Policy Analysis by Design

Policy Analysis by Design examines the approaches to public policy taken by those who try to teach it, write about it, and influence it through major analysis.  Bobrow and Dryzek systematically compare the five major contending analytical frames of reference: welfare economics, public choice, social structure, information processing, and political philosophy.  The workings of each frame are illustrated by means of a common, if imaginary, policy case – air pollution in the hypothetical Smoke Valley.

“Will be . . . particularly welcomed by teachers of public policy, because it contains a concise, well-ballanced and readable exposition of the major competing approaches to policy analysis today, a range of approaches that often bewilders the novice and is rarely well-understood even by experts within each school of analysis.”
—Christopher Hood