This groundbreaking study systematically treats recent policymaking trends, starting with a reconsideration of salient theoretical issues of policymaking and its study and culminating with a survey of current policy-related predicaments in various countries. Dror proposes that the task for social science research is to uncover underlying causes of policymaking inadequacies. Standard research methods, Dror states, have been unable to uncover the realities of important decisions made inside governments. In order to gain an understanding of pressing predicaments, he believes that policymakers need to examine the foundations of contemporary practices of present assumptions, and that they need a multiplicity of approaches to policymaking.After prescribing a set of requirements that policymaking must satisfy in order to adequately respond to challenges, Dror posits several improvements needed in education and in policy decision making. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography, including numerous important German works not found in other English-language studies. This book supplements the earlier basic theory and models propounded in Dror's Public Policymaking Reexamined by dealing with current trends. As a guide to public policy literature and related works, it will be invaluable to students and practitioners.

Rush to Policy explores the appropriate role of technical analysis in policy formulation. The authors ask when and how the use of sophisticated analytic techniques in decision-making benefits the nation. They argues that these techniques are too often used in situations where they may not be needed or understood by the decision maker, where they may not be to answer the questions raised but are nonetheless required by law. House and Shull provide an excellent empirical base for describing the impact of politics on policies, policy analysis, and policy analysts. They examine cost-benefit analysis, risk analysis, and decision analysis and assess their ability to substitute for the current decision-making process in the public sector. They examine the political basis of public sector decision-making, how individuals and organizations make decisions, and the ways decisions are made in the federal sector. Also, they discuss the mandate to use these methods in the policy formulation process. The book is written by two practicing federal policy analysts who, in a decade of service as policy researchers, developed sophisticated quantitative analytic and decision-making techniques. They then spent several years trying to use them in the real world. Success and failures are described in illuminating detail, providing insight not commonly found in such critiques. The authors delineate the interaction of politics and technical issues. Their book describes policy analysis as it is, not how it ought to be. Peter W. House is the director of policy research and analysis at the National Science Foundation. He is the author of ten books on multidisciplinary science and technology policy research and analyses in government, private, and university sectors, including The Art of Public Policy Analysis and with Roger D. Shull, Regulatory Reform: Politics and the Environment and Regulations and Science: Management of Research on Demand. Roger D. Shull is a senior analyst at the Division of Policy Research and Analysis, National Science Foundation.

Public Policymaking Reexamined is now recognized as a fundamental treatise for public policy studies. Although it caused much controversy when it was first published for its systematic approach to policy studies, the book is acknowledged as a modern classic of continuing importance for the teaching and research of public policy, planning and policy analysis, and public administration. The paperback includes a new introduction updating and supplementing many of the author's original ideas.Professor Dror combines the approaches of policy analysis, behavioral science, and systems analysis in his examination of the reality of public policymaking and his suggestions for its reform. Actual policymaking is carefully evaluated with the help of explicit criteria and standards based on an optimal model approach, resulting in detailed proposals for improvement. He applies a scientific orientation to the study of social facts and theory.

This is a book about making choices based on the evaluation of alternatives. The outcomes of choices are often worse than people expect. This book discusses the major problems in evaluating courses of action and examines the political contexts in which decisions are made. The subject matter of this book is at the crossroads of policy and research methodology. How can information derived from empirical research benefit a policy-maker or decision maker, and how should this information be incorporated in the decision-making process?

Policymaking, Communication, and Social Learning presents Sir Geoffrey Vickers's seminal essays on policymaking and related issues facing modern Western culture. These essays, many of them published here for the first time, illustrate the range of Sir Geoffrey's thought, and also articulate certain recurrent themes. He portrays a unique view of policymaking, building on his notion of "appreciation" and focusing on the processes of reflection and communication in setting and changing the tacit norms which govern our conduct. These themes culminate in his perception of the emerging challenges facing the professions, and in what he sees as the educational requirements implied by these challenges. Vickers was a master of the English language. He writes vividly, blending concrete example with more general statement. As a result, this volume will appeal to a wide audience concerned with issues of public governance, regulation, communication, ecology, value conflict and resolution, the modern role of the professions, education, and ethics.

This book examines ways to enhance evidence-based policymaking, striking a balance between theory and practice. The attention to theory builds a greater understanding of why miscommunication and mistrust occur. Until we better appreciate the forces that divide researchers and policymakers, we cannot effectively construct strategies for bringing them together.

From his Middle Eastern perspective of politics often being too exciting and complex, Sharkansky (political science and public administration, Hebrew U. of Jerusalem) argues that simplifying rather than weighing all the options, while not the entire answer, is a rational basis for dealing with complexity in policy-making. In examples drawn from US and Israeli history and current events, some of the rules of simplicity analyzed are: if it was good enough for yesterday, it's good enough for tomorrow; sometimes doing nothing is the best policy; and some organizations (e.g., universities) are not meant to be governed in a traditional sense. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

With its highly centralized politi苞al institutions, Israel is typical of the unitary, nonfederal politi苞al systems in the world. On the other hand, with its growing em計hasis on federalism, the United States reveals the functions and dysfunctions of the pluralist sysè² em. In this provocative book, Frederick Lazin compares the two types of political systems to show how municipalities in Is訃ael, as in the United States, ex苟rt considerable influence on implementation of national doè¡«estic policies. He argues conèµ³incingly that unitary systems have many of the same diffi苞ulties that their federal counè² erparts have in implementing social welfare policies. This study provides a the觔retical basis for understanding how administrative institutional system and socioeconomic staè² us variables affect the potential influence of municipalities and make implementation of policies so problematic. It develops a model for policy implementation in unitary systems which then serves as a framework of analy貞is for a series of case studies of social welfare, education, and health policy in Israel. Com計arisons are then made with the federal political system of the United States in which the naè² ional government needs the cooperation of local authorities to implement its policies. Refer苟nce is made to federal housing policies and programs for low-in苞ome Americans. Similarities as well as differences are noted beè² ween the two systems in order to reach conclusions about pol虹cy implementation regardless of type of political system. The book contributes both to the general literature on policy implementation as well as to the politics of unitary versus federal systems. It provides a unique and important analysis of prob衍ems confronting both types of system in the area of policy im計lementation of social welfare programs, which remain imporè² ant concerns in political sysè² ems throughout the world.

This encyclopedia includes entries on the concepts, issues and theories starting with alphabets D to K that define public policymaking, evaluation, management and implementation. It also includes entries on the individuals, commissions and organizations that have contributed to these fields.