Oxford Handbook Of Public Policy, The

Description:
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.

Review:
Spanning all of the major substantive areas and approaches in modern political science, this blockbuster set is a must-have for scholars and students alike. Each volume is crafted by a distinguished set of editors who have assembled critical, comprehensive, essays to survey accumulated knowledge and emerging issues in the study of politics. These volumes will help to shape the discipline for many years to come. Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University Judging from the editors, contributors, and topics covered, the forthcoming Oxford Handbooks of Political Science will be a landmark series...This is a series that not only university libraries, but more specialized social science and political science libraries, will want to have on their shelves Robert O. Keohane, Professor of International Affairs, Princeton University This extraordinary series offers 'state of the art' assessments that instruct, engage, and provoke. Both synoptic and directive, the fine essays across these superbly edited volumes reflect the ambitions and diversity of political science. No one who is immersed in the discipline's controversies and possibilities should miss the intellectual stimulation and critical appraisal these works so powerfully provide. Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University Under the general editorship of Robert E. Goodin, a large group of intellectually attractive authors has charted the entire field of political science in an unbiased multi-paradigmatic way. Minerva's owl would make a nice logo for this monumental collective work of the Oxford Handbooks: what moves us forward is looking back at what we know. Claus Offe, Professor of Political Science, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin and Institute for Social Science, Humboldt University, Berlin. a treasure-trove of useful informationGet this Handbook and its companion volumes...You will find it very thought-provoking! Energy Bar Association Update

Table of Contents:
PART 1. INTRODUCTION; 1. The Public and its Policies; PART II. INSTITUTIONAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND; 2. The Historical Roots of the Field; 3. Emergence of Schools of Public Policy; 4. Training for Policy-Makers; PART III. MODES OF POLICY ANALYSIS; 5. Policy Analysis as Puzzle-solving; 6. Policy Analysis as Critical Listening; 7. Policy Analysis as Policy Advice; 8. Policy Analysis for Democracy; 9. Policy Analysis as Social Critique; PART IV. PRODUCING PUBLIC POLICY; 10. The Origins of Policy; 11. Agenda Setting; 12. Policy Frame and Discourse; 13. Arguing, Bargaining, and Getting Agreement; 14. Policy Impact; 15. The Politics of Policy Evaluation; 16. Policy Dynamics; 17. Learning in Public Policy; 18. Reframing Problematic Policies; PART V. INSTRUMENTS OF POLICY; 19. Policy in Practice; 20. Policy Networks; 21. Smart Policy?; 22. The Tools of Government in the Information Age; 23. Policy Analysis as Organizational Analysis; 24. Public-Private Collaboration; PART VI. CONSTRAINTS ON PUBLIC POLICY; 25. Economic Constraints on Public Policy; 26. Political Feasibility: Interests and Power; 27. Institutional Constraints on Policy; 28. Social & Cultural Factors; 29. Globalization and Public Policy; PART VII. POLICY INTERVENTION: STYLES AND RATIONALES; 30. Distributive and Redistributive Policy; 31. Market and Non-Market Failures; 32. Privatization and Regulatory Regimes; 33. Democratizing the Policy Process; PART VIII. COMMENDING AND EVALUATING PUBLIC POLICIES; 34. The Logic of Appropriateness; 35. Ethical Dimensions of Public Policy; 36. Economic Techniques; 37. Economism and its Limits; 38. Policy Modeling; 39. Social Experimentation for Public Policy; IX. PUBLIC POLICY, OLD AND NEW; 40. The Unique Methodology of Policy Research; 41. Choosing Governance Systems: A Plea for Comparative Research; 42. The Politics of Retrenchment: the U.S. Case; 43. Reflections on how political scientists (and others) might think about energy and policy; 44. Reflections on Policy Analysis: Putting it Together Again