Understanding the policy process (Second edition)
Analysing welfare policy and practice
- Author/Editor(s):
- John Hudson, Stuart Lowe
- Format:
- Paperback, 352 pages, 240 x 172 mm
- ISBN
- 9781847422675
- Published:
- 26 Mar 2009
- Series:
- Understanding Welfare: Social Issues, Policy and Practice series
£17.59 - List price: £21.99 You save: £4.40
North America customers can order this book here from the University of Chicago Press.
"I think it is the best book of its kind available for students, and I would not hesitate to recommend it."
Ian Greener in Journal of Social Policy
"An excellent overview - clear and well-written"
Sevasti-Melissa Nolas, University of Sussex
"This is an exciting and innovative textbook on welfare policy making... introducing students of social policy to a wealth of perspectives and literature not often brought together in an introductory book... an outstanding text."
British Journal of Social Work, review of 1st edition
About This Book
This book draws on the latest and best social science to explain how and why social policy change occurs. Focusing on the policy making process as the key to change, it uses core concepts of policy analysis, one in each chapter, to build up a fully worked explanation of social policy change and to equip readers with knowledge that can be applied to any aspect of welfare policy and public and social policy more generally. This second edition of the book updates the bestselling first edition for the post-Blair era with international case studies from numerous countries. "Understanding the policy process": · introduces the main themes of the policy analysis literature; · demonstrates the centrality of the policy making process to an understanding of the operational possibilities and limits of social policy; · takes account of macro-, meso- and micro-level approaches to social policy analysis; · uses clear explanations of key concepts, up-to-date illustrative case studies and examples to increase students' understanding of the theory and practice of policy analysis; · uses a comparative approach.
Author Biography
John Hudson and Stuart Lowe are both political scientists who teach and research in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of York, UK.Contents
Introduction: what is policy analysis? Part One: Macro-level Analysis: Globalisation
Political economy
The post-industrial economy
Technological change
Structures of power
Part Two: Meso-level Analysis: The changing nature of governance
Policy networks
Institutions
Policy transfer
Part Three: Micro-level Analysis: Decision making and personality
Implementation and delivery
Evaluation and evidence
Conclusions: policy analysis and welfare states.
Customers in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei must order from their local distributor