The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy

Description

Public policy is the business end of political science. It is where theory meets practice in the pursuit of the public good. Political scientists approach public policy in myriad ways. Some approach the policy process descriptively, asking how the need for public intervention comes to be perceived, a policy response formulated, enacted, implemented, and, all too often, subverted, perverted, altered, or abandoned. Others approach public policy more prescriptively, offering politically-informed suggestions for how normatively valued goals can and should be pursued, either through particular policies or through alternative processes for making policy. Some offer their advice from the Olympian heights of detached academic observers, others as 'engaged scholars' cum advocates, while still others seek to instil more reflective attitudes among policy practitioners themselves toward their own practices. The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy mines all these traditions, using an innovative structure that responds to the very latest scholarship. Its chapters touch upon institutional and historical sources and analytical methods, how policy is made, how it is evaluated and how it is constrained. In these ways, the Handbook shows how the combined wisdom of political science as a whole can be brought to bear on political attempts to improve the human condition.

About the Editors
Edited by Michael Moran, W. J. M. Mackenzie Professor of Government, University of Manchester, Martin Rein, Professor in Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Robert E. Goodin, Professor of Philosophy and Social and Political Theory, Australian National University and University of Essex

Contributors:


Graham Allison, Harvard University.
Eugene Bardach, University of California, Berkeley.
Johanna Birckmayer, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), Calverton, Maryland.
Davis B. Bobrow, University of Pittsburgh.
Mark Bovens, Utrecht University.
Bea Cantillon, Universiteit Antwerpen.
Tom Christiansen, University of Oslo.
Neta C. Crawford, Brown University.
Peter deLeon, University of Colorado, Boulder.
John D. Donahue, Harvard University.
Yehezekel Dror, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
John Dryzek, Australian National University.
Amitai Etzioni, George Washington University.
John Forestor, Cornell University.
Richard Freeman, University of Edinburgh.
Barry Friedman, Brandeis University.
Archon Fung, Harvard University.
William Galston, University of Maryland.
Robert E. Goodin, Australian National University.
Maarten Hajer, University of Amsterdam.
Dirk Haubrich, University College London.
Colin Hay, University of Birmingham.
Matthew Holden, Jr., University of Virginia.
Christopher Hood, University of Oxford.
Ellen Immergut, Humboldt University, Berlin.
Helen Ingram, University of California, Irvine.
Mark Kleiman, University of California, Los Angeles.
Rudolf Klein, University of Bath.
Sanneke Kuipers, University of Leiden.
David Laws, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Giandomenico Majone, European University Institute.
James G. March, Stanford University.
Theodore R. Marmor, Yale University.
Michael Moran, University of Manchester.
Johan P. Olsen, University of Oslo.
Edward Page, London School of Economics.
Frances Fox Piven, City University New York.
John Quiggin, University of Queensland.
Martin Rein, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
R.A.W. Rhodes, Australian National University.
Anne L. Schneider, Arizona State University.
Colin Scott, London School of Economics.
Tom Sefton, London School of Economics.
Henry Shue, Cornell University and Merton College, Oxford.
Smith, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Lawrence E. Susskind, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School.
Steven N. Teles, Brandeis University.
Paul 't Hart, Swedish National Defence College, Stockholm.
Carol Hirschon Weiss, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Karel Van den Bosch, University of Antwerp.
Richard Wilson, Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Christopher Winship, Harvard University.
Jonathan Wolff, University College, London.
Oran R. Young, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Richard J. Zeckhauser, Harvard University.

Reviews

"Spanning all of the major substantive areas and approaches in modern political science, this blockbuster set is a must-have for scholars and students alike. Each volume is crafted by a distinguished set of editors who have assembled critical, comprehensive, essays to survey accumulated knowledge and emerging issues in the study of politics. These volumes will help to shape the discipline for many years to come." - Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
"Judging from the editors, contributors, and topics covered, the forthcoming Oxford Handbooks of Political Science will be a landmark series...This is a series that not only university libraries, but more specialized social science and political science libraries, will want to have on their shelves" - Robert O. Keohane, Professor of International Affairs, Princeton University
"This extraordinary series offers 'state of the art' assessments that instruct, engage, and provoke. Both synoptic and directive, the fine essays across these superbly edited volumes reflect the ambitions and diversity of political science. No one who is immersed in the discipline's controversies and possibilities should miss the intellectual stimulation and critical appraisal these works so powerfully provide." - Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University
"Under the general editorship of Robert E. Goodin, a large group of intellectually attractive authors has charted the entire field of political science in an unbiased multi-paradigmatic way. Minerva's owl would make a nice logo for this monumental collective work of the Oxford Handbooks: what moves us forward is looking back at what we know." - Claus Offe, Professor of Political Science, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin and Institute for Social Science, Humboldt University, Berlin.
"a treasure-trove of useful informationGet this Handbook and its companion volumes...You will find it very thought-provoking!" - Energy Bar Association Update

Table of contents

Part 1. Introduction
1: The Public and its Policies, Robert E. Goodin, Michael Moran, and Martin Rein
Part II. Institutional and Historical Background
2: The Historical Roots of the Field, Peter deLeon
3: Emergence of Schools of Public Policy, Graham Allison
4: Training for Policy-Makers, Yehezkel Dror
Part III. Modes of Policy Analysis
5: Policy Analysis as Puzzle-solving, Christopher Winship
6: Policy Analysis as Critical Listening, John Forestor
7: Policy Analysis as Policy Advice, Richard Wilson
8: Policy Analysis for Democracy, Helen Ingram and Anne L. Schneider
9: Policy Analysis as Social Critique, John Dryzek
Part IV. Producing Public Policy
10: The Origins of Policy, Edward C. Page
11: Agenda Setting, Giandomenico Majone
12: Policy Frame and Discourse, Maarten Hajer and David Laws
13: Arguing, Bargaining, and Getting Agreement, Lawrence Susskind
14: Policy Impact, Bea Cantillon and Karel van den Bosch
15: The Politics of Policy Evaluation, Mark Bovens, Paul 'tHart and Sanneke Kuipers
16: Policy Dynamics, Eugene Bardach
17: Learning in Public Policy, Richard Freeman
18: Reframing Problematic Policies, Martin Rein
Part V. Instruments of Policy
19: Policy in Practice, David Laws and Maarten Hajer
20: Policy Networks, R.A.W. Rhodes
21: Smart Policy?, Tom Christiansen
22: The Tools of Government in the Information Age, Christopher Hood
23: Policy Analysis as Organizational Analysis, Barry L. Friedman
24: Public-Private Collaboration, John D. Donahue and Richard J. Zeckhauser
Part VI. Constraints on Public Policy
25: Economic Constraints on Public Policy, John Quiggin
26: Political Feasibility: Interests and Power, William A. Galston
27: Institutional Constraints on Policy, Ellen M. Immergut
28: Social & Cultural Factors, Davis B. Bobrow
29: Globalization and Public Policy, Colin Hay
Part VII. Policy Intervention: Styles and Rationales
30: Distributive and Redistributive Policy, Tom Sefton
31: Market and Non-Market Failures, Mark Kleiman and Steven N. Teles
32: Privatization and Regulatory Regimes, Colin Scott
33: Democratizing the Policy Process, Archon Fung
Part VIII. Commending and Evaluating Public Policies
34: The Logic of Appropriateness, James G. March and Johan P. Olsen
35: Ethical Dimensions of Public Policy, Henry Shue
36: Economic Techniques, Kevin B. Smith
37: Economism and its Limits, Jonathan Wolff and Dirk Haubrich
38: Policy Modeling, Neta C. Crawford
39: Social Experimentation for Public Policy, Carol Hirschon Weiss and Johanna Birckmayer
IX. Public Policy, Old and New
40: The Unique Methodology of Policy Research, Amitai Etzioni
41: Choosing Governance Systems: A Plea for Comparative Research, Oran R. Young
42: The Politics of Retrenchment: the U.S. Case, Frances Fox Piven
43: Reflections on how political scientists (and others) might think about energy and policy, Matthew Holden, Jr.
44: Reflections on Policy Analysis: Putting it Together Again, Rudolf Klein and Theodore R. Marmor