This major textbook presents for the first time a thoroughly modern introduction to policy studies - one of the fastest growing areas in the academic curriculum.Public Policy provides a lively, clear and highly accessible introduction to the theory and practice of public policy. Interdisciplinary and comparative in scope, this text covers agenda setting, and problem definition, policy making, implementation and evaluation. The book has been designed to be used with a wide range of policy oriented courses. Wayne Parsons surveys the development of the policy sciences over the past fifty years and focuses on the key ideas, thinkers and concepts which have shaped the field. His authoritative narrative draws on a wide range of policy disciplines - including political science, psychology, sociology, economics, and management. A central theme of the book is its emphasis on taking a multi-framed approach to analysing the increasingly complex policy problems and processes of industrial societies. Unique features include case studies, guides to further reading, background notes and numerous graphics to support and illustrate the main text. Public Policy will be welcomed as a comprehensive examination of the models and methods needed to understand policy making in the modern state. Comprehensive, critical and up-to-date, this textbook promises to define the field for a new generation of students and teachers.

In this innovative highly readable contribution to the study of Keynes, Wayne Parsons makes a radical departure from the conventional approaches to Keynesian economies.As a political scientist Parsons believes that, if we are to grasp the revolutionary nature of Keynes's way of thinking about policy problems, we need to place his theories in a wider intellectual and inter-disciplinary setting. Keynes, he suggests, was a social scientist, philosopher and opinion-former with one foot in the age of science and another in the age of sorcery. Like Newton, about whom Keynes wrote with considerable knowledge and insight, he was a thinker whose method was rooted in an alchemical fascination with the art of transmutation and the quest for the philosophers' stone. Parsons maintains that unless we appreciate this alchemical quality of Keynes's economics we fail to comprehend his particular genius as a philosopher of possibility. The author paints a portrait of a Bloomsbury Faust, a Mephistopheles in Whitehall: an image which is a long way removed from the modernist discourse which has largely framed our reading of his economics. Free from the mechanistic and positivistic language which has come to obscure his work Wayne Parsons concludes that Keynes can once again become a source of inspiration and illumination for the theory and practice of public policy. Keynes and the Quest for a Moral Science is an accessible, highly readable account which will appeal to scholars and students in the field of economics, history of economics, public policy and history of ideas.

An invaluable exploration of the concern that transfers of power to European Union institutions are producing a worrying new form of democratic deficit. While ongoing reforms of these institutions promise to render decision processes at European level more transparent and accountable, these expert authors examine whether there is a European public sphere for citizens and their representatives to discuss, deliberate and evaluate issues of public relevance. They show how the process of European integration has given rise to a new object of study - European society, and why key questions concerning identity, citizenship, democracy, government and institutions are being raised anew and are major political concerns at European and Member State level. With six case studies of EU policy-making and representative institutions, they analyze the intensity of participatory practices in four dimensions: mobilization of societal actors, public contestation and debate, openness of decision-making, and responsiveness of policy makers. This book will be of strong interest to students and researchers of the European Union, European politics, European studies as well as those concerned with more theoretical aspects of governance and the public sphere.

The process of European integration has given rise to a new object of study - the European society. Several old questions concerning citizenship, democracy, government and institutions must be raised anew, this time at the European level. These are not only academic issues, but also major political concerns at European and member state level.
There are fears that transfers of power to European institutions produce a characteristically new and worrying form of democratic "deficit." The recent rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in France and the Netherlands suggests that this democratic deficit is beginning to impact on the Union's legitimacy, further endangering the European project of "ever closer union."
How can this crisis be overcome and in which direction should the European Union be moving? This new volume:
- Takes a closer look at the Union's democratic deficit in an effort to establish its precise character and location.
- Scrutinizes top-down institutional opportunity structures for participation, the actors that are shaping bottom-up mobilization, as well as the ideologies and discourses that are informing attempts to generalize political claims beyond the national level.
- Provides a detailed insight into the scope and character of participatory practice in decision-making, the structure and visions of the European political class, the role of civil society organization and trans-national movements.
- Looks at the debate on the EU as a community of values as well as the views about Europe in the new member states.
This book will be of strong interest to students and researchers of the European Union, European Politics and European Studies as wellas those concerned with more theoretical aspects of governance and the public sphere.

The study of public policy and the methods of policy analysis are among the most rapidly developing areas in the social sciences. Policy analysis has emerged to provide a better understanding of the policymaking process and to supply decision makers with reliable policy-relevant knowledge about pressing economic and social problems. Presenting a broad, comprehensive perspective, the Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory, Politics, and Methods covers the historical development of policy analysis, its role in the policy process, and empirical methods. The handbook considers the theory generated by these methods and the normative and ethical issues surrounding their practice. Written by leading experts in the field, this book- -Deals with the basic origins and evolution of public policy -Examines the stages of the policy-making process -Identifies political advocacy and expertise in the policy process -Focuses on rationality in policy decision-making and the role of policy networks and learning -Details argumentation, rhetoric, and narratives -Explores the comparative, cultural, and ethical aspects of public policy -Explains primary quantitative-oriented analytical methods employed in policy research -Addresses the qualitative sides of policy analysis -Discusses tools used to refine policy choices -Traces the development of policy analysis in selected national contexts The Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory, Politics, and Methods describes the theoretical debates that have recently defined the field, including the work of postpositivist, interpretivist, and social constructionist scholars. This book also explores the interplay between empirical and normative analysis, acrucial issue running through contemporary debates.