Part 1:the policy cycle Chapter 1:the public policy approach to understanding politics in America the nature of public policy Defining public policy Constructing policy issues Policy typologies Why study public policy? Public policy and political theory The organizational imperative The policy cycle Analysing and evaluating public policy Purposes and goals of policy study Short history of abortion policy in America Chapter 2: agenda setting: what problems will become subjects for governmental action? The nature of public policy agendas Agenda setting in the policy-making cycle Getting access to the institutional agendas Who has greatestaccess to agenda setting? Bias in agenda setting Processes of agenda setting Agenda building and political theory Chapter 3: policy formulation: designing solutions to public problems The nature of policy formulation The principles of government The main policy actors Interest groups Models of decision making The rational actor Incrementalism Case 3-1: the cuban missile crisis Public choice Politics Systems Theory The garbage can model Marxian analysis Chapter 4: implementation: filling in the gaps of public policy What is implementation? Players in the game Traditional public administration and implementation The limits to successful implementation A process model of plicy implementation Chapter 5: evaluating determining the effectiveness of public policy Politics and public policy evaluating How evaluating research began: from PPBS to the experimenting society Types of evaluations A critique of summative evaluation Program evaluation and policy analysis methods Decision making and evaluation reserch The use and role of evaluation reserch Evaluation and termination of public policies Part II: substantive policy issues Chapter 6: health policy: the high cost of good health he nature of health care in the United States Setting the health policy agenda Formulation and adoption of health policy Implementing health care policy Evaluating health care policy Terminating health policies Chapter 7:social welfare: who gets what from government? The natur of social welfare problems Setting the welfare agenda Formulating welfare policy Implementing welfare policy Evaluating social welfare policy Chapter 8: crime and justice: law in action The nature of the crime problem Agenda setting in criminal justice The media and crime Formulating crime policy Criminal justice and the policy-making process Implementing justice policy Evaluating criminal justice policy Chapter 9: educational policy and the goal of equal opportunity The nature of the education problem Agenda setting in education Formulating educational policy Implementing education policy Evaluating education policy Chapter 10: energy and the environment: the big trade-off The nature of the energy problem Problem definition and agenda setting in energy policy Formulating energy policy Implementing energy policy Evaluating energy policy