Understanding public policy

Cover
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 Policy Analysis
	What Governments Do, Why They Do It, and What Difference It Makes
	1.1: What Is Public Policy?
	1.2: Why Study Public Policy?
	1.3: What Can Be Learned from Policy Analysis?
	1.4: Policy Analysis and Policy Advocacy
	1.5: Policy Analysis and the Quest for Solutions to America’s Problems
	1.6: Policy Analysis as Art and Craft
	Summary: Policy Analysis
Chapter 2 Models of Politics
	Some Help in Thinking About Public Policy
	2.1: Models for Policy Analysis
	2.2: Process: Policy as Political Activity
	2.3: Institutionalism: Policy as Institutional Output
	2.4: Rationalism: Policy as Maximum Social Gain
	2.5: Incrementalism: Policy as Variations on the Past
	2.6: Group Theory: Policy as Equilibrium in the Group Struggle
	2.7: Elite Theory: Policy as Elite Preference
	2.8: Public Choice Theory: Policy as Collective Decision Making by Self-Interested Individuals
	2.9: Game Theory: Policy as Rational Choice in Competitive Situations
	2.10: Models: How to Tell if They Are Helping or Not
	Summary: Models of Politics
Chapter 3 The Policymaking Process
	Decision-Making Activities
	3.1: The Policy Process: How Policies Are Made
	3.2: Problem Identification and Agenda Setting
	3.3: Agenda Setting from the Bottom Up
	3.4: Agenda Setting from the Top Down
	3.5: Agenda Setting: The Mass Media
	3.6: Formulating Policy
	3.7: Interest Groups and Policymaking
	3.8: Policy Legitimation: The Proximate Policymakers
	3.9: The Budgetary and Appropriations Processes
	3.10: Policy Implementation: The Bureaucracy
	Summary: The Policymaking Process
Chapter 4 Policy Evaluation
	Finding Out What Happens After a Law Is Passed
	4.1: Policy Evaluation: Assessing the Impact of Public Policy
	4.2: The Symbolic Impact of Policy
	4.3: Program Evaluation: What Governments Usually Do
	4.4: Program Evaluation: What Governments Can Do
	4.5: Experimental Policy Research
	4.6: Federal Evaluation: The Office of Management and Budget
	4.7: Federal Evaluation: The General Accountability Office
	4.8: Program Evaluation: Why It Fails So Often
	4.9: How Bureaucrats Explain Negative Findings
	4.10: Why Government Programs Are Seldom Terminated
	4.11: Politics as a Substitute for Analysis
	4.12: The Limits of Public Policy
	Summary: Policy Evaluation
Chapter 5 Federalism and State Policies
	Institutional Arrangements and Policy Variations
	5.1: American Federalism
	5.2: Why Federalism?
	5.3: Politics and Institutional Arrangements
	5.4: American Federalism: Variations on the Theme
	5.5: Federalism Revived?
	5.6: Federalism and Obamacare
	5.7: Money and Power Flow to Washington
	5.8: Federal Preemptions and Mandates
	5.9: States Battle Back: Legalizing Pot
	5.10: States Confront Public Employee Union Power
	5.11: State Policymaking by Initiative and Referenda
	5.12: Comparing Public Policies of the States
	Summary: Federalism and State Policies
Chapter 6 Criminal Justice
	Rationality and Irrationality in Public Policy
	6.1: Crime in America
	6.2: Crime and Deterrence
	6.3: Does Crime Pay?
	6.4: Police and Law Enforcement
	6.5: Federalizing Crime
	6.6: Crime and Guns
	6.7: The Drug War
	6.8: Crime and the Courts
	6.9: Prisons and Correctional Policies
	6.10: Capital Punishment
	Summary: Criminal Justice
Chapter 7 Welfare and Inequality
	The Search for Rational Strategies
	7.1: Rationality and Irrationality in the Welfare State
	7.2: Defining the Problem: Poverty in America
	7.3: Who Are the Poor?
	7.4: Why Are the Poor Poor?
	7.5: The Preventive Strategy: Social Security
	7.6: Intended and Unintended Consequences of Social Security
	7.7: Social Security Reform?
	7.8: Unemployment Compensation
	7.9: The Alleviative Strategy: Public Assistance
	7.10: Welfare Reform
	7.11: The Working Poor
	7.12: Income Inequality
	7.13: Income Mobility
	Summary: Welfare and Inequality
Chapter 8 Health Care
	Attempting a Rational- Comprehensive Transformation
	8.1: Health Care in America
	8.2: Incremental Strategies: Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP
	8.3: Health Care Modifications
	8.4: The Health Care Reform Movement
	8.5: Health Care Transformation
	8.6: Challenges to “Obamacare”?
	Summary: Health Care
Chapter 9 Education
	Group Struggles
	9.1: Multiple Goals in Educational Policy
	9.2: Educational Attainment
	9.3: The Educational Groups
	9.4: Battling over the Basics
	9.5: The Federal Government’s Role in Education
	9.6: No Child Left Behind
	9.7: Controversies over “No Child”
	9.8: The Common Core
	9.9: Race to the Top
	9.10: Parental Choice in Education
	9.11: Battles over School Finances
	9.12: Public Policy and Higher Education
	9.13: “Diversity” in Higher Education
	9.14: Groups in Higher Education
	9.15: Reading, Writing, and Religion
	Summary: Education
Chapter 10 Economic Policy
	Challenging Incrementalism
	10.1: Incremental and Nonincremental Policymaking
	10.2: Fiscal and Monetary Policy
	10.3: Economic Theories as Policy Guides
	10.4: Measuring the Performance of the American Economy
	10.5: Financial Crisis and Nonincremental Policy Change
	10.6: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
	10.7: The Economic Stimulus Package
	10.8: The Fed at Work
	10.9: The Growth of Government Spending
	10.10: Government Deficits and the National Debt
	10.11: A Balanced Budget Amendment?
	10.12: The Regulatory State
	10.13: Economic Freedom
	Summary: Economic Policy
Chapter 11 Tax Policy
	Battling the Special Interests
	11.1: Interest Groups and Tax Policy
	11.2: The Federal Tax System
	11.3: Taxation, Fairness, and Growth
	11.4: Tax Battles: Reagan Through Bush
	11.5: Obama Sequestration and Shutdown
	11.6: Capital Gains and Dividend Taxation
	11.7: Replacing the Income Tax?
	Summary: Tax Policy
Chapter 12 International Trade and Immigration
	Elite–Mass Conflict
	12.1: The Global Economy
	12.2: Changing Elite Preferences for World Trade
	12.3: Elite Gains from Trade
	12.4: Mass Losses from Trade
	12.5: Elite–Mass Differences over Immigration
	12.6: National Immigration Policy
	Summary: International Trade and Immigration
Chapter 13 Energy and the Environment
	Externalities and Interests
	13.1: Public Choice and the Environment
	13.2: Environmental Externalities
	13.3: Politicians and Bureaucrats: Regulating the Environment
	13.4: Interest Group Effects
	13.5: Global Warming/Climate Change
	13.6: International Environmental Politics
	13.7: Energy Policy
	13.8: The Cap and Trade Controversy
	13.9: The Nuclear Industry Meltdown
	Summary: Energy and the Environment
Chapter 14 Civil Rights
	Elite and Mass Interaction
	14.1: Elite and Mass Opinions and Race
	14.2: The Development of Civil Rights Policy
	14.3: Mass Resistance to Desegregation
	14.4: Racial Balancing in Public Schools
	14.5: The Civil Rights Movement
	14.6: Public Policy and Affirmative Action
	14.7: The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action
	14.8: Public Policy and Hispanic Americans*
	14.9: The Constitution and Gender Equality
	14.10: Public Policy and Gender Equality
	14.11: Abortion and the Right to Life
	14.12: Public Policy and Sexual Orientation
	14.13: Public Policy and the Disabled
	Summary: Civil Rights
Chapter 15 Defense Policy
	Strategies for Serious Games
	15.1: National Security as a Serious Game
	15.2: Confronting Nuclear Threats
	15.3: Arms Control Games
	15.4: Missile Defenses: The Limits of Deterrence
	15.5: NATO and European Security
	15.6: When to Use Military Force?
	15.7: Threats, Strategies, and Forces
	15.8: Using Military Force: The Gulf War
	15.9: Using Military Force: Iraq
	15.10: What Went Wrong in Iraq?
	15.11: Using Military Force: Afghanistan
	Summary: Defense Policy
Chapter 16 Homeland Security
	Terrorism and Nondeterrable Threats
	16.1: The Nature of Terrorism
	16.2: Post–9/11 Response
	16.3: Secrecy and Democracy: The FISA Court
	16.4: Enemy Combatants
	16.5: The Department of Homeland Security
	16.6: Fighting Terrorism with Intelligence
	16.7: Security Versus Liberty
	Summary: Homeland Security
Notes
Bibliography
Web Sites
Credits
Index
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