Process and Principles
This brief text identifies the issues, resources, actors, and institutions involved in public policy making and traces the dynamics of the policymaking process, including the triggering of issue awareness, the emergence of an issue on the public agenda, the formation of a policy commitment, and the implementation process that translates policy into practice. Throughout the text, which has been revised and updated, Gerston brings his analysis to life with abundant examples from the most recent and emblematic cases of public policy making. At the same time, with well-chosen references, he places policy analysis in the context of political science and deftly orients readers to the classics of public policy studies. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and suggestions for further reading.
If there is an underside, or a stealth-like component to the public policy process, it
lies with the process of policy evaluation. So much political capital is directed
toward agenda building, formulation, and (to a lesser extent) implementation of a
public policy that we often overlook the most obvious review questions of all: Did
the new policy attain its stated objectives along the lines of its intentions? What
levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction developed as a result of the new policy?
