Understanding public policy

Table of Contents

preface, xi

1 policy analysis

the thinking man’s response to demands for relevance, 3

• Policy analysis in political science
• Why study public policy?
• Policy analysis and policy advocacy
• Policy analysis in action—social scientists and the “busing” issue
• Policy analysis and the quest for “solutions” to America’s problems
• Bibliography

2 models of politics

some help in thinking about public policy, 19

• Models for policy analysis
• Institutionalism: Policy as institutional activity
• Group theory: Policy as group equilibrium
• Elite theory: Policy as elite preference
• Rationalism: policy as efficient goal achievement
• Incrementalism: Policy as variations on the past
• Game theory: Policy as rational choice in competitive situations
• Systems theory: Policy as system output
• Models: How to tell if they are helping or not
• Bibliography

3 civil rights

elite mass interaction, 43

• Elite mass attitudes and civil rights
• The development of civil rights policy
• Mass resistance to civil rights policy
• “De facto” school segregation and busing
• Congress and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• National “fair housing” policy
• Equality and black-white “life chances”
• Public policy and “affirmative action”
• Women in America
• Abortion and the Right to Life
• Summary
• Bibliography

4 crime, violence, and repression

elite response to mass disorder, 75

• The problem of crime
• Crime and the courts
• Crime deterrence as public policy
• Prisons and correctional policies
• Death as punishment
• Federal law enforcement policy
• Violence in black ghettos
• Assessing the causes of riots
• Elite and mass reaction to racial violence
• Summary
• Bibliography

5 poverty

the search for a rational strategy, 93

• Poverty in America
• Poverty as inequality
• The curative strategy—the War on Poverty
• Federal manpower programs
• The Economic Opportunity Act
• Why we lost the War on Poverty
• The public service jobs controversy
• Summary
• Bibliography

6 welfare and health

the limits of rationalism, 111

• Rationality and irrationality in welfare policy
• The punitive strategy—early welfare policy
• The preventative strategy—social security
• Intended and unintended consequences of social security
• Medical care for the aged and poor
• The alleviative strategy—public assistance
• The welfare mess: Consequences unintended
• New strategies for income maintenance
• Summary
• Bibliography

7 education

the group struggle, 135

• The federal role in education
• Federal aid to education and the group struggle
• Reading, writing, and religion in the courts
• The formal structure of educational decision making
• The informal structure of educational groups
• The challenge of school finance: Haves and have-nots
• Public higher education
• Summary
• Bibliography

8 population, energy, and the environment

group stalemate, 159

• The world population explosion
• Pollution and the environment
• The environmentalists: Man against technology
• The regulatory quagmire
• The energy crisis
• Energy: The competing interests
• Summary
• Bibliography

9 urban affairs

institutional arrangements and public policy, 181

• Dilemmas of urban policy
• HUD—mortgage insurance
• HUD—public housing
• HUD—urban renewal
• Structural problems in federal urban policy
• Federal assistance for cities: New York faces bankruptcy
• Summary
• Bibliography

10 priorities and price tags

dimensions of institutional activity, 197

• Dimensions of government spending
• Wars, depressions, and government activity
• Identifying national priorities
• Public policy and the federal system
• Federal grants-in-aid
• Revenue sharing: A new direction in federalism
• Some conclusions about government spending
• Bibliography

11 budget and taxes

incrementalism at work, 215

• Incrementalism in budget making
• The formal budgetary process
• The stability of public policy
• The federal budget
• Tax policy: Who bears the burdens of government?
• Tax reform and tax “loopholes”
• Spending policy: Who enjoys the benefits of government?
• Summary
• Bibliography

12 defense policy

strategies for serious games, 235

• Deterrence strategy and nuclear war
• The evolution of American defense policy
• Strategic Arms Limitation Agreement—SALT and SALT II
• Nuclear war games
• Conventional war games
• Is the U.S. Number Two in defense?
• Summary
• Bibliography

13 inputs, outputs, and black boxes

a systems analysis of state policies, 267

• Extending the boundaries of policy analysis
• Economic resources and public policy: Previous research
• Economic resources and levels of public spending and service
• Federal grants as “outside money”
• Stability and change in input-output relationships
• Politics, environment, and policy: Previous research
• Pluralism, reformism, and public policy
• The relative importance of environmental and political forces in shaping public policy
• A closer look: Causal models in policy determination
• Summary
• Bibliography

14 the policy-making process

getting inside the system, 295

• The black box problem
• Mass opinion and public policy
• Elite attitudes and public policy
• Party influence on public policy
• Interest groups and public policy
• Policy innovation
• Summary
• Bibliography

15 policy impact

finding out what happens after a law is passed, 311

• Assessing the impact of public policy
• The symbolic impact of policy
• Evaluating ongoing programs: What governments can do to learn the impact of their own policies
• Evaluating ongoing programs: Why governments do not know the impact of their own policies
• PPBS, social indicators, and other evaluative tools
• Experimental policy research: The guaranteed income experiment
• Problems in policy experimentation
• The limits of public policy
• Bibliography

index, 333