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Making Policies Work by
Policy design efforts are often hampered by an inadequate understanding of how policy tools and actions promote effective policies. This book addresses this gap by proposing a causal theory of the linkages between policy actions and policy effects. Adopting a mechanistic perspective, it identifies the causal processes that activate policy effects and help achieve policy goals. Bringing together established and emerging scholars in the field, Making Policies Work introduces new concepts of first- and second- order policy mechanisms developed from epistemological and theoretical perspectives, and considers how they can be activated through design. Theoretical concepts are explored through empirical cases from different policy arenas and contemporary policy issues such as partnerships in healthcare, food waste prevention, retirement savings, EU regulations and public sector reform.Graduate students in public policy, public administration and political science will find the powerful analytical tools offered in this book useful in exploring the theoretical elements of effective policy design. Policymakers and practitioners in governmental and non-governmental organisations interested in the practical applications will also benefit from reading this timely book.
Great Policy Successes by
With so much media and political criticism of their shortcomings and failures, it is easy to overlook the fact that many governments work pretty well much of the time. Great Policy Successes turns the spotlight on instances of public policy that are remarkably successful. It develops aframework for identifying and assessing policy successes, paying attention not just to their programmatic outcomes but also to the quality of the processes by which policies are designed and delivered, the level of support and legitimacy they attain, and the extent to which successful performanceendures over time.The bulk of the book is then devoted to 15 detailed case studies of striking policy successes from around the world, including Singapore's public health system, Copenhagen and Melbourne's rise from stilted backwaters to the highly liveable and dynamic urban centres they are today, Brazil's BolsaFamilia poverty relief scheme, the US's GI Bill, and Germany's breakthrough labour market reforms of the 2000s. Each case is set in context, its main actors are introduced, key events and decisions are described, the assessment framework is applied to gauge the nature and level of its success, keycontributing factors to success are identified, and potential lessons and future challenges are identified. Purposefully avoiding the kind of heavy theorizing that characterizes many accounts of public policy processes, each case is written in an accessible and narrative style ideally suited forclassroom use in conjunction with mainstream textbooks on public policy design, implementation, and evaluation.
Evaluating American Democracy and Public Policymaking by
Lurking in the back of the minds of many students of American government is the question, "How well does the American political system work?" This book examines this in a way that is broad in approach and accessible to readers. Such an ambitious examination of the effectiveness of the American policymaking system leads to one inescapable question: how can you measure "effectiveness?" The answer taken in this book is to employ a number of different criteria. These criteria include: -the public's attitudes towards the institutions of government -the degree in which all participate equally in political activities -the level of which public policy is responsive to public opinion -the ability of the actors in the process to create effective public policy -the extent the political system imposes costs and benefits on us equally, regardless of our economic condition race, gender, or age In doing so, this book ties together and expands upon numerous scholarly studies conducted on American public policymaking and uses David Truman's Systems Model as a conceptual guide. Because of the large amount of data presented, the book will also serve as a reference source for others conducting research on American public policy.
New Urban Spaces by
The urban condition is today being radically transformed. Urban restructuring is accelerating, new urban spaces are being consolidated, and new forms of urbanization are crystallizing. In New Urban Spaces, Neil Brenner argues that understanding these mutations of urban life requires not only concrete research, but new theories of urbanization. To this end, Brenner proposes an approach that breaks with inherited conceptions of the urban as a bounded settlement unit-the city or the metropolis-and explores the multiscalar constitution and periodic rescaling of the capitalist urban fabric. Drawing on critical geopolitical economy and spatialized approaches to state theory, Brenner offers a paradigmatic account of how rescaling processes are transforming inherited formations of urban space and their variegated consequences for emergent patterns and pathways of urbanization. The book also advances an understanding of critical urban theory as radically revisable: key urban concepts must be continually reinvented in relation to the relentlessly mutating worlds of urbanization they aspire to illuminate.
Invisible Visits by
Although the United States spends almost one-fifth of all its resources funding healthcare, the American system continues to be dogged by persistent inequities in the treatment of racial and ethnic minorities and women. Invisible Visits analyzes how middle-class Black women navigate thecomplexities of dealing with doctors in this environment. It challenges the idea that race and gender discrimination - particularly in healthcare settings - is a thing of the past, and questions the persistent myth that discrimination only affects poor racial minorities. In so doing, the bookexpands our understanding of how Black middle-class women are treated when they go to the doctor, why they continue to face inequities in securing proper medical care, and what strategies they use to fight for the best treatment (as well as the consequential toll on their health).Based on original research, the author shines a light on how women perceive the persistently negative stereotypes that follow them into the exam room, and proceeds to illustrate that simply providing more cultural-competency or anti-bias training to doctors will not be enough to overcome theproblem. For Americans to truly address these challenges, the deeply embedded discrimination in our prized institutions - including those in the healthcare sector - must be acknowledged.
Cultural Policy in the Polder by
At the occasion of the 25 anniversary of the Dutch Cultural Policy Act, Dutch academics in cultural policy research have compiled a volume to commemorate the quarter century in which Dutch cultural policy has developed and analyse the key debates in Dutch cultural policy for the coming years.Historically, central public authority in the Netherlands has been problematic. The country's origin as a confederation of seven independent republics, has had effect in the sense that government usually works 'bottom up'. As a result the Netherlands has relatively few national cultural institutions when compared to other countries. Moreover, the national media never have been linked to the nation state. It is therefore surprising that the nation's cultural policy can be described as a national system in which the nation state sets the agenda rather than cities and regions.
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