Success and Failure in Public Governance: A Comparative Analysis(New Horizons in Public Policy series)

Why do some policies succeed so well while others, in the same sector or country, fail dramatically? The aim of this book is to answer this question and provide systematic research on the nature, sources and consequences of policy failure. The expert contributors analyse and evaluate the success and failure of four policy areas (Steel, Health Care, Finance, HIV and the Blood Supply) in six European countries, namely France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain and Sweden. The book is therefore able to compare success and failure across countries as well as policy areas, enabling a test of a variety of theoretical assumptions about policy making and government. The book also sheds more light on the legitimacy of governance in Western Europe and goes beyond understanding the concepts of success and failure to explaining their genesis empirically. Success and Failure in Public Governance will be of interest to academics and researchers of political science, public policy and public administration as well as to practitioners of public policy.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Foreword Part I: Evaluating and Explaining Public Governance: General Introduction Part II: Managing Decline: Public Policy and the Steel Sector Part III: Managing Reform: Public Policy and the Health Sector Part IV: Managing Innovation: Public Policy and the Financial Sector Part V: Managing Crisis: HIV and Blood Supply Part VI: Comparisons, Conclusions, Reflections Index

About the Author :
Edited by Mark Bovens, Professor of Public Administration, Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, Paul ’t Hart, Member of the Scientific Council for Government Policy of the Netherlands, and Professor of Public Administration, Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University, the Netherlands and B. Guy Peters, Maurice Falk Professor of Government, University of Pittsburgh, US

Review :
'Success and Failure in Public Governance fills a void . . . This valuable book should . . . prompt research that moves away from the present, somewhat static, institutional analysis toward studies that focus on political actors and their crafting of strategies that more or less successfully meet policy challenges that always contain a poisonous mixture of programmatic and political problems, given the prevailing political and institutional constraints.'