A crisis of governance is widespread in western societies.
Public administration is caught in a web of personal and
organizational inter-dependencies that require continuous awareness
and readjustment on the part of its practitioners. Understanding
Policy Fiascoes applies policy analysis to come to terms with
policy fiascoes, with a full appreciation of its limits. Despite
the fact that policy failures may seem universal, they are in fact
better understood as social, political and academic constructions.
Bovens and 'tHart trace how and why certain episodes of public
policymaking become labeled as "fiascoes." They highlight the
analytical and political biases that shape our judgments of policy
outcomes and the performance of policymakers and institutions.
When put in their proper historical, institutional, and
policymaking perspective, many policy fiascoes could easily have
turned out quite differently. The authors show that the fact that
these policy episodes unfolded as they did does not mean that they
were inevitable. Careful analysis indicates that a whole series of
variables, if not always manageable, can, through careful
configurations of decisions, alter the course and outcomes of
policies and programs, as well as the post-hoc judgments made about
them.
In examining public policymaking, certain questions arise: If
public policymaking has failed so miserably, what does this tell us
about the state of policy analysis? While policymakers are facing a
crisis of legitimacy, policy analysis have been forced to
reconsider the validity o their knowledge claims and the extent of
their impact on the practice of policymaking. Understanding Policy
Fiascoes will provide social scientists, policymakers, and
political scientists with compelling perspectives on old problems
and a path-breaking way to handle new problems.
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