Author: Timothy J. Conlan
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626160406
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
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.
Pathways of Power
Author: Timothy J. Conlan
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626160406
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
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.
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626160406
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
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.
Culture and Values at the Heart of Policy Making
Author: Stephen Muers
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447356152
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186
Book Description
Why do so many government policies fail to achieve their objectives? Why are our political leaders not held to account for policy failures? Drawing on his years of experience as a senior government policy maker, as well as on global research, Stephen Muers uses examples ranging from the collapse of the Soviet Union to Cold War Germany, the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum to expose the crucial impact culture and values have on policy success and political accountability. This illuminating study sets out why policy makers need to take culture seriously, how culture and values shape the political system and presents essential, practical recommendations for what governments should do differently.
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447356152
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186
Book Description
Why do so many government policies fail to achieve their objectives? Why are our political leaders not held to account for policy failures? Drawing on his years of experience as a senior government policy maker, as well as on global research, Stephen Muers uses examples ranging from the collapse of the Soviet Union to Cold War Germany, the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum to expose the crucial impact culture and values have on policy success and political accountability. This illuminating study sets out why policy makers need to take culture seriously, how culture and values shape the political system and presents essential, practical recommendations for what governments should do differently.
Top Down Policymaking
Author: Thomas R. Dye
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
In his eye-opening work, Dye explodes the myth that public policy represents the “demands of the people” and that the making of public policy flows upward from the masses. In reality, Dye argues, public policy in America, as in all nations, reflects the values, interests, and preferences of a governing elite. Top Down Policymaking is a close examination of the process by which the nation’s elite goes about the task of making public policy. Focusing on the behind-the-scenes activities of money foundations, policy planning organizations, think tanks, political campaign contributors, special-interest groups, lobbyists, law firms, influence-peddlers, and the national news media, Dye concludes that public policy is made from the top down.
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
In his eye-opening work, Dye explodes the myth that public policy represents the “demands of the people” and that the making of public policy flows upward from the masses. In reality, Dye argues, public policy in America, as in all nations, reflects the values, interests, and preferences of a governing elite. Top Down Policymaking is a close examination of the process by which the nation’s elite goes about the task of making public policy. Focusing on the behind-the-scenes activities of money foundations, policy planning organizations, think tanks, political campaign contributors, special-interest groups, lobbyists, law firms, influence-peddlers, and the national news media, Dye concludes that public policy is made from the top down.
Science for Policy Handbook
Author: Vladimír Šucha
Publisher:
ISBN: 0128226900
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 0128226900
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
Constitutional Coup
Author: Jon D. Michaels
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674737733
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
Americans hate bureaucracy—though they love the services it provides—and demand that government run like a business. Hence today’s privatization revolution. Jon Michaels shows how the fusion of politics and profits commercializes government and consolidates state power in ways the Constitution’s framers endeavored to disaggregate.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674737733
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
Americans hate bureaucracy—though they love the services it provides—and demand that government run like a business. Hence today’s privatization revolution. Jon Michaels shows how the fusion of politics and profits commercializes government and consolidates state power in ways the Constitution’s framers endeavored to disaggregate.
Energy Policy Making in the EU
Author: Jale Tosun
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1447166450
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
The book adopts an innovative analytical approach to agenda setting by not only presenting successful cases in which energy issues were addressed by means of public policy, but by also analyzing failed attempts to make issues part of the European policy agenda. Another outstanding feature of the book is its use of the latest empirical data on a broad range of energy issues. When are energy issues likely to find their way to the agenda of European policymakers? This is the key research question guiding this collection of empirical studies, which will shed light on both successful and unsuccessful attempts to include energy issues in the European agenda. The multi-level political system of the European Union represents a particularly fruitful setting for addressing this question due to the multiple institutional access points it provides for different groups of actors. The book has three key benefits. First, it provides a theory-informed analysis of agenda setting processes in general and in the European Union in particular. Second, it presents an overview of the most important and emerging dimensions on European energy policy, and third, it helps to develop a research agenda for future research in the field.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1447166450
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
The book adopts an innovative analytical approach to agenda setting by not only presenting successful cases in which energy issues were addressed by means of public policy, but by also analyzing failed attempts to make issues part of the European policy agenda. Another outstanding feature of the book is its use of the latest empirical data on a broad range of energy issues. When are energy issues likely to find their way to the agenda of European policymakers? This is the key research question guiding this collection of empirical studies, which will shed light on both successful and unsuccessful attempts to include energy issues in the European agenda. The multi-level political system of the European Union represents a particularly fruitful setting for addressing this question due to the multiple institutional access points it provides for different groups of actors. The book has three key benefits. First, it provides a theory-informed analysis of agenda setting processes in general and in the European Union in particular. Second, it presents an overview of the most important and emerging dimensions on European energy policy, and third, it helps to develop a research agenda for future research in the field.
Building Civic Capacity
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Community and school
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
The authors of this volume argue that urban education is in urgent need of reform and that, although there have been plenty of innovative and even promising attempts to improve conditions, most have been doomed. The reason for this, they agree, lies in the failure of our major cities to develop their "civic capacity"--The ability to build and maintain a broad social and political coalition across all sectors of the urban community in pursuit of a common goal.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Community and school
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
The authors of this volume argue that urban education is in urgent need of reform and that, although there have been plenty of innovative and even promising attempts to improve conditions, most have been doomed. The reason for this, they agree, lies in the failure of our major cities to develop their "civic capacity"--The ability to build and maintain a broad social and political coalition across all sectors of the urban community in pursuit of a common goal.
White-Collar Government
Author: Nicholas Carnes
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022608728X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201
Book Description
Eight of the last twelve presidents were millionaires when they took office. Millionaires have a majority on the Supreme Court, and they also make up majorities in Congress, where a background in business or law is the norm and the average member has spent less than two percent of his or her adult life in a working-class job. Why is it that most politicians in America are so much better off than the people who elect them— and does the social class divide between citizens and their representatives matter? With White-Collar Government, Nicholas Carnes answers this question with a resounding—and disturbing—yes. Legislators’ socioeconomic backgrounds, he shows, have a profound impact on both how they view the issues and the choices they make in office. Scant representation from among the working class almost guarantees that the policymaking process will be skewed toward outcomes that favor the upper class. It matters that the wealthiest Americans set the tax rates for the wealthy, that white-collar professionals choose the minimum wage for blue-collar workers, and that people who have always had health insurance decide whether or not to help those without. And while there is no one cause for this crisis of representation, Carnes shows that the problem does not stem from a lack of qualified candidates from among the working class. The solution, he argues, must involve a variety of changes, from the equalization of campaign funding to a shift in the types of candidates the parties support. If we want a government for the people, we have to start working toward a government that is truly by the people. White-Collar Government challenges long-held notions about the causes of political inequality in the United States and speaks to enduring questions about representation and political accountability.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022608728X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201
Book Description
Eight of the last twelve presidents were millionaires when they took office. Millionaires have a majority on the Supreme Court, and they also make up majorities in Congress, where a background in business or law is the norm and the average member has spent less than two percent of his or her adult life in a working-class job. Why is it that most politicians in America are so much better off than the people who elect them— and does the social class divide between citizens and their representatives matter? With White-Collar Government, Nicholas Carnes answers this question with a resounding—and disturbing—yes. Legislators’ socioeconomic backgrounds, he shows, have a profound impact on both how they view the issues and the choices they make in office. Scant representation from among the working class almost guarantees that the policymaking process will be skewed toward outcomes that favor the upper class. It matters that the wealthiest Americans set the tax rates for the wealthy, that white-collar professionals choose the minimum wage for blue-collar workers, and that people who have always had health insurance decide whether or not to help those without. And while there is no one cause for this crisis of representation, Carnes shows that the problem does not stem from a lack of qualified candidates from among the working class. The solution, he argues, must involve a variety of changes, from the equalization of campaign funding to a shift in the types of candidates the parties support. If we want a government for the people, we have to start working toward a government that is truly by the people. White-Collar Government challenges long-held notions about the causes of political inequality in the United States and speaks to enduring questions about representation and political accountability.
Gridlock
Author: Thomas Hale
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745670105
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 223
Book Description
The issues that increasingly dominate the 21st century cannot be solved by any single country acting alone, no matter how powerful. To manage the global economy, prevent runaway environmental destruction, reign in nuclear proliferation, or confront other global challenges, we must cooperate. But at the same time, our tools for global policymaking - chiefly state-to-state negotiations over treaties and international institutions - have broken down. The result is gridlock, which manifests across areas via a number of common mechanisms. The rise of new powers representing a more diverse array of interests makes agreement more difficult. The problems themselves have also grown harder as global policy issues penetrate ever more deeply into core domestic concerns. Existing institutions, created for a different world, also lock-in pathological decision-making procedures and render the field ever more complex. All of these processes - in part a function of previous, successful efforts at cooperation - have led global cooperation to fail us even as we need it most. Ranging over the main areas of global concern, from security to the global economy and the environment, this book examines these mechanisms of gridlock and pathways beyond them. It is written in a highly accessible way, making it relevant not only to students of politics and international relations but also to a wider general readership.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745670105
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 223
Book Description
The issues that increasingly dominate the 21st century cannot be solved by any single country acting alone, no matter how powerful. To manage the global economy, prevent runaway environmental destruction, reign in nuclear proliferation, or confront other global challenges, we must cooperate. But at the same time, our tools for global policymaking - chiefly state-to-state negotiations over treaties and international institutions - have broken down. The result is gridlock, which manifests across areas via a number of common mechanisms. The rise of new powers representing a more diverse array of interests makes agreement more difficult. The problems themselves have also grown harder as global policy issues penetrate ever more deeply into core domestic concerns. Existing institutions, created for a different world, also lock-in pathological decision-making procedures and render the field ever more complex. All of these processes - in part a function of previous, successful efforts at cooperation - have led global cooperation to fail us even as we need it most. Ranging over the main areas of global concern, from security to the global economy and the environment, this book examines these mechanisms of gridlock and pathways beyond them. It is written in a highly accessible way, making it relevant not only to students of politics and international relations but also to a wider general readership.
Executive Policymaking
Author: Meena Bose
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815737963
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325
Book Description
A deep look into the agency that implements the president's marching orders to the rest of the executive branch The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is one of the federal government's most important and powerful agencies—but it's also one of the least-known among the general public. This book describes why the office is so important and why both scholars and citizens should know more about what it does. The predecessor to the modern OMB was founded in 1921, as the Bureau of the Budget within the Treasury Department. President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it in 1939 into the Executive Office of the President, where it's been ever since. The office received its current name in 1970, during the Nixon administration. For most people who know about it, the OMB's only apparent job is to supervise preparation of the president's annual budget request to Congress. That job, in itself, gives the office tremendous influence within the executive branch. But OMB has other responsibilities that give it a central role in how the federal government functions on a daily basis. OMB reviews all of the administration's legislative proposals and the president's executive orders. It oversees the development and implementation of nearly all government management initiatives. The office also analyses the costs and benefits of major government regulations, this giving it great sway over government actions that affect nearly every person and business in America. One question facing voters in the 2020 elections will be how well the executive branch has carried out the president's promises; a major aspect of that question centers around the wider work of the OMB. This book will help members of the public, as well as scholars and other experts, answer that question.
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815737963
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325
Book Description
A deep look into the agency that implements the president's marching orders to the rest of the executive branch The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is one of the federal government's most important and powerful agencies—but it's also one of the least-known among the general public. This book describes why the office is so important and why both scholars and citizens should know more about what it does. The predecessor to the modern OMB was founded in 1921, as the Bureau of the Budget within the Treasury Department. President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it in 1939 into the Executive Office of the President, where it's been ever since. The office received its current name in 1970, during the Nixon administration. For most people who know about it, the OMB's only apparent job is to supervise preparation of the president's annual budget request to Congress. That job, in itself, gives the office tremendous influence within the executive branch. But OMB has other responsibilities that give it a central role in how the federal government functions on a daily basis. OMB reviews all of the administration's legislative proposals and the president's executive orders. It oversees the development and implementation of nearly all government management initiatives. The office also analyses the costs and benefits of major government regulations, this giving it great sway over government actions that affect nearly every person and business in America. One question facing voters in the 2020 elections will be how well the executive branch has carried out the president's promises; a major aspect of that question centers around the wider work of the OMB. This book will help members of the public, as well as scholars and other experts, answer that question.