to America's Problems

(2)

Policy Analysis as Art and Craft

(1)

Note

(1)

Bibliography

(1)

Web Sites

(1)

Models of Politics: Some Help in Thinking about Public Policy

(20)

Models for Policy Analysis

(1)

Institutionalism: Policy as Institutional Output

(2)

Process: Policy as Political Activity

(1)

Rationalism: Policy as Maximum Social Gain

(3)

Incrementalism: Policy as Variations on the Past

(2)

Group Theory: Policy as Group Equilibrium

(2)

Elite Theory: Policy as Elite Preference

(2)

Public Choice Theory: Policy as Collective Decision Making by Self-Interested Individuals

(2)

Game Theory: Policy as Rational Choice in Competitive Situations

(2)

Models: How to Tell if They are Helping or Not

(1)

Notes

(1)

Bibliography

(1)

Web Sites

(1)

The Policymaking Process: Decision-Making Activities

(29)

The Policy Process: How Policies Are Made

(1)

Problem Identification and Agenda Setting

(2)

Agenda Setting From The Bottom Up

(2)

Agenda Setting From The Top Down

(4)

``Nondecisions'': Deciding What will not be Decided

(1)

Agenda Setting and Mobilizing Opinion: The Mass Media

(2)

Formulating Policy

(1)

Interest Groups and Policymaking

(4)

Policy Legitimation: The Proximate Policymakers

(5)

Policy Implementation: the Bureaucracy

(3)

Policy Evaluation: Impressionistic Versus Systematic

(1)

Summary

(1)

Notes

(1)

Bibliography

(1)

Web Sites

(2)

Criminal Justice: Rationality and Irrationality in Public Policy

(32)

Crime in America

(3)

Crime and Deterrence

(2)

Does Crime Pay?

(2)

Police and Law Enforcement

(3)

Federalizing Crime Fighting

(1)

Crime and Guns

(3)

The Drug War

(5)

Crime and the Courts

(3)

RICO Versus Liberty

(2)

Prisons and Correctional Policies

(1)

Capital Punishment

(3)

Summary

(1)

Notes

(1)

Bibliography

(1)

Web Sites

(1)

Health and Welfare: The Search for Rational Strategies

(33)

Rationality and Irrationality in the Welfare State

(3)

Defining the Problem: Poverty in America

(1)

Who are the Poor?

(3)

Why are the Poor Poor?

(2)

The Preventive Strategy: Social Security

101

(2)

Evaluation: Intended and Unintended Consequences of Social Security

103

(2)

Social Security Reform?

105

(2)

The Alleviative Strategy: Public Assistance

107

(1)

Welfare Reform

108

(2)

Evaluation: is Welfare Reform Working?

110

(1)

The Working Poor

111

(1)

Homelessness and Public Policy

112

(1)

Health Care in America

113

(3)

Evaluation: Health Care Access and Costs

116

(3)

Health Care Reform Strategies

119

(2)

Summary

121

(2)

Notes

123

(1)

Bibliography

123

(1)

Web Sites

123

(2)

Education: The Group Struggle

125

(30)

Multiple Goals in Educational Policy

125

(1)

The Educational Groups

126

(2)

Battling Over the Basics

128

(3)

The Federal Government's Role in Education

131

(3)

``No Child Left Behind''

134

(2)

Controversies Over Testing

136

(1)

Parental Choice in Education

137

(2)

Battles Over School Finances

139

(1)

Public Policy and Higher Education

140

(2)

``Diversity'' in Higher Education

142

(3)

Groups in Higher Education

145

(2)

Reading, Writing, and Religion

147

(4)

Summary

151

(1)

Notes

152

(1)

Bibliography

153

(1)

Web Sites

153

(2)

Economic Policy: Incrementalism at Work

155

(22)

Incrementalism in Fiscal and Monetary Policy

155

(1)

Economic Theories as Policy Guides

156

(4)

The Performance of the American Economy

160

(1)

The Fed at Work

161

(2)

Incrementalism and Government Spending

163

(2)

``Entitlement'' Spending

165

(2)

Changing Budget Priorities: Challenging Incrementalism

167

(1)

Government Debt, Deficits, and Surpluses

168

(2)

The Formal Budgetary Process

170

(4)

Summary

174

(1)

Notes

175

(1)

Bibliography

175

(1)

Web Sites

175

(2)

Tax Policy: Battling the Special Interests

177

(20)

Interest Groups and Tax Policy

177

(1)

The Federal Tax System

178

(5)

Taxation, Fairness, and Growth

183

(3)

Tax Reform and the Special Interests

186

(2)

Return of the Special Interests

188

(3)

Replacing the Income Tax?

191

(3)

Summary

194

(1)

Notes

195

(1)

Bibliography

195

(1)

Web Sites

196

(1)

International Trade and Immigration: Elite-Mass Conflict

197

(20)

The Global Economy

197

(1)

Changing Elite Preferences for World Trade

198

(4)

Elite Gains from Trade

202

(3)

Mass Losses From Trade

205

(3)

Elite-Mass Differences Over Immigration

208

(2)

National Immigration Policy

210

(4)

Summary

214

(1)

Notes

215

(1)

Bibliography

215

(1)

Web Sites

216

(1)

Environmental Policy: Externalities and Interests

217

(23)

Public Choice and the Environment

217

(3)

Environmental Externalities

220

(6)

Interest Group Effects

226

(2)

The Global Warming Controversy

228

(3)

The Nuclear Industry Meltdown

231

(2)

Politicians and Bureaucrats: Regulating the Environment

233

(2)

Alternative Public Choice Solutions

235

(2)

Summary

237

(1)

Notes

238

(1)

Bibliography

238

(1)

Web Sites

239

(1)

Civil Rights: Elite and Mass Interaction

240

(33)

Elite and Mass Opinions and Race

240

(2)

The Development of Civil Rights Policy

242

(2)

Mass Resistance to Desegregation

244

(3)

Racial Balancing in Public Schools

247

(2)

The Civil Rights Movement

249

(2)

Public Policy and Affirmative Action

251

(2)

The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action

253

(3)

Mass Opinion and Affirmative Action

256

(3)

Public Policy and Hispanic Americans

259

(1)

The Constitution and Gender Equality

260

(2)

Public Policy and Gender Equality

262

(4)

Abortion and the Right to Life

266

(2)

Public Policy and the Disabled

268

(1)

Summary

269

(1)

Notes

270

(2)

Bibliography

272

(1)

Web Sites

272

(1)

American Federalism: Institutional Arrangements and Public Policy

273

(21)

American Federalism

273

(1)

Why Federalism?

274

(2)

Politics and Institutional Arrangements

276

(2)

American Federalism: Variations on the Theme

278

(4)

Money and Power Flow to Washington

282

(1)

Federalism Revived?

283

(2)

Comparing Public Policies of the States

285

(2)

Institutions and Public Policy

287

(3)

Summary

290

(1)

Notes

291

(1)

Bibliography

292

(1)

Web Sites

292

(2)

Defense Policy: Strategies for Serious Games

294

(22)

National Security as a Serious Game

294

(1)

Confronting Nuclear Threats

295

(1)

Arms Control Games

296

(3)

Missile Defenses: The Limits of Deterrence

299

(1)

NATO and European Security

300

(3)

When to Use Military Force?

303

(3)

Using Military Force

306

(3)

Determining Military Force Levels

309

(4)

Summary

313

(2)

Notes

315

(1)

Bibliography

315

(1)

Web Sites

315

(1)

Homeland Security: Terrorism and Nondeterrable Threats

316

(16)

The Nature of Terrorism

316

(1)

The War on Terrorism

317

(5)

The Department of Homeland Security

322

(1)

Fighting Terrorism With Intelligence

323

(4)

Security Versus Liberty

327

(3)

Summary

330

(1)

Notes

330

(1)

Bibliography

331

(1)

Web Sites

331

(1)

Policy Evaluation: Finding Out What Happens after a Law is Passed

332

(19)

Policy Evaluation: Assessing the Impact of Public Policy

332

(2)

The Symbolic Impact of Policy

334

(1)

Program Evaluation: What Governments Usually Do

335

(2)

Program Evaluation: What Governments Can Do

337

(2)

Federal Evaluation: The General Accounting Office

339

(1)

Experimental Policy Research

340

(2)

Program Evaluation: Why It Fails So Often

342

(1)

How Bureaucrats Explain Negative Findings

343

(1)

Why Government Programs Are Seldom Terminated

344

(2)

Politics As a Substitute For Analysis

346

(1)

The Limits Of Public Policy

347

(1)

Notes

348

(1)

Bibliography

349

(1)

Web Sites

349

(2)

Index

351

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Understanding Public Policy

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