This book revisits and re-defines the policy style concept and explores the long-standing debate in British political science concerning how best to characterise the British policy style. The book highlights several trends that suggest that the British policy style has shifted towards the impositional end of the policy style spectrum, bringing it more in line with the traditional Westminster model of governing. However, these changes also reflect a more frenetic policy style which might increase the number of policy blunders and failures in British Government unless means are found to access and manage the specialist expertise that interest groups possess.

Over the past decade, the UK has experienced major policy and policy making change. This text examines this shifting political and policy landscape while also highlighting the features of UK politics that have endured. Written by Paul Cairney and Sean Kippin, leading voices in UK public policy and politics, the book combines a focus on policy making theories and concepts with the exploration of key themes and events in UK politics, including: - developing social policy in a post-pandemic world; - governing post-Brexit; and - the centrality of environmental policy. The book equips students with a robust and up-to-date understanding of UK public policy and enables them to locate this within a broader theoretical framework.

This ground-breaking study offers a new paradigm for understanding the beliefs and religions of the Goths, Burgundians, Sueves, Franks and Lombards as they converted from paganism to Christianity between c.350 and c.700 CE. Combining history and theology with approaches drawn from the cognitive science of religion, Belief and Religion in Barbarian Europe uses both written and archaeological evidence to challenge many older ideas. Beginning with a re-examination of our knowledge about the deities and rituals of their original religions, it goes on to question the assumption that the Germanic peoples were merely passive recipients of Christian doctrine, arguing that so-called 'Arianism' was first developed as an 'entry-level' Christianity for the Goths. Focusing on individual ethnic groupings in turn, it presents a fresh view of the relationship between religion and politics as their rulers attempted to opt for Catholicism. In place of familiar debates about post-conversion 'pagan survivals', contemporary texts and legislation are analysed to create an innovative cognitive perspective on the ways in which the Church endeavoured to bring the Christian God into people's thoughts and actions. The work also includes a survey of a wide range of written and archaeological evidence, contrasting traditional conceptions of death, afterlife and funerary ritual with Christian doctrine and practice in these areas and exploring some of the techniques developed by the Church for assuaging popular anxieties about Christian burial and the Christian afterlife.

Richardson et al.’s respected and seminal Policy Styles in Western Europe (1982) shed valuable light on how countries tend to establish long-term and distinctive ways to make policies that transcend short-term imperatives and issues. This follow-up volume updates those arguments and significantly expands the coverage, consisting of 16 carefully selected country-level case studies from around the world. Furthermore, it includes different types of political regimes and developmental levels to test more widely the robustness of the patterns and variables highlighted in the original book. The case studies – covering countries from the United States, Canada, Germany and the UK to Russia, Togo and Vietnam – follow a uniform structure, combining theoretical considerations and the presentation of empirical material to reveal how the distinct cultural and institutional features of modern states continue to have implications for the making and implementation of public policy decisions within them. The book is essential reading for students and scholars of public policy, public administration, comparative politics and development studies.

A comprehensive introduction to public policy and the policy cycle, the fully revised second edition of this popular textbook offers a practical guide to the topic while remaining underpinned by cutting-edge research. Bringing together analysis of classic works alongside the most recent developments in the field, this book is guided by the following three crucial questions: What is public policy? Who participates in making and putting public policy in practice as well as in assessing its success? And when and how does public policy change over time? In answering these questions, the book covers everything from the central institutions and actors of policy-making to implementation, evaluation and governance. Drawing on examples from across the world, the new edition expands on themes that were previously covered only marginally, including the underexplored connection between public policy and political economy, as well as placing more emphasis on climate change and practical advice on doing policy analysis. For undergraduate or postgraduate students studying on courses focussed on public policy or the policy cycle or process, this textbook is the essential guide to the subject. The book is also suited for those studying public policy in the context of politics or public management and administration. New to this Edition: - A revised conclusion containing guidance on how to do policy analysis. - Extended discussion of climate policy and politics. - Consideration of the effects of Brexit, the rise of populism and the impact of the loss of faith in globalization for international organizations. - More on policy process theories, comparative public policy, the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of public policy studies and new methodologies such as the evaluation of policy measures by means of social media data.

With unparalleled empirical material, this is the most comprehensive introduction to comparative politics written by the leading experts in the field who bring together a diverse and informed international perspective on comparative politics. Five new authors join the team for the fifth edition, bringing fresh ideas and insights to the comparative analysis the book provides. The new edition has been brought fully up to date with coverage of Brexit, Trump and the resurgence of Populism, and a greater focus on developing countries through a reworked Chapter 15 on Regions and Ethnicity. Furthermore, the chapter on Political Culture includes more in-depth coverage of gender and representation in the era of the #MeToo movement. Importantly, issues around migration and how different countries respond are explored in Chapter 24 on Globalization. An unrivalled amount of empirical material in the text and in the supporting online resources illustrates key similarities and differences of political systems in practice. The wealth of empirical data also encourages students to go beyond the 'what' of comparison to the 'how'. Combining cutting edge treatment of theories and truly global geographical coverage, this exciting textbook is essential reading for all comparative politics students.

A comprehensive and comparative analysis of who advises government and how systems of policy advice operate in four Westminster countries.

This book examines the impact of several decades of public sector reform in four Westminster systems – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Political and managerial change has re-defined roles and relationships and how their public sectors function. Often this occurs in comparable ways because of a common administrative tradition, but choices made in different country contexts also produce divergent outcomes. In analysing the results and implications of reform, fundamental issues of and tensions in public administration and management are addressed.

This book utilises comparative diachronic and synchronic analyses to investigate models of national urban agendas. Encompassing cases from Europe, North America, South America and Asia, it examines the changing global geography of national urban agendas since the second post-war period. The book demonstrates that whilst some discontinuities and differences exist between countries, they each demonstrate a common systematic investment in urban policies, that are considered as programmes of intervention and funding schemes for cities. Furthermore, in such programmes a political vision is evident which recognizes an important role for cities and urbanization processes at a national level. The book will appeal to scholars and students of public policy, urban planning and public administration, as well as practitioners and policymakers at the national and local levels.

This book provides a stimulating presentation of the Italian administrative system through an empirical and critical perspective on the processes of administrative reform at the national level. It focuses on some of the most recent changes developed during the years of austerity and fiscal crisis and offers an updated perspective on the attempts made by Italian governments to modernize national public administration through the ‘new public management’ and ‘governance’ paradigms. These frameworks have been suggested as models to enhance efficiency, transparency, accountability and public participation. The book studies international and supranational influence, policy diffusion, domestic politics and institutional dynamics, administrative traditions, and functional explanations—all determinants of policy outputs and outcomes, and possibly of policy learning as well. This book is the first to set out such a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis for non-Italian readers.