1 Introduction: The Political Process of Policymaking -- 1.1 Definitional activities in public policy -- 1.2 Exploring the political question -- 1.3 An activity that is essentially political -- 2 Creating social disorder: constructing, propagating and policitising social problems -- 2.1 A pragmatic approach to public problems -- 2.2 Definitional Struggles around unacceptable problems -- 3 Defining solution: a complex bricolage to solve public problems -- 3.1 Between stratagem and cognitive bricolage: the contribution of Simon and Lindblom – 3.2 From cognitive bricolage to language games -- 3.3 The five couplings in defining solutions -- 3.4 From coupling to restoring political order -- 4 Propagating solution: argumentative strategies to cement coalitions -- 4.1 Arguing to persuade -- 4.2 Discussion as a test of persuasion strategies -- 4.3 From persuasion to diffusion, building discursive coalitions -- 5 Policy statements to legitimise “decision-makers” -- 5.1 The paradoxes of taking positions into account -- 5.2 The definitional issues of a topography of positions -- 5.3 The “decision” to fix topographies within statements -- 5.4 An empirical example of decision: political decision-making of the Paris tramway -- 6 Conclusion: How public policy shapes politics

Philippe Zittoun analyses the public policymaking process focusing on how governments relentlessly develop proposals to change public policy to address insoluble problems. Rather than considering this surprising Sisyphean effort as a lack of rationality, the author examines it as a political activity that produces order and stability.

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