Public Policy Praxis: A Case Approach for Understanding Policy and Analysis PDF
Preview Public Policy Praxis: A Case Approach for Understanding Policy and Analysis
PUBLIC POLICY PRAXIS Public administration and policy analysis education has long emphasized tidiness, stages, and rationality, but practitioners frequently must deal with a world where objectivity is buffeted by, repressed by, and sometimes defeated by value conflict. Too often public administration education has failed individuals who must deal with the hustle and bustle and complexity of policymaking. Public Policy Praxis equips its readers to grapple with ambiguity and complexity. By emphasizing mixed methodologies, students are encouraged, through the use of cases, to develop a workable and practical model of applied policy analysis. Throughout the book, Clemons and McBeth argue that pragmatism demands that analysts learn to think politically and to understand that public problems are socially constructed. As such, in addition to analytical models, the authors examine specific tools of policy analysis, such as stakeholder mapping, content analysis, group facilitation, narrative analysis, cost-benefit analysis, futuring, and survey analysis. Students are given the opportunity to try out these analytical models and tools in varied case settings (county, city, federal, urban, and rural), facing wide-ranging topics (economic development, expansion of human services in an urban area, building a health care clinic in a small town, an inner-city drug program, and the bison controversy in Yellowstone National Park) that capture the diversity of public policy and the intergovernmental nature of politics. With chapters written to the student and in a nearly conversational style, Public Policy Praxis is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in public policy analysis, community planning, leadership, social welfare policy, educational policy, family policy, and special seminars. Randy S. Clemons is Professor of Political Science and the Associate Dean of the Ridge College of Intelligence Studies & Applied Sciences at Mercyhurst University, USA. Mark K. McBeth is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at Idaho State University, USA. 2 “This new edition is much improved in all important aspects, particularly in how the chapters have been organized to highlight the mixed methods approach to policy analysis. The authors’ post-positivist perspective reflects current thinking within the discipline, and meshes perfectly with their case study approach. Public Policy Praxis remains accessible in tone as it challenges us to examine our most basic assumptions about the policy process.” –Kenneth Kickham, University of Central Oklahoma, USA “Public Policy Praxis is a concise yet comprehensive guide to policy analysis combining the practical and theoretical in a balanced text. Both scholarly and conversational, it is a valuable resource offering a broad base of policy concepts and terminology, and providing the essential tools for meaningful policy dialogue and action on an evolving array of issues.” –Bonnie Stabile, George Mason University, USA “True to its name, Public Policy Praxis epitomizes the merger between diverse theories and meaningful practice. Now on their 3rd edition, Clemons and McBeth again deliver complex ideas and methods easily understood by policy students, yet substantive enough to belong on the scholar’s bookshelf. The approach is practical, case driven, theoretically diverse, and yet simultaneously rigorous, covering complex tools of the trade-both quantitative and qualitative. For a non-dogmatic, practical, and theoretically versatile policy analysis text, this is your book.” –Michael Jones, Oregon State University, USA “Public Policy Praxis is one of the best books available for graduate programs in applied public policy and policy analysis. It is an extremely well written piece of scholarship that seamlessly weaves both the theoretically important concepts in the field of public policy with the applied “toolkit” approach of policy analysis. Clemons and McBeth continue to provide both the scholar and the practitioner with an invaluable resource.” –Gregory C. Hill, Boise State University, USA “Public Policy Praxis is a unique, case-based, and theory-rich approach for students to understand the politics of public policy and access tools of policy analysis. With an accessible writing style, Clemons and McBeth offer a refreshing approach to public policy that brings pragmatism and praxis to the fore in unpacking the complexities of real-world policy issues.” –Elizabeth A. Shanahan, Montana State University, USA 3 PUBLIC POLICY PRAXIS A CASE APPROACH FOR UNDERSTANDING POLICY AND ANALYSIS THIRD EDITION Randy S. Clemons and Mark K. McBeth 4 For support material associated with Public Policy Praxis,Third Edition, please go to www.routledge.com/products/9781138641662 First published 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc. This edition published 2017 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Taylor & Francis The right of Randy S. Clemons and Mark K. McBeth to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Clemons, Randall S., author. | McBeth, Mark K., author. Title: Public policy praxis: a case approach for understanding policy and analysis/by Randy S. Clemons and Mark K. McBeth. Description: Third edition. | New York, NY: Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015050274 | ISBN 9781138641679 (hardback: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138641662 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315630342 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Policy sciences. | Policy sciences—Case studies. Classification: LCC H97 .C56 2017 | DDC 320.6—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015050274 ISBN: 978-1-138-64167-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-64166-2 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-63034-2 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton 5 CONTENTS List of Figures List of Tables List of Boxes List of Cases Preface to the Third Edition Acknowledgments Part I Overview Chapter 1 Public Policy, Power, The People, Pluralism, and You Mini-Case: Drug Abuse and Waterville Introduction Introducing Narrative Analysis Value Conflict A Political System Public Policy and Linkage Mechanisms Power and Policymaking Effect of Power Structures on the Policy Analyst Stakeholder Analysis Mini-Case: This Isn’t a Hilton Hotel, Ma’am Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Case Study: Big-Mart: Cheap Goods at What Price? Notes Part II Theory and Practice: Rationality, Nonrationality, Politics, and the Policy Process Chapter 2 The Rational Public Policy Method Genesis of the Rational Model The Rational Public Policy Method in Theory The Rational Model in Practice Rationality or Something Else? Mini-Case: Portersville Health Clinic Model Evaluation Heading to a Conclusion Concluding Thoughts Mini-Case: Democracy or Science? Climate Change and GMOs Glossary Terms Notes Chapter 3 The Positivist Toolbox Introduction In Defense of Rationality and Big Data: Evidence-Based Politics Shaundra the Policy Analyst Tool #1: Sampling and Mail Surveys Tool #2: Extrapolation and Forecasting Tool #3: Measures of Central Tendency Tool #4: Discounting 6 Tool #5: Cost-Benefit Analysis Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Problems Notes Chapter 4 Critiques of The Rational Approach Examples of the Power of Nonrational Explanations Critiques of the Rational Model Mini-Case: Big-Mart Case Redux: Value Conflict in VanWood Heights Mini-Case: Policy Analysis, Ethics, and Role Case Study: Vaping Politics and Policy—Up in Smoke Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Notes Chapter 5 The Nonrational (Political) Approach Essence and Overview of the Policy Process Problem Identification/Gaining Agenda Status Policy Formulation, Adoption, and Funding Policy Implementation Policy Evaluation, Adjustment, Termination Mini-Case: The Pocatello Prison Siting Story: A Case of Politics Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Case Study: The Expansion of Human Services in Allegheny County, 1968–95, Section I Notes Part III Practice and Theory: Problem Definition, Pragmatism, Policy Analysis, Methodologies, and Democracy Chapter 6 A Pragmatic Public Policy Analysis Method The Rational Public Policy Analysis Method: History and Form A Five-Step Method Summary of the Five-Step Method Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Case Study: Playing Politics: Bison, Brucellosis, Business, and Bureaucrats Notes Chapter 7 Problem Definition, Mixed Methodologies, and Praxis The Two Tracks of Policy Analysis The Ambiguous and Subjective Nature of Events in the System School Shootings and Problem Definition What Is the “Truth” and How Are Policies Generated? Stone and Company: The Symbolic Representation of Problem Definition The Social Construction of Public Problems Mixed-Methods Tools Using Language in Problem Definition: The Yellowstone Bison Controversy Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Case Study: School Shootings and Focus Group Research: Narrative Analysis and Problem Definition Notes Chapter 8 Doing Democracy: A New (Six) Step Model 7 Defining Democracy Democracy as an Ambiguous Symbol The Critique of Traditional Policy Analysis Structuring Democracy Communitarianism and Democracy Democratizing Steps I through IV and Inserting a New Fifth Step into a Six-Step Model Doing Democracy: Postpositivist Tools Ethics as Democracy A Tie that Binds Mini-Case: Kathmandu: Red Pandas, Hunger, USAID, and Agriculture in Nepal Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Case Study: So You Want to Be a Policy Analyst? Notes Part IV Conclusion: Praxis/Practice Chapter 9 Letting You Show Off Mini-Case: Drug Abuse and Waterville (Revisited) Concluding Thoughts Glossary Bibliography Index 8 FIGURES 1-1 A Simplified Model of a Political System 1-2 The Backward Loop Variation 2-1 The Decisional Teeter-Totter: A Graphic Presentation of the Rational Model 2-2 Decisional Types 4-1 Same Facts, Two Different Tales 5-1 Agenda Setting 6-1 Map of Yellowstone National Park 9 TABLES 1-1 The Role of Policy Analysts and Their Normative View of Power 1-2 Stakeholder Map 3-1 Sample Sizes for 95% Confidence Intervals 3-2 Boondocks Residents by Neighborhood 3-3 Surveys Mailed by Neighborhood 3-4 A Comparison of Sample Data with Census Data 3-5 Population Trends of Boondocks 3-6 Three Types of Data 3-7 Reported Crimes in Boondocks 3-8 Reported Crimes in Boondocks (Ordered) 3-9 Swimming Pool Benefits and Costs 3-10 Discount Factors for Selected Discount Rates (up to 20 Years) 3-11 The Do Nothing Alternative 3-12 The Repair Alternative 3-13 The New Site Alternative 3-14 The Existing Site Alternative 4-1 Summary of the Intellectual/Analytical Critique 4-2 Summary of the Cognitive Critique 4-3 Summary of the Political/Institutional Critique 4-4 Summary of the Ideological/Philosophical Critique 6-1 An Adapted Goeller Scorecard with Weighted Criteria 6-2 Breaking a Tie 7-1 An Example of Different Content Analysis Outcomes 10
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