Making Policy Work

`Smarter policy-making requires decision-makers at every stage of the policy process to make more informed decisions. Making Policy Work provides a needed, wide-ranging, survey of the basic tools of policy implementation, providing practitioners and students with the information they need to make better choices as they go about this task.'---Michael Howlett, Simon Fraser University, Canada

`I have been waiting a long time for this book: a systematic, clear-eyed and thorough examination of the policy tools government uses and their effectiveness from a political science perspective. A bonus is that it is written by such an eminent political scientist.'---Bryan Jones, University of Texas at Austin, USA

`Peter John throws down the gauntlet. There is more to public policy analysis than the construction of problems or the presentation of various models of analysis. In this ambitious book, Peter John reclaims the mantle of implementation studies. The knowledge of the operation of political systems a policy evidence matter: policy choices can be effective...even if finding evidence of effectiveness is a difficult task. A must read for contemporary debates about public policy.'---Patrick Le Gales, CNRS Research Professor with the Centre of European Studies of Sciences Po, Paris, and Professor of Politics and Sociology at Sciences Po, France

Many tools are on offer to politicians and other policy-makers when they seek to change policy outcomes. Often they choose to concentrate on one set of tools, but fail to see the costs as well as the benefits - and may not consider the available evidence regarding their effectiveness. This innovative new textbook clearly sets out the main tools of government, and provides an analysis of their efficacy when applied to public problems.

Each chapter examines the relative benefits and costs of using a key tool that is available to improve policy outcomes, drawing on a diverse literature, a large number of empirical studies and a range of contexts.

Offering a clear and comprehensive evaluation, and highlighting the set of powerful tools commonly available, this text encourages students to consider the most effective combination in order to manage key issues successfully. Including a useful glossary of key terms, this book will be of great interest to all students of public policy, administration and management.

Peter John is the Hallsworth Chair of Governance, University of Manchester, where he is a co-director of the Institute of Political and Economic Governance. He is known for his work on public policy, in particular Analysing Public Policy (second edition forthcoming 2011, Routledgel).