Understanding Public Policy (11th Edition),   ISBN:9780131174528

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Fast shipping and the book came in perfect condition. This book really helped me to understand how things work. My professor suggested this reading and I think it helped. You do have to understand some basics before you read this book, but again it was a great aid.

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A must read for policy freaks. As well written as any text i have seen on Publid Policy. Written in a style that is very accessable.

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Well written book, however the author does slant some of his writings towards his own opinion. The editor should find a new job! Numerous typos throughout the book.

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Thomas Dye is an eminent political scientist. His textbook on public policy is one of the standards. It may not be elegantly written, but it remains one of the popular texts in the field.

Its key distinguishing figure is the contention that we need to be aware of different "models" of politics as these inform our understanding of public policy. Models are simplifications of reality to highlight certain key aspects of a phenomenon--in this case policy.

A series of models is outlined in chapter 2: institutionalism, process, rationalism, Incrementalism, group theory, elite theory, public choice theory, and game theory. One could add others, of course, but these are the ones used by Dye. The third chapter discusses the standard perspective on the stages of the policy process--from problem identification and agenda setting to policy evaluation.

Subsequent chapters examine different policy areas as these might be elucidated by various models of the policy process (e.g., group politics and education policy or Incrementalism in economic policy or game theory and defense policy, to illustrate).

While, in many senses, this is not an exciting volume, it provides a useful introduction to the policy process and those models that are often used to explain what happens.

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This book attempts to present public policy theories (incrementalism, group theory, elitism and so on) together with a number of concrete applications, in order to demonstrate how different theories highlights different aspects of policy making. It is not so much a matter of which theory is correct, but which theory is useful to analyze a certain issue. All this is of course very fine.

The problem with the book is that the theories are presented so briefly, and the analyses are so shallow, that the student cannot possibly get a good grasp of what is really going on. The basic concept "policy process" is not dealt with until chapter 14 (of 15 chapters)! Only 4 pages are devoted to the fundamental problem of agenda-setting. Further, the book lacks references to most of the exciting current litterature in the field. The interested student will not find many suggestions on how to move on from this book.

The author seems to be much more interested in describing policies than analyzing them. Indeed, the book does offer some nice case studies on important American policy issues, like abortion, arms race, and nuclear power. These cases could perhaps be used as material for exercises, but look elsewhere for theory.

If you are looking for an introduction to theories of public policy I would recommend Howlett & Ramesh: "Studying Public Policy" instead of this book -- it is slightly older, but still more up-to-date. But if you want a 300-page description of American policies in different policy areas, then look no further.