Public Policy Praxis

by Randall S. Clemons, Mark K. McBeth

Public administration and policy analysis education has long emphasized tidiness, stages, and rationality, but practitioners frequently must deal with a world where objectivity is buffeted by, repressed by, and sometimes defeated by, value conflict. Too often public administration education has failed individuals who must deal with the hustle and bustle and complexity of policymaking. Public Policy Praxis equips students to grapple with ambiguity and complexity. By emphasizing mixed methodologies and through the use of cases, students are encouraged to develop a workable and practical model of applied policy analysis. Throughout the book, Clemons and McBeth argue that pragmatism demands that analysts learn to think politically and to understand that public problems are socially constructed. As such, in addition to analytical models, the authors examine specific tools of policy analysis, such as stakeholder mapping, content analysis, group facilitation, narrative analysis, cost-benefit analysis, futuring, and survey analysis. Students are given the opportunity to try out these analytical models and tools in varied case settings (county, city, federal, urban, and rural) facing wide-ranging topics (economic development, expansion of human services in an urban area, building a health care clinic in a small town, an inner-city drug program, and the bison controversy in Yellowstone National Park) that capture the diversity of public policy and the intergovernmental nature of politics. With chapters written to the student and in a nearly conversational style, Public Policy Praxis is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in public policy analysis, community planning, leadership, social welfare policy, educational policy, family policy, and special seminars.

Genres: Politics

350 pages, Paperback

First published July 27, 2000

About the author

Also writes as Randy S. Clemons.

Reviews

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have used a previous version of this book and this version for graduate level courses. This time around I have come the realization that it is a terrific book, but it is extremely difficult to use when teaching an asynchronous online course. I might look at other options in the future and use this as a recommended book in my courses.

[d9fqdfnka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much like the importance that the authors place on postpositivist perspectives. The book is also an easy read for the politically naive like me, and intermittently humorous. But my main objection is when the authors assume that public policy in the US "could easily be translated to a controversy about endangered elephants in Africa" (p. 7). The authors ignore the vast differences in political systems and everything else, seemingly not realising that the world is so different elsewhere.
There are also quite a number of typo errors.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, though because of the structure of the course, I wasn't able to spend quite as much time on the concepts as I wish I could have. I appreciate how confident they are in the importance of a mixed methods approach for policy analysis and research.

[Erin McDonnell-Jones]

This book was assigned for my Ed.D policy class. I will openly admit that I only read the first chapter, felt insulted, bookmarked the chapters in the book, and did not read another page. It was boring, and I felt that it wasn't applicable enough to my studies.

[Fred Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some good case studies and examples and a reasonably readable coverage of the theory. Might use some of the cases in my course.

[Willa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, if a bit too much on the mushy postmodern side.