Making Public Policy Decisions

To understand public policy decisions, it is imperative to understand the capacities of the individual actors who are making them, how they think and feel about their role, and what drives and motivates them. However, the current literature takes little account of this, preferring instead to frame the decisions as the outcomes of a rational search for value-maximising alternatives or the result of systematic and well-ordered institutional and organisational processes.

Yet understanding how personal and emotional factors interact with broader institutional and organisational influences to shape the deliberations and behaviour of politicians and bureaucrats is paramount if we are to construct a more useful, nuanced and dynamic picture of government decision-making. This book draws on a variety of approaches to examine individuals working in contemporary government, from freshly-trained policy officers to former cabinet ministers and prime ministers. It provides important new insights into how those in government navigate their way through complex issues and decisions based on developed expertise that fuses formal, rational techniques with other learned behaviours, memories, emotions and practiced forms of judgment at an individual level.

This innovative collection from leading academics across Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and North America will be of great interest to researchers, educators, advanced students and practitioners working in the fields of political science, public management and administration, and public policy.

Dr Damon Alexander is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne. His research covers public policy decision making; innovation; political/policy networks; and local government reform. His previous book, Networks, Innovation and Public Policy, was published in 2009.

Professor Jenny M. Lewis is Professor of Public Policy in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow for 2013-16. Jenny is a public policy expert, with particular interests in governance, policy influence, and the policy process. Her most recent book, Academic Governance: Disciplines and Policy, was published by Routledge in 2013.