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Traces the growth of interest in a policy focus in Britain during the 1970s and early 1980s, and its subsequent partial displacement by an emphasis on public management.

Purpose: The following syllabus is designed to introduce students to public policymaking at the national level of government. As designed, this course has the following goals associated with the process, issues, and institutions of national policymaking:1.Acquaint students with the political dynamics of the policy process— with particular focus on policy networks: those persons from the departments or agencies, members of Congress and their staff, and interest groups who interact on specific policy issues.2.Introduce the complexities of the specific policy issues that form the national agenda (e.g., trade, agriculture, welfare, taxes).3.Emphasize the importance of political institutions and their formal procedures—with particular stress on the budget process and presidential agenda setting.

Although politicians promise innovation and change when they run for office, once elected they face inherited commitments to programs initiated by their predecessors, legacies that severely limit their freedom of choice. In this trail blazing work, Richard Rose and Phillip L. Davies systematically examine the ways in which decisions made by past generations of administrators control policy-making in the present.Basing their conclusions on a unique study of hundreds of public programs in effect in Britain since the end of World War II, Rose and Davies show that the impact of an administration's choices is greatest long after its term is concluded. Even though individual politicians have left office, their agenda is carried forward by the force of political inertia—the laws, public agencies, and budgets in continuing effect and the expectations of beneficiaries.The limited choices that each administration makes are of two very different types. Some reflect careful deliberation over the years and are incorporated in the legacy of successive administrations. Others are trial-and-error attempts to deal with dissatisfaction arising from conditions that often lead to failure. The authors test three theories to account for differences in the persistence of particular types of policy. They conclude that the biggest stimulus for choice (and failure) comes from the turbulence of the market. Social programs are adopted much less often but are much more durable because they concern the enduring needs of families

Concludes that respect for individual autonomy requires that policy should not facilitate certain types of gambling, but does not provide grounds for prohibiting them; some focus on Australia. Gambling, cheating, investment, rationality, autonomy, and public policy.

Public policy is an area of increasing study. Of concern in this presentation is the consensus-building feature of policymaking in the United States. The role of government in following the procedures established to achieve consensus and the importance of citizen participation in this open process cannot be under-estimated. The five central features of American consensus building are separation of powers, multiple levels of government, citizen participation, policymaker accountability, and individual freedoms. These features frame the efforts of those who shape the public policies that determine the ways laws are made and enforced and public funds are spent.

An examination of conflicting evaluations made of the field of public policy studies since 1970. The field is praised for: (1) providing a new perspective on political & social phenomena, while preserving substantive & methodological principles; (2) being relevant to increased societal productivity, as well as concerned with high-level issues in political theory, social philosophy, & the philosophy of science; (3) stressing an interdisciplinary perspective, while emphasizing the importance of political science in policy formation, implementation, & evaluation; (4) utilizing statistical analysis, optimizing research, mathematical modeling, & psychological decision-analysis, in examining highly normative questions; (5) providing information at national, state, & local levels, as well as in administrative agencies, legislatures, & courts; & (6) being useful to liberals as a form of economic planning, & to conservatives as a means of bringing good business sense to government. It is suggested that, having achieved respectability, it is time to further develop applications of political & social science to important policy problems. Modified AA