Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1483345785 ISBN 13: 9781483345789

Publisher: CQ Press, 2014

Since the first edition of Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives, Michael Kraft and Scott Furlong have taken a different tack. They want students to understand how and why policy analysis is used to assess policy alternatives―not only to question the assumptions of policy analysts, but also to recognize how analysis is used in support of political arguments. To encourage critical and creative thinking on issues ranging from the federal deficit to health care reform to climate change, the authors introduce and fully integrate an evaluative approach to policy. 

The authors begin the fifth edition of Public Policy with a concise review of institutions, policy actors, and major theoretical models. Then, they discuss the nature of policy analysis and its practice and show students how to employ evaluative criteria in six substantive policy areas. The text arms students with the analytic tools they need to understand the motivations of policy actors―both within and outside of government―and to influence a complex, yet comprehensible, policy agenda.

About the Author:

Michael E. Kraft is professor emeritus of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. He is the author of, among other works, Environmental Policy and Politics, 7th ed. (2018), and coauthor of Coming Clean: Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance (2011), with Mark Stephan and Troy D. Abel. In addition, he is the coeditor of Environmental Policy: New Directions in the 21st Century, 10th ed. (2019), with Norman J. Vig; Toward Sustainable Communities: Transition and Transformations in Environmental Policy, 2nd ed. (2009), with Daniel A. Mazmanian; and Business and Environmental Policy: Corporate Interests in the American Political System (2007) and The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Environmental Policy (2013), with Sheldon Kamieniecki. He has long taught courses in environmental policy and ­politics, American government, Congress, and public policy analysis.

 

Review:

 "I have used other books, but Kraft and Furlong’s Public Policy is appealing because it’s broad enough to satisfy students’ curiosities in different policy areas, yet specific enough to home on key issues, controversies, and topics." Author: Marcus D. Mauldin