Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives

Product Description Since the first edition of Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives, Michael Kraft and Scott Furlong have taken a different tack. They want students to understand how and why policy analysis is used to assess policy alternatives―not only to question the assumptions of policy analysts, but also to recognize how analysis is used in support of political arguments. To encourage critical and creative thinking on issues ranging from the federal deficit to health care reform to climate change, the authors introduce and fully integrate an evaluative approach to policy.  The authors begin the fifth edition of Public Policy with a concise review of institutions, policy actors, and major theoretical models. Then, they discuss the nature of policy analysis and its practice and show students how to employ evaluative criteria in six substantive policy areas. The text arms students with the analytic tools they need to understand the motivations of policy actors―both within and outside of government―and to influence a complex, yet comprehensible, policy agenda. Review  "I have used other books, but Kraft and Furlong’s Public Policy is appealing because it’s broad enough to satisfy students’ curiosities in different policy areas, yet specific enough to home on key issues, controversies, and topics." -- Marcus D. Mauldin About the Author Michael E. Kraft is a professor of political science and the Herbert Fisk Johnson Professor of Environmental Studies emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. He is the author of Environmental Policy and Politics, 7th ed. (2018), and coauthor of Coming Clean: Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance (2011, winner of the Lynton K. Caldwell award for best book on environmental politics and policy that year) and of Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives, 7th ed. (2021). In addition, he is coeditor of both the Oxford Handbook of Environmental Policy (2013) and Business and Environmental Policy (2007) with Sheldon Kamieniecki and of Toward Sustainable Communities: Transition and Transformations in Environmental Policy, 2nd ed. (2009), with Daniel A. Mazmanian.  Scott R. Furlong is Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs at SUNY Oswego as of July 2017, after serving ten years as dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and professor of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. His areas of expertise are regulatory policy and interest group participation in the executive branch, and he has taught public policy for over twenty years. He is the author or coauthor of numerous book chapters and coauthor of Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Laws and Make Policy, 5th ed. (2019), with Cornelius M. Kerwin. His articles have appeared in such journals as Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Administration and Society, American Review of Public Administration, and Policy Studies Journal.