The Practice of American Public Policymaking

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Routledge, Dec 18, 2014 - Business & Economics - 530 pages
Designed for upper-level and professional courses, this text is a state-of-the-art introduction to the public policymaking process that gives equal attention to issues of policy implementation and public governance. It uses an innovative systems approach, integrating the activities, actors, tools, and techniques of policymaking, to provide a comprehensive framework for policy design and analysis. The book is practice-oriented, with a focus on the ways that policymakers at all levels employ the standard "technologies" of governance - authority, agency, program, rule, contract, and budget - to design policy outputs and achieve policy outcomes. Through extensive use of graphics, the text makes concepts easy to grasp for a generation of students accustomed to the visual presentation of ideas. Case studies illustrate the tools and techniques discussed, and key terms, questions for discussion, and suggested readings round out each chapter.
 

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Contents

Budget
2 Budget Process Overview
7 Cascading Levels of Performance Measurement
Results
Outputs
2 U S Government Classification of Target Groups
Suggested Readings
Outcomes

Problems
List of MiniCases
Politics and Policy Entrepreneurs
Suggested Readings
Access Lobbying and Public Opinion
Agenda Setting
2 Bureaucratic Agencies and their Environment
Production
Policy Technologies and Maps
Authority
1 Sources of Public Authority
Advantages and Disadvantages
Agency
4 A Typology of Policy Production Agencies
Agency
Program
Adapted from Matthew
7 Program Delivery Strategies
10 Cascading Objectives and Performance Measurement
12 Evolution of Policy Programs
Rules
Suggested Readings
Contract
5 Policy Outcomes and Spillover Effects
8 Program Outcomes
Outcomes
10 Relationships Between Eligible and Recipient Beneficiaries Adapted
11 Standards for Evaluating Policy Outcomes Adapted from Evert
Context and Content
An Overview of Policy Sectors
1 Anatomy of Nonprofit Organizations
Suggested Readings
The Government Sector
2 Intergovernmental Relationships in American Federalism
Market Civil and Private Sectors
Questions for Discussion
Policies and Policymaking
A New Policy Domain
7 Venues for Public Policymaking
10 A Path Analysis of Policymaking in Response to Wall Street
11 A Path Analysis of the Smallpox Vaccination Program
16 The Cyclical Nature of Policy Change
Key Terms
Conclusions
Index
Copyright

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About the author (2014)

Selden Biggs, Lelia B. Helms

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