Understanding Public Policy, 14th Edition

Updated it its 14th edition, Understanding Public Policy focuses on the policy challenges confronting the Obama administration. This edition provides students with a close up look at the American healthcare system, current economic policies, issues of homeland security and defense policy among many other current event and issues shaping public policy today. The gold-standard for introductory public policy texts, Understanding Public Policy is designed to provide readers with concrete tools for both understanding and analyzing public policy.

 

1: Policy Analysis: What Governments Do, Why They Do It, and What Difference it Makes

 

2: Models of Politics: Some Help in Thinking About Public Policy

 

3: The Policymaking Process: Decision-Making Activities

 

4: Policy Evaluation: Finding Out What Happens After a Law Is Passed

 

5:  Federalism and State Policies: Institutional Arrangements and Policy Variations

 

6:  Criminal Justice: Rationality and Irrationality in Public Policy

 

7:  Welfare: The Search for Rational Strategies

 

8:  Health Care: Attempting A Rational-Comprehensive Transformation

 

9:   Education: Group Struggles

 

10: Economic Policy: Challenging Incrementalism

 

11: Tax Policy: Battling the Special Interests

 

12: International Trade and Immigration: Elite-Mass Conflict

 

13: Energy and the Environment: Externalities and Interests

 

14: Civil Rights: Elite and Mass Interaction

 

15: Defense Policy: Strategies for Serious Games

 

16: Homeland Security: Terrorism and Nondeterrable Threats