Pathways of Power: The Dynamics of National Policymaking

While civics textbooks describe an idealized model of “how a bill becomes law;” journalists often emphasize special interest lobbying and generous campaign contributions to Congress; and other textbooks describe common stages through which all policies progress, these approaches fail to convey―much less explain―the tremendous diversity in political processes that shape specific policies in contemporary Washington.

Bridging the gap between textbook models of how public policy should work, and how the process actually works in contemporary Washington, Pathways of Power provides a framework that integrates the roles of political interests and policy ideals in the contemporary policy process. This book argues that the policy process can be understood as a set of four distinctive pathways of policymaking―pluralist, partisan, expert, and symbolic―that draw upon different political resources, appeal to different political actors, and elicit unique strategies and styles of coalition building.

Revealing the strategic behavior of policy actors who compete to shift policies onto pathways that maximize their resources and influence, the book provides a fresh approach to understanding the seeming chaos and volatility of the policy process today. The book’s use of a wide universe of major policy decisions and case studies, focused on such key areas as health care, federal budgeting, and tax policy, provides a useful foundation for students of the policy process as well as for policy practitioners eager to learn more about their craft.

Timothy J. Conlan is University Professor of Government at George Mason University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on public policy and intergovernmental relations, is a fellow with the National Academy of Public Administration, and has received the “best book,” “best paper,” and Daniel Elazar Distinguished Scholar Award from the Federalism Section of the American Political Science Association. He is the coauthor, with Paul Posner, of Intergovernmental Management for the 21st Century.

Paul L. Posner is professor and director of the Master’s in Public Administration program at George Mason University. He is a fellow and member of the Board of the National Academy of Public Administration, was president of the American Society for Public Administration, and is recipient of the American Political Science Association’s Daniel Elazar Distinguished Scholar Award. His book, The Politics of Unfunded Mandates, won the Martha Derthick Best Book Award from the Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Section of the American Political Science Association and the best book award from the Academy of Management’s Public and Nonprofit Division.

David R. Beam (1942-2012) was director of the graduate program in public administration at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Previously, he served on the federal government’s advisory commission on intergovernmental regulations. He retired in 2003, having published 11 major works and more than 45 scholarly articles.