In recent years a set of radical new approaches to public policy has been developing. These approaches, drawing on discursive analysis and participatory deliberative practices, have come to challenge the dominant technocratic, empiricist models in policy analysis. In his major new book Frank Fischer brings together this new work for the first time and critically examines it. In an accessible way he describes the theoretical, methodological, and political requirements and implications of the new "post-empiricist" approach to public policy. The volume includes a discussion of the social construction of policy problems, the role of interpretation and narrative analysis in policy inquiry, the dialectics of policy argumentation, and the uses of participatory policy analysis. The book will be required reading for anyone studying, researching, or formulating public policy.
2 Constructing Policy Theory: Ideas, Language, and Discourse The goal of social
scientific research is to construct explanatory theory. In the policy and planning
sciences, if not social science generally, such theory is taken also to serve as
basis for guiding social action. But the nature of such explanation is scarcely
straightforward. Whereas conventional social science has emphasized
empirically rigorous causal explanations, postempiricists show that explanation
in the social world ...
This text provides a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to key issues and contemporary debates in public policy. It develops a framework for understanding the way social contexts, policy histories and institutional pathways generate opportunities.
The policies of governments contain and express the conflicts and tensions of
contemporary societies. Sometimes they do this well and we see new rights and
opportunities being confirmed.At other times these same policies are themselves
the embodiment of what needs to be changed. Policy-making is thus a unique
institutional environment and a powerful political tool. The policies of
governments and the counter-policies of agitators and special interests groups
each offer to make ...
A fundamental rethinking is under way about the roles of government, citizens, and community organizations in public policy. Can government be reconstructed to make public policies more responsive to citizens and thus more effective? This challenge is apparent in the activist policy agenda of the Clinton administration, which supports national service programs, government-voluntary collaborations, and community-based development projects. Public Policy for Democracy is an important and timely contribution to the current discussion of how to get people more involved in their own governance. In this book, contributors urge policymakers and policy analysts to promote a more vigorous and inclusive democracy by incorporating concerns about citizenship in their craft, rather than strictly emphasizing efficiency and effectiveness. The authors provide insight into how the social construction of politics affects the recipients of the policies and the public in general. They call attention to how policies reinforce negative stereotypes of some groups, such as welfare recipients, and often lead to political alienation and withdrawal. In addition, they discuss how polices using "clinical reason"—a term borrowed from medicine and used as a way to classify people—are increasingly applied to nonmedical situations, such as domestic violence, to restrict individual power and legitimacy. The authors argue that much needs to be done by the government itself to improve policy design and empower all citizens to participate in the democratic process. They identify concrete strategies for policymakers to enhance the role of citizens without sacrificing program effectiveness.
If, as we argue, the source of some of the problems with democratic participation
as evidenced in American government today can be traced to policy designs that
reinforce damaging messages about citizenship and the role of government,
what is the correct prescription for better policy design? Certainly some
recommendations would seem to be misguided. Lowi's juridical democracy,
under which policies are designed with clear rules so that the beneficiaries and
the burdened can ...
From William N. Dunn, Public Policy Analysis: An Introduction, Prentice-Hall,
1981, pp. 7-33 The social sciences have developed very largely through the
criticism of proposals for social improvements or, more precisely, through
attempts to find out whether or not some particular economic or political action is
likely to produce an expected, or desired, result. Karl R. Popper, The Poverty of
Historicism (1960) In its most general sense, policy analysis may be understood
as the process of ...
An examination of the current Israeli government, covering public policies such as health, housing and transport. The volume covers the institutional as well as the political and the bureaucratic framework within which public policies have been made and implemented.
INTRODUCTION The reader of literature on public policy in Israel may remark on
the contrasting images that arise when one examines the features of the
centralized bureaucratic government versus the characteristics of decision-
making. On the one hand, the large, highly interventionist public bureaucracy
extends great influence over the economy and other aspects of life1 possessing
characteristics that relate generally to 'strong states'.1 Yet, on the other hand, the
process of ...
Community Development and Public Policy is published as an educational
resource under the Having Your Say Programme, launched in November 2005
by Combat Poverty. The four objectives of the Having Your Say programme are:
To promote the right of people in poverty to participate in, and influence, public
policy decisions that affect them To initiate or support work that enhances the
policy skills and capacities of groups of people experiencing poverty, their
representatives or ...
This work provides a comprehensive review of all the key public policy sectors in contemporary British politics. Each chapter is written by a leading authority in their field and includes case studies, discussion questions and further reading.
The challenges therein for British foreign policy makers and the foreign policy-
making system can scarcely be overstated. Commitments far outweighed
capabilities. Traditional trade routes had been distorted or lost. Rising
nationalism in the developing world challenged British imperial possessions. The
emergence of the United States (US) and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (
USSR) as two superpowers overtly reduced Britain's stature as a Great Power.
Europe was too close to ...
Hank C. Jenkins-Smith From Hank C. Jenkins-Smith, Democratic Politics and
Policy Analysis, Brook/Cole, 1990, pp. 9 38 What is it that is praised and criticized
as policy analysis? How can it be characterized in a way that renders
examination of the implications of its use for American politics - if not a
straightforward exercise - at least a manageable problem? What are the
characteristics of the analysis and advice provided that make it distinctive from,
for example, the prescriptions for ...
Originally published by Winthrop Publishers, Inc. in 1974, this volume concentrates upon the role of major political institutions in policy-making: interest groups, political parties, the presidency, Congress, courts, and the bureaucracy, covering both the formal and the informal context within which these institutions operate. The capability of each institution to affect public policy is assessed in an attempt to answer the question: where does the real power to make public policy reside in the political system?
policy process outside of the courts decisions are often made by ' experts in the
area of policy under consideration. This expertise is gained through
specialization. Specialization occurs in congressional committees, their staffs,
and administrative agencies, buttressed by specialized inputs from pressure
groups. The nature of the policy process means a diminished role for electoral
politics as an influence upon policy-makers. The average man, whether he is
aware or not of issues of ...
