Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives

With the right information, we can develop public policies that work better.

All too often, public policy textbooks offer a basic grounding in the policy process without the benefit of integrating the use of policy analysis. Michael E. Kraft and Scott R. Furlong take a different tack.

Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives, Seventh Edition helps students understand how and why policy analysis is used to assess policy alternatives. The text encourages them to not only question the assumptions of policy analyst, but also recognize how these strategies are used in the support of political arguments. The authors introduce and fully integrate an evaluative approach to policy to encourage critical and creative thinking on issues ranging from health care to climate change. From a concise review of institutions, policy actors, and major theoretical models to a discussion of the nature of policy analysis and its practice, Kraft and Furlong show students how to employ evaluative criteria in six substantive policy areas. Students come away with the analytic tools they need to understand that the motivations of policy actors--both within and outside of government--influence a complex yet comprehensible policy agenda.




Author: Michael E. Kraft, Scott R. Furlong
Publisher: CQ Press
Published: 01/28/2020
Pages: 544
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 2.05lbs
Size: 9.10h x 7.50w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781544374611

About the Author
Kraft, Michael E.: - Michael E. Kraft is a professor of political science and the Herbert Fisk Johnson Professor of Environmental Studies emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He is the author of Environmental Policy and Politics, 7th ed. (2018), and coauthor of Coming Clean: Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance (2011, winner of the Lynton K. Caldwell award for best book on environmental politics and policy that year) and of Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives, 7th ed. (2021). In addition, he is coeditor of both the Oxford Handbook of Environmental Policy (2013) and Business and Environmental Policy (2007) with Sheldon Kamieniecki and of Toward Sustainable Communities: Transition and Transformations in Environmental Policy, 2nd ed. (2009), with Daniel A. Mazmanian. Furlong, Scott R.: - Scott R. Furlong is Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs at SUNY Oswego as of July 2017, after serving ten years as dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and professor of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. His areas of expertise are regulatory policy and interest group participation in the executive branch, and he has taught public policy for over twenty years. He is the author or coauthor of numerous book chapters and coauthor of Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Laws and Make Policy, 5th ed. (2019), with Cornelius M. Kerwin. His articles have appeared in such journals as Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Administration and Society, American Review of Public Administration, and Policy Studies Journal.