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The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy

Online ISBN:
9780191577413
Print ISBN:
9780199548453
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy

Robert Goodin (ed.),
Robert Goodin
(ed.)
School of Philosophy, Australian National University
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Robert E. Goodin Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Australian National University

Michael Moran (ed.),
Michael Moran
(ed.)
Government, University of Manchester
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Michael Moran is W. J. M. Mackenzie Professor of Government in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester.

Martin Rein (ed.)
Martin Rein
(ed.)
Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Martin Rein is Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Published online:
2 September 2009
Published in print:
12 June 2008
Online ISBN:
9780191577413
Print ISBN:
9780199548453
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy mines all the traditions of public policy. Public policy is the business end of political science. It is where theory meets practice in the pursuit of the public good. Political scientists approach public policy in myriad ways. Some approach the policy process descriptively, asking how the need for public intervention comes to be perceived, a policy response formulated, enacted, implemented, and, all too often, subverted, perverted, altered, or abandoned. Others approach public policy more prescriptively, offering politically-informed suggestions for how normatively valued goals can and should be pursued, either through particular policies or through alternative processes for making policy. Some offer their advice from the Olympian heights of detached academic observers, others as ‘engaged scholars’ cum advocates, while still others seek to instil more reflective attitudes among policy practitioners themselves toward their own practices. This Handbook's articles touch upon institutional and historical sources and analytical methods, how policy is made, how it is evaluated and how it is constrained. In these ways, the Handbook shows how the combined wisdom of political science as a whole can be brought to bear on political attempts to improve the human condition. The Handbook is one of The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science — a ten-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of political science.

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