Public Policy An Evolutionary Approach

PUBLIC POLICY: AN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH, 3e, examines how the substance and process of public policy and our understanding of that have evolved in America. After providing the reader with an analytic, historic and contextual framework for viewing public policy in the U.S., the authors offer a comprehensive look at the various elements of the governing process including agenda setting and problem definition, policy formation, implementation, program evaluation, and policy change and termination. In doing that the authors pay particular attention to the range of theories that have been offered to explain how, why, and with what effects governments act. The authors then look at three critical policy areas environment, education, and welfare to furher illustrate how governing proceeds in the U.S. Thoroughout the text the authors draw extensively on actual policy examples including recent efforts to reform education and welfare and the war in Iraq. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

A unique historical perspective emphasizes the evolution of public policy analysis while discussing how policy is currently formulated.

Arguing for an evolutionary perspective, this book directly challenges the Standard Social Science Model (SSSM) on which public policy has often been based. The SSSM maintains that human behavior is solely the product of culture and learning. In sharp contrast, the Evolutionary Model (EM) holds that our behavior flows from the interaction between learning and culture, on the one hand, and biological factors-especially our evolutionary legacy-on the other. These different approaches to human behavior understandably lead to divergent conceptions of sound domestic and foreign policy. The SSSM views human behavior as essentially plastic and thus readily changed by governmental action. Disagreeing, the Evolutionary Model sees that malleability as seriously limited by our species' evolved propensity for aggression, status seeking, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and hierarchical social structures.

An accessible review of the main approaches in the study of public policy, this text argues that most writers who seek to explain how policy varies and changes use one of the five frameworks: institutional, group/network, socio-economic, rational choice and ideas-based. It describes these methods in detail, offers constructive criticisms and explores their claims in the light of American, British and French examples

Space Politics and Policy: An Evolutionary Perspective provides a comprehensive survey of Space Policy. This book is organized around two themes. Space Policy is evolutionary in that it has responded to dramatic political events, such as the launching of Sputnik and the Cold War, and has undergone dynamic and evolutionary policy changes over the course of the space age. Space Policy is an integral part of and interacts with public policy processes in the United States and abroad. The book analyzes Space Policy at several levels including historical context, political actors and institutions, political processes and policy outcomes. It examines the symbiotic relationships between policy, technology, and science; provides a review and synthesis of the existing body of knowledge in Space Policy; and identifies Space Policy trends and developments from the beginnings of the space age through the current era of the twenty-first century.

This book is an accessible review of the main approaches in the study of public policy. The author argues that most writers who seek to explain how policy varies and changes use one of five frameworks: institutional, group/network, socio-economic, rational choice and ideas-based. The book sets out each one, offers constructive criticisms and explores their claims in the light of American, British and French examples. Peter John argues that no one approach offers a comprehensive explanation of public policy, so a combination is needed. After reviewing some recent attempts at synthesis, he advocates an evolutionary approach which is best able to account for the importance of ideas and interests in the policy process. Readers will find that this book contains both a clear summary of debates in public policy and a new and original approach to the subject. They will also find that no other similar work covers so much ground in such a concise and cogent manner. 'Peter John provides a clear account of, and balanced judgement about, the several attempts to explain policy change and variation while developing his preferred 'synthetic' approach. Students of public policy will be duly grateful, colleagues will enjoy the argument.' R.A.W. Rhodes, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne 'Peter John offers a truly fresh presentation and critique of the public policy literature that will be essential to students and professionals on both sides of the Atlantic. But John does more than critique: he points the field toward a new synthesis based on evolutionary theory.' Bryan Jones, Department of Political Science, University of Washington