1st Edition

Public Policy Making Reexamined

By Yehezkel Dror Copyright 1983
    432 Pages
    by Routledge

    370 Pages
    by Routledge

    Public Policymaking Reexamined is now recognized as a fundamental treatise for public policy studies. Although it caused much controversy when it was first published for its systematic approach to policy studies, the book is acknowledged as a modern classic of continuing importance for the teaching and research of public policy, planning and policy analysis, and public administration. The paperback includes a new introduction updating and supplementing many of the author's original ideas.

    Professor Dror combines the approaches of policy analysis, behavioral science, and systems analysis in his examination of the reality of public policymaking and his suggestions for its reform. Actual policymaking is carefully evaluated with the help of explicit criteria and standards based on an optimal model approach, resulting in detailed proposals for improvement. He applies a scientific orientation to the study of social facts and theory.

    Preface, Part I. The Mission, 1. The Problem and Its Setting, 2. The Scope, Significance, and Method of the Inquiry, Part II. A Framework for Evaluating Public Policymaking, 3. The Evaluation of Public Policymaking, 4. Net Output as the Primary Criterion for Ascertaining the Quality of Public Policymaking, 5. Secondary Criteria for Ascertaining the Quality of Public Policymaking, 6. Main Standards for Appraising Policymaking, Part III. A Diagnostic Evaluation of Contemporary Public Policymaking, 7. The Empiric Study of Public Policymaking, 8. Decisionmaking by Subunits, 9. Public Policymaking in Modern States, 10. Public Policymaking in Developing States, 11. An Evaluation and Diagnosis of the Present State of Public Policymaking, Part IV. An Optimal Model of Public Policymaking, 12. A Critical Survey of Normative Models of Public Policymaking, 13. The Major Characteristics of the Optimal Model, 14. The Phases of the Optimal Model, 15. The Structure of Optimal Public Policymaking, Part V. On Improving Public Policymaking, 16. The Major Improvements Needed in Public Policymaking, 17. Changes Needed in Knowledge, 18. Changes Needed in Personnel, 19. Changes Needed in Structure and Process Patterns, 20. Changes Needed in Input and Stipulated Output, 21. Changes Needed in the Environment, Part VI. The Choice: Shaping the Future or Muddling Through, 22. The Significance of Society’s Major Alternatives, Appendixes, Index

    Biography

    Yehezkel Dror