Understanding Public Policy

by Dye, Thomas R.

• ISBN13: 9780136131472
• ISBN10: 0136131476
• Edition: 12th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

For undergraduate-level courses in Public Policy. Understanding Public Policy is not only an introduction to the study of public policy, but also an introduction to the models that political scientists use to describe and explain political life. 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 analyzingspecificpublic policies. It focuses onwhatpolicies governments pursue,whygovernments pursue the policies they do, and what theconsequencesof 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

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

Models of Politics: Some Help in Thinking about Public Policy

The Policymaking Process: Decision-Making Activities

Criminal Justice: Rationality and Irrationality in Public Policy

Health and Welfare: The Search for Rational Strategies

Education: The Group Struggle

Economic Policy: Incrementalism at Work

Tax Policy: Battling the Special Interests

International Trade and Immigration: Elite-Mass Conflict

Environmental Policy: Externalities and Interests

Civil Rights: Elite and Mass Interaction

American Federalism: Institutional Arrangements and Public Policy

Defense Policy: Strategies for Serious Games

Homeland Security: Terrorism and Non-Deterable Threats

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

Index

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