Routledge Handbook of Comparative Policy Analysis

This Handbook presents the first comprehensive study of policy analytical practices in comparative perspective.

It explores emerging developments and innovations in the field and advances knowledge of the nature and quality of policy analysis across different countries and at different levels of government by all relevant actors, both inside and outside government, who contribute to the diagnosis of problems and the search for policy solutions.

Handbook chapters examine all aspects of the science, art and craft of policy analysis. They do so both at the often-studied national level, and also at the less well-known level of sub-national and local governments. In addition to studying governments, the Handbook also examines for the first time the practices and policy work of a range of non-governmental actors, including think tanks, interest groups, business actors, labour groups, media, political parties and non-profits.

Bringing together a rich collection of cases and a renowned group of scholars, the Handbook constitutes a landmark study in the field.

Marleen Brans is Professor at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute and visiting Professor at Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. She specialises in the study of the production and uptake of policy advice.

Iris Geva-May is Professor Emerita at Simon Fraser University and Visiting Professor, Baruch College School of Public Affairs, CUNY. She is Founding Editor-in-Chief of Routledge’s Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice and Founding President of the International Comparative Policy Analysis Forum.

Michael Howlett is Burnaby Mountain Chair in the Department of Political Science at Simon Fraser University, Canada and Yong Pung How Chair Professor in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He specializes in public policy analysis, Canadian political economy, and Canadian resource and environmental policy.