Studying Public Policy: Policy Cycles and Policy Subsystems

by Michael Howlett, M. Ramesh

Studies of public policymaking all to often apply general assumptions about political life to specific case studies. In Studying Public Policy , Michael Howlett and M. Ramesh argue that this approach does not do justice to the wealth of empirical studies pointing to a different set of factors
responsible for general patterns of policymaking.

Following a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing approaches, the authors inventory current British, American and Canadian literature on policy actors, institutions, and instruments, and derive from that inventory the elements of an inductive, middle-range theory of public
policymaking. The model developed in the book not only helps to unify theoretical and empirical studies, but identifies critical elements of the process of policy change of interest not only to specialists but also to practitioners in the field.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Public Policy, Textbooks

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 1996

About the author

Michael Howlett is Burnaby Mountain Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Political Science at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. He specializes in public policy studies with an emphasis on natural resource and environmental policy-making. He is currently editor of Policy Sciences, Policy Design and Practice, the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Policy & Society and the Annual Review of Policy Design.

Reviews

[Steven Peterson]

This is a nice, functional textbook on the public policy process. It is a bit brief for my tastes, but is organized nicely.

The first part lays out the basics--Why study public policy? What are the theoretical approaches to public policy? What is the context in which public policy develops. This is an important chapter, since context varies from country to country, and the reader must understand that. I teach a graduate course in public policy and a doctoral course in policy analysis. The chapter on context, to me, is critical in such a class--and the chapter is nicely done in this text.

The next part of the book looks at the stages of the policy process: (1) agenda setting (what are the issues that get on the table for serious discussion); (2) policy formulation (How do we determine the policy alternatives from which to choose?); (3) Decision-making (How does a policy get made?); (4) How are policies implemented (put into effect?); (5) How do we evaluate policies.

The final chapter looks at policy change.

All in all, a nicely written book that considers key issues. Perhaps somewhat more detail would be helpful, but. . . .

[Cheryl]

Good overview of what is going on. Great read for me coming from academic policy to work with public policy.

[Onyango Gedion]

Still reading

[Geoff Ball]

This is a very informative book—it is packed with details. The problem is, it is packed with details, which are often boring. The authors often break categories into subcategories, which are then further subdivided to the extent that I lost track and/or interest in the minutiae.

This was a very useful book for Public Policy, but I wouldn't imagine anyone reading it outside of the academic world.

[Dr. Faheem J. Khan]

Far better public policy book than many available in the market. Especially for public policy students and researchers. Easy reading, understandable language, reasonable arguments, nice everyday examples and good flow of discussion. I am using this book as one of my key references for the (MPhil/PhD) course on 'power, politics, and public policy' at the School of Public Policy, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad.

[Rani Pebriani]

good

[JuanSe Montero Beltran]

is very awesome