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 instill 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.

"Judging by this collection on public policy...the policy community is on to a winner academically...I cannot live without the book."--John Uhr, Australian Journal of Political Science

"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

"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

Michael Moran is W.J.M. Mackenzie Professor of Government at the University of Manchester.

Martin Rein is Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Robert E. Goodin is Distinguished Professor of Social and Political Theory and Philosophy at the Research School of Social Sciences at Australian National University.

Part 1. Introduction

1. The Public and its Policies, Robert E. Goodin, Michael Moran, and Martin Rein

Part II. Institutional and Historical Background

2. The Historical Roots of the Field, Peter deLeon

3. Emergence of Schools of Public Policy, Graham Allison

4. Training for Policy-Makers, Yehezkel Dror

Part III. Modes of Policy Analysis

5. Policy Analysis as Puzzle-solving, Christopher Winship

6. Policy Analysis as Critical Listening, John Forestor

7. Policy Analysis as Policy Advice, Richard Wilson

8. Policy Analysis for Democracy, Helen Ingram and Anne L. Schneider

9. Policy Analysis as Social Critique, John Dryzek

Part IV. Producing Public Policy

10. The Origins of Policy, Edward C. Page

11. Agenda Setting, Giandomenico Majone

12. Policy Frame and Discourse, Maarten Hajer and David Laws

13. Arguing, Bargaining, and Getting Agreement, Lawrence Susskind

14. Policy Impact, Bea Cantillon and Karel van den Bosch

15. The Politics of Policy Evaluation, Mark Bovens, Paul 'tHart and Sanneke Kuipers

16. Policy Dynamics, Eugene Bardach

17. Learning in Public Policy, Richard Freeman

18. Reframing Problematic Policies, Martin Rein

Part V. Instruments of Policy

19. Policy in Practice, David Laws and Maarten Hajer

20. Policy Networks, R.A.W. Rhodes

21. Smart Policy?, Tom Christiansen

22. The Tools of Government in the Information Age, Christopher Hood

23. Policy Analysis as Organizational Analysis, Barry L. Friedman

24. Public-Private Collaboration, John D. Donahue and Richard J. Zeckhauser

Part VI. Constraints on Public Policy

25. Economic Constraints on Public Policy, John Quiggin

26. Political Feasibility: Interests and Power, William A. Galston

27. Institutional Constraints on Policy, Ellen M. Immergut

28. SocialandCultural Factors, Davis B. Bobrow

29. Globalization and Public Policy, Colin Hay

Part VII. Policy Intervention: Styles and Rationales

30. Distributive and Redistributive Policy, Tom Sefton

31. Market and Non-Market Failures, Mark Kleiman and Steven N. Teles

32. Privatization and Regulatory Regimes, Colin Scott

33. Democratizing the Policy Process, Archon Fung

Part VIII. Commending and Evaluating Public Policies

34. The Logic of Appropriateness, James G. March and Johan P. Olsen

35. Ethical Dimensions of Public Policy, Henry Shue

36. Economic Techniques, Kevin B. Smith

37. Economism and its Limits, Jonathan Wolff and Dirk Haubrich

38. Policy Modeling, Neta C. Crawford

39. Social Experimentation for Public Policy, Carol Hirschon Weiss and Johanna Birckmayer

IX. Public Policy, Old and New

40. The Unique Methodology of Policy Research, Amitai Etzioni

41. Choosing Governance Systems: A Plea for Comparative Research, Oran R. Young

42. The Politics of Retrenchment: the U.S. Case, Frances Fox Piven

43. Reflections on how political scientists (and others) might think about energy and policy, Matthew Holden, Jr.

44. Reflections on Policy Analysis: Putting it Together Again, Rudolf Klein and Theodore R. Marmor