American Public Policy: An Introduction

AMERICAN PUBLIC POLICY is an introductory undergraduate text that engages students' interest with its unique emphasis on specific, substantive issues of public policy. This text analyzes American public policies in a historical context that allows students to evaluate, analyze, and debate whether established policies are successful or if alternative policies could better serve the American public. The discussion kindled by AMERICAN PUBLIC POLICY educates students on the practical methods of public policy analysis while allowing them to apply their knowledge to real life policies.

Clarke E. Cochran retired as Vice-President of Mission Integration at Covenant Health System in Lubbock, Texas, in 2013. He is also Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Texas Tech University, where he specialized in religion and politics, political philosophy, and health care policy. Dr. Cochran received his Ph. D. from Duke University in 1971 and taught at Texas Tech from 1970 to 2007. He is the author of four books and numerous journal articles. Dr. Cochran held the position of Research Fellow in the Erasmus Institute at the University of Notre Dame (1998-1999) and the Shannon Chair in Catholic Studies at Nazareth College (Spring 2001). His research interests include religious institutions and health care policy, Catholic social theory and health care reform, and church and state controversies.

Dr. Mayer is Professor of Political Science at Texas Tech University specializing in Comparative Politics and the Politics of Advanced Western Democracy. In addition to AMERICAN PUBLIC POLICY: AN INTRODUCTION, he is the author of COMPARATIVE POLITICAL INQUIRY, THE POLITICS OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES, REDEFINING COMPARATIVE POLITICS: PROMISE VERSUS PERFORMANCE, COMPARATIVE POLITICS: NATIONS AND THEORIES IN A CHANGING WORLD, COMPARATIVE POLITICS: THE QUEST FOR THEORY AND EXPLANATION, CONFLICTING PERSPECTIVES IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS: A READER, IDENTITY POLITICS: THE EMERGENCE OF NEO VOLKISM IN ADVANCED WESTERN SOCIETIES, and THE CHANGING BASIS OF POLITICAL CONFLICT IN ADVANCED WESTERN DEMOCRACY. His current research is on the determinants of tolerance in western societies.

T.R. Carr is Professor of Public Administration and Policy Analysis and Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Urban Research at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He teaches primarily in the area of quantitative methods and policy analysis. In addition to AMERICAN PUBLIC POLICY: AN INTRODUCTION, he has published chapters and articles focusing on public management issues. He is active in academic and professional associations and has served in numerous offices in state and local chapters of the American Society for Public Administration. He serves as a Police Commissioner for St. Louis County, Missouri, and has served as the Mayor of Hazelwood, Missouri.

N. Joseph Cayer is Professor Emeritus of Public Administration at Arizona State University. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a B.A. and M.P.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He also has taught at Lamar University, the University of Maine, Orono, and Texas Tech University. He is the author or coauthor of seven books and numerous chapters and articles on public management and policy, with an emphasis on issues of human resources management in the public sector. Books he has authored or coauthored include PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: SOCIAL CHANGE AND ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT, AMERICAN PUBLIC POLICY: AN INTRODUCTION, MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES, HANDBOOK OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR, and SUPERVISION FOR SUCCESS IN GOVERNMENT.