Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives, Edition 7

Michael E. Kraft · Scott R. Furlong

dic 2019 · CQ Press

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"Kraft and Furlong provide students with a conceptual understanding of public issues and how the public policy process functions. This book also provides a forum for discussions of social, economic, and sustainable development issues; their characteristics; and impacts on human beings (citizens) as well as the environment. It will give students the needed tools to make informed economic and human development decisions that could lead to sustainable growth, human capacity building, and better lives."
—Robert Dibie, Indiana University Kokomo

With the right information, we can develop public policies that work better.

All too often, public policy textbooks offer a basic grounding in the policy process without the benefit of integrating the use of policy analysis. Kraft and Furlong take a different tack.

Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives, Seventh Edition helps students understand how and why policy analysis is used to assess policy alternatives. The text encourages them to not only question the assumptions of policy analysts, but also recognize how these strategies are used in the support of political arguments. The authors introduce and fully integrate an evaluative approach to policy to encourage critical and creative thinking on issues ranging from health care to climate change. From a concise review of institutions, policy actors, and major theoretical models to a discussion of the nature of policy analysis and its practice, Kraft and Furlong show students how to employ evaluative criteria in six substantive policy areas. Students come away with the analytic tools they need to understand that the motivations of policy actors—both within and outside of government—influence a complex yet comprehensible policy agenda.

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Michael E. Kraft is professor emeritus of political scienceand public affairs at the University of Wisconsin–GreenBay. He is the author of, among other works, EnvironmentalPolicy and Politics, 8th ed. (2022), and coauthor ofComing Clean: Information Disclosure and EnvironmentalPerformance (2011), with Mark Stephan and Troy D. Abel.In addition, he is the coeditor of Environmental Policy:New Directions in the 21st Century, 12th ed. (2025), withBarry G. Rabe and Norman J. Vig; Toward SustainableCommunities: Transition and Transformations in Environmental Policy, 2nd ed. (2009), withDaniel A. Mazmanian; and Business and Environmental Policy: Corporate Interests in theAmerican Political System (2007) and The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Environmental Policy (2013),with Sheldon Kamieniecki. For over forty years, he taught courses in environmental policy andpolitics, American government, Congress, and public policy analysis.

Scott R. Furlong is provost/vice president for academicaffairs at the State University of New York at Oswego asof July 2017, after serving ten years as dean of the Collegeof Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and professorof political science and public affairs at the University ofWisconsin–Green Bay. His areas of expertise are regulatorypolicy and interest group participation in the executivebranch, and he has taught public policy for over twentyyears. He is the author or coauthor of many book chaptersand coauthor of Rulemaking: How Government AgenciesWrite Laws and Make Policy, 5th ed. (2019), with CorneliusM. Kerwin. His articles have appeared in such journals as Public Administration Review, Journalof Public Administration Research and Theory, Administration and Society, American Review ofPublic Administration, and Policy Studies Journal.