Politics and Public Policy

by Brand: Cq Pr (Brand), Donald C. Baumer, William T. Gormley

Book by Van Horn, Carl E., Baumer, Donald C., Gormley, William T.

Genres: Politics

346 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1988

Reviews

[Ericka Clou]

I read this in my graduate program in Legislative Affairs. This book aims to put public policy in the context of six major groups in society: corporate executives, Congress, the participants in the legal system, the public, the President, and the Administration. These groups are independent but interconnected through shifting networks of expertise. The authors use a broad range of public policy to illustrate their central points, including policy regarding economic growth, equal opportunity, and the environment. It follows policy from its initial stages to its implementation.

This book is well-written and well-organized with summaries at the end of each chapter. However, there are some points the authors take for granted. They say that "economic well-being has been the most consistently important issue in American politics," but they do not question the value of this. Economic boom times have not granted many groups increased political access or greater quality of life (gun economics are just one great illustration). The section on corporate politics discusses mainly how the government does or does not interfere with private business and not enough on how companies interfere with the government on almost every issue. There is also a lack of focus on how issues and problems can get lost in the politics. For example, (when I wrote this in 2003) it's been two years since September 11th and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and there continues to be a failure of coordination of intelligence gathering systems.

[Julie]

This book is a bit basic for me, in terms of describing the ins and outs of policy and politics. However, for the novice, it's a great introductory book. I would highly recommend it to newcomers to the discipline.