Understanding Public Policy

by Dye, Thomas R.

• ISBN13: 9780130260086
• ISBN10: 0130260088
• Edition: 10th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

For undergraduate-level courses in Public Policy.This leading undergraduate introduction to public policy is designed to provide 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 political life and then, using these various analytical models singly and in combination explores specific public policies in a variety of key domestic policy areas.

Table of Contents

1. Policy Analysis : What Governments Do, Why They Do It, and What Difference it Makes.
2. Models of Politics: Some Help in Thinking about Public Policy.
3. The Policymaking Process: Decision-Making Activities.
4. Criminal Justice: Rationality and Irrationality in Public Policy.
5. Health and Welfare: The Search for Rational Strategies.
6. Education: The Group Struggle.
7. Economic Policy: Incrementalism at Work.
8. Tax Policy: Battling the Special Interests.
9. International Trade and Immigration: Elite-Mass Conflict.
10. Environmental Policy: Externalities and Interests.
11. Civil Rights: Elite and Mass Interaction.
12. American Federalism: Institutional Arrangements and Public Policy.
13. Defense Policy: Strategies for Serious Games.
14. Policy Evaluation: Finding Out What Happens After a Law Is Passed.
Index.