The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy: (Oxford Handbooks)

The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science is a ten-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of political science. Each volume focuses on a particular part of the discipline, with volumes on Public Policy, Political Theory, Political Economy, Contextual Political Analysis, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Law and Politics, Political Behavior, Political Institutions, and Political Methodology. The project as a whole is under the General Editorship of Robert E. Goodin, with each volume being edited by a distinguished international group of specialists in their respective fields. The books set out not just to report on the discipline, but to shape it. The series will be an indispensable point of reference for anyone working in political science and adjacent disciplines.Public policy is the business end of political science. It is where theory meets practice in the pursuit of the public good. Political scientists approach public policy in myriad ways. Some approach the policy process descriptively, asking how the need for public intervention comes to be perceived, a policy response formulated, enacted, implemented, and, all too often, subverted, perverted, altered, or abandoned. Others approach public policy more prescriptively, offering politically-informed suggestions for how normatively valued goals can and should be pursued, either through particular policies or through alternative processes for making policy. Some offer their advice from the Olympian heights of detached academic observers, others as 'engaged scholars' cum advocates, while still others seek to instil more reflective attitudes among policy practitioners themselves toward their own practices. The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy mines all these traditions, using an innovative structure that responds to the very latest scholarship. Its chapters touch upon institutional and historical sources and analytical methods, how policy is made, how it is evaluated and how it is constrained. In these ways, the Handbook shows how the combined wisdom of political science as a whole can be brought to bear on political attempts to improve the human condition.

Table of Contents:
Part 1. Introduction 1: Robert E. Goodin, Michael Moran, and Martin Rein: The Public and its Policies Part II. Institutional and Historical Background 2: Peter deLeon: The Historical Roots of the Field 3: Graham Allison: Emergence of Schools of Public Policy 4: Yehezkel Dror: Training for Policy-Makers Part III. Modes of Policy Analysis 5: Christopher Winship: Policy Analysis as Puzzle-solving 6: John Forestor: Policy Analysis as Critical Listening 7: Richard Wilson: Policy Analysis as Policy Advice 8: Helen Ingram and Anne L. Schneider: Policy Analysis for Democracy 9: John Dryzek: Policy Analysis as Social Critique Part IV. Producing Public Policy 10: Edward C. Page: The Origins of Policy 11: Giandomenico Majone: Agenda Setting 12: Maarten Hajer and David Laws: Policy Frame and Discourse 13: Lawrence Susskind: Arguing, Bargaining, and Getting Agreement 14: Bea Cantillon and Karel van den Bosch: Policy Impact 15: Mark Bovens, Paul 'tHart and Sanneke Kuipers: The Politics of Policy Evaluation 16: Eugene Bardach: Policy Dynamics 17: Richard Freeman: Learning in Public Policy 18: Martin Rein: Reframing Problematic Policies Part V. Instruments of Policy 19: David Laws and Maarten Hajer: Policy in Practice 20: R.A.W. Rhodes: Policy Networks 21: Tom Christiansen: Smart Policy? 22: Christopher Hood: The Tools of Government in the Information Age 23: Barry L. Friedman: Policy Analysis as Organizational Analysis 24: John D. Donahue and Richard J. Zeckhauser: Public-Private Collaboration Part VI. Constraints on Public Policy 25: John Quiggin: Economic Constraints on Public Policy 26: William A. Galston: Political Feasibility: Interests and Power 27: Ellen M. Immergut: Institutional Constraints on Policy 28: Davis B. Bobrow: Social & Cultural Factors 29: Colin Hay: Globalization and Public Policy Part VII. Policy Intervention: Styles and Rationales 30: Tom Sefton: Distributive and Redistributive Policy 31: Mark Kleiman and Steven N. Teles: Market and Non-Market Failures 32: Colin Scott: Privatization and Regulatory Regimes 33: Archon Fung: Democratizing the Policy Process Part VIII. Commending and Evaluating Public Policies 34: James G. March and Johan P. Olsen: The Logic of Appropriateness 35: Henry Shue: Ethical Dimensions of Public Policy 36: Kevin B. Smith: Economic Techniques 37: Jonathan Wolff and Dirk Haubrich: Economism and its Limits 38: Neta C. Crawford: Policy Modeling 39: Carol Hirschon Weiss and Johanna Birckmayer: Social Experimentation for Public Policy IX. Public Policy, Old and New 40: Amitai Etzioni: The Unique Methodology of Policy Research 41: Oran R. Young: Choosing Governance Systems: A Plea for Comparative Research 42: Frances Fox Piven: The Politics of Retrenchment: the U.S. Case 43: Matthew Holden, Jr.: Reflections on how political scientists (and others) might think about energy and policy 44: Rudolf Klein and Theodore R. Marmor: Reflections on Policy Analysis: Putting it Together Again

About the Author :
Michael Moran is W.J.M. Mackenzie Professor of Government at the University of Manchester. Martin Rein is Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Robert E. Goodin is Distinguished Professor of Social and Political Theory and Philosophy at the Research School of Social Sciences at Australian National University.

Review :
`Judging by this collection on public policy...the policy community is on to a winner academically...I cannot live without the book.' John Uhr, Australian Journal of Political Science 2007 `A paramount effort coordinated by Robert Goodin for Oxford University Press has produced an impressive set of ten volumes about the state of the discipline, the Oxford Handbook of Political Science, which has become an instant must.' Josep Colomer's Weekly Blog