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Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: I used this book in a public policy course. I initially did not think that I would like this subject. But the book made all the
difference. Interesting exploration of different models of policy analysis and great cases. The writing is interesting and the political approach to policy analysis is particularly effective. A great book for MPA students or anyone else interested in understanding how to analyze public policy.
Rating:
Summary: A New Approach to Policy Analysis
Review: This book is very good. It has interesting writing, great cases, and really makes students of policy analysis think about the role of politics in policy making and how this impact the role of the policy analyst. The first chapter deals with value conflict and power and this theme comes up again and again in later chapters. Chapter two deals fairly with the rational model. The authors do not dish the rational model but instead point out the limited circumstances in which it it can be used. They pick up on this theme in chapter 5 with their pragmatic approach to policy analysis. Again, they both critique and show application. Chapters 3,4,and 6 illustrate the author's basic contention that policy and policy analysis is political and that despite our attempts at rationality, politics is about power and value conflict. A case study on a county commissioner and bison management in Yellowstone National Park reinforce their views. The book ends with a look at democracy in policy analysis and a critique of positivist tools.
All in all, a great book for policy analysis students.
Rating:
Summary: An Important Political Approach to Policy Analysis
Review: This is one of the first public policy analysis books on the market in the last 25 years that has dared to do something new.
The first chapter of the book begins not with a discussion of market economics but rather with a discussion of politics, power, and democracy. The second chapter examines the rational model as only one possible model of policy analysis. The book concludes that the rational model is useful but that it is only useful in limited situations. From here the book moves into a critique of the rational model (chapter 3), a political model (chapter 4), a pragmatic model (chapter 5), a democratic model,
a postpositivist model (chapter 6), and a democratic model (chapter 7). Along the way, interesting cases involving a county commissioner playing politics to conflict over bison management in Yellowstone National Park are presented in detail. Chapter 6 is a fascinating exploration of how problem definitions are created in postmodern political systems. The book closes with a critique of rational model tools including an interesting analysis of cost-benefit analysis.The authors include several useful tools for analysts along the way: stakeholder analysis, focus groups, meeting facilitation, content analysis, narrative analysis, surveys, and sampling. Read this book along with books by Deborah Stone, John Kingdon, and Hugh Miller if you want a political understanding of policy analysis and if you want to actually know how to do policy analysis.
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