An Introduction to the Policy Process: Theories, Concepts, and Models of Public Policy Making, 3rd 3rd Edition

This book explains how public policy is made, the types of models which could be used to make/evaluate a public policy, and an overview of how public policymaking fits into the American government process.Since most people have only learned about the three branches of government, they may not be certain how passed laws are enacted. Lacking the time and expertise needed to implement these laws, legislators at the federal, state, and local levels delegate authority to agencies to make the policy which will implement these laws.The chief benefit of this text is the qualitative approach which Birkland personally prefers (although he does warn that other approaches use an economics-based approach) and clear explanations. It also contains an annotated bibliography of influential works and a dictionary of key terms used in the public policymaking process.Birkland's text is written so that it can be used either by students or public policy practitioners. Instead of bogging down the reader in minutiae and personal liberty, he wanted to emphasize how important public policy is.

This book was for a textbook in a required class for Graduate studies. I never did crack it open, but the book itself was much less expensive then it would have been in the student store at the school. I was glad to get it. It came quickly too and in perfect shape! I recommend this seller!

I had to purchase this book for a class and read the whole thing. It was very easy to understand and the concepts were explained extrememly well. It takes you through the whole process!

Birkland's book, "An Introduction to the Policy Process," has made its way into many introductory classes to public policy. After reading the book, one can see why that's so: its easy-to-read language covers all the basic principles of public policy, and introduces the different parameters of which our elected officials, their appointees, and government agency workers operate on. However, I found this book to be a little redundant in some areas, and a bit shallow in others. Over all, it's a good book to skim through when learning about public policy, though I'm certain you could find other books that give you more information for the same money.So, we come to the question of the day: should you buy this book?If you have to buy it for class, then yes, you should buy this book. It's cheap enough and will require much highlighting, and you won't be too disappointed with it... thus, I'd advise buying a hard copy before I'd advise downloading it on pdf.If you don't have to buy this book, then I believe you're better off looking at other public policy texts out there.Hope this helps- please comment if you have any other questions/concerns.

I really like this book. The text is big enough to read easily (unlike other material-heavy that present words like a novel would) and there are various images and graphs. It's great, and it helped me a lot in my course. I would recommend it to anyone taking any course relating to public policy.

Well written, insightful, clear, and concise. After reading terribly written textbooks for the last 2 years while getting my MPA, I came to the conclusion that public administrators like to hear themselves talk and are generally unable to get to the point. What a refreshingly intelligent book this has been.

We left this book overseas at the university we were teaching at in Vietnam. They are using it as a reference guide.

good intro, was helpful for the course. If you are studying public policy, this is a good introductory book and outlines a lot of important facts.