The Structure of Policy Change / Derek A. Epp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Epp, Derek A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Policy sciences--United States.

Policy sciences.

Public administration--United States.

Public administration.

United States--Politics and government.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (195 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the Red Scare seized the American public. While President Eisenhower cautioned restraint, his hand was forced, and NASA's budget had increased five thousand percent over its pre-Sputnik levels by the time President Kennedy proposed landing a man on the moon. Spending on the space race is in no way unique; Almost every policy area has its own Sputnik-type story, where waves of popular support for an idea (or disillusionment with a previous one) created new political priorities, resulting in dramatic changes to the budget or compelling agencies to respond quickly with little knowledge or preparation. Is this instability an inherent feature of the policy process, or is it possible for an agency to deal with problems in a way that insulates it from swings in public opinion and thus imposes some stability on the decision making process? Derek A. Epp argues that some agencies can indeed do that and that instability is at least partially a function of poor institutional design. While it is inherently more challenging to maintain stability around complex problems like immigration or climate change, the deliberative process itself can affect the degree of stability around an issue. Epp looks at whether agencies follow a deliberative model for decision making, in which policies are developed by means of debate among a small group of policymakers, or a collective model, in which the opinions of many people are aggregated, as with the stock market. He argues that, in many instances, the collective model produces more informed and stable policy outcomes that can be adapted more readily to new information and changing public priorities.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PART ONE. Punctuations in Public Policies

PART TWO. Issue Complexity and Institutional Capacity

PART THREE. Politics and Collective Intelligence

NOTES

REFERENCES

INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 22. Okt 2019)

ISBN:

9780226529868

022652986X

OCLC:

1030625009