Thinking Like a Policy Analyst: Policy Analysis as a Clinical Profession

The world of policy represents the confluence of a number of intellectual strands in which the clinician brings science together with intuition, and uses his or her experience to interpret the evidence and make recommendations for treatment. This important volume brings together leading scholars to explore the "how" of thinking about policy - the questions, values, judgments and experience the analyst brings to bear.

Table of Contents:
Doing Policy Analysis: Clinical and Diagnostic Considerations * Thinking Like a Policy Analyst: Policy Analysis as a Clinical Profession - Iris Geva-May * Principles and Clinical Professional Reasoning Processes: Their Application in Other Clinical Disciplines * Teaching Clinical Reasoning to Undergraduate Medical Students - Jochanan Benbassat * Clinical Legal Education - A 21st-Century Perspective - Anthony G. Amsterdam * Case Teaching and Intellectual Performances in Public Management - Michael Barzelay and Fred Thompson * Training and Supervision of Clinical Psychologists - Amy S. Janeck and Steven Taylor * Principles and Clinical Professional Reasoning Processes: Their Application in Policy Analysis * Policy Maps and Political Feasibility - Peter J. May * The P-Case: One Strategy for Creating the Policy Analysis Case - Aidan R. Vining and David L. Weimer * Preparing for the Craft of Policy Analysis: The Capstone Experience - Peter deLeon and Spiros Protopsaltis * Practice, Practice, Practice: The Clinical Education of Policy Analysts at the NYU/Wagner School - Dennis C. Smith * Defining Policy Goals Through the Stages of the Policy Process: Creating the US Department of Education - Beryl A. Radin * Case Study Method and Policy Analysis - Leslie A. Pal * I Don't Teach by the Case - Eugene Smolensky * Balancing Pedagogy: Supplementing Cases with Policy Simulations in Public Affairs Education - Michael I. Luger

About the Author :
Iris Geva-May is a Professor of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University.

Review :
"This admirable book performs two important tasks for readers interested in policy analysis. The primary benefit of reading this book is that it provides an excellent treatment of a number of perspectives on educating future policy professionals. But this is more than a book about pedagogy. It also has a number of profound insights into policy analysis as a craft and an intellectual undertaking. It should not be missed by any student of public policy." - B. Guy Peters, Maurice Falk Professor of Government, University of Pittsburgh "Thinking Like a Policy Analyst brings back into focus research in policy analysis that has been pushed into the background the last decade due to the argumentative turn and breaths the ambitions and ideals of the founding fathers. Adopting insights from other disciplines, this book explores new frontiers and opens new windows. By providing students with the tricks of the trade, with an emphasis that skills can be learned by doing, this volume is extremely relevant and useful for instruction in classroom." - Frans K.M. van Nispen, Erasmus University of Rotterdam "In focusing on clinical reasoning processes in policy analysis and other professional fields, Iris Geva-May and her colleagues make a valuable contribution to the literature on public policy education and practice. This is a cutting edge book." - Laurence E. Lynn, Jr., Texas A&M University