Beyond Machiavelli ─ Policy Analysis Reaches Midlife

In this new edition of "Beyond Machiavelli," Beryl Radin updates her popular overview of the field of policy analysis. Radin, winner of the John Gaus Award from the American Political Science Association, considers the critical issues that confront the policy analysis practitioner, changes in the field, including the globalization of policy analysis, and the dramatic changes in the policy environment. She examines schools and careers; the conflict between the imperatives of analysis and the world of politics; the analytic tools that have been used, created, or discarded over the past fifty years; the relationship between decision makers and analysts as the field has multiplied and spread; and the assumptions about the availability and appropriateness of information that can be used in the analytic task.

Once largely found in the United States, policy analysis has become global, and Radin discusses the field's new paradigms, methodologies and concepts of success. This new edition considers changes in expertise, controversies in the field, today's career prospects, and the impact of 9/11 on the field. She profiles three additional policy analysis organizations and updates the profiles of the organizations in the first edition. Continuing the trajectory of the fictional characters from the first edition, Radin adds a character representing the new generation just entering the field. The book discusses the shifts in society's attitudes toward public action, the availability of resources to meet public needs, and the dimensions of policymaking.

Written for students, faculty, and practitioners, the book concludes with a look at the possible dimensions of the policy analysis field and profession as it moves into the future.

Beryl A. Radin is on the faculty of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute at Georgetown University. She received the John Gaus Award from the American Political Science Association in 2012, and the H. George Frederickson Award for Lifetime Achievement and Continuous Contributions to Public Management Research from the Public Management Research Association in 2009. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, editor of the Public Management and Change series at Georgetown University Press, and author of Challenging the Performance Movement and Federal Management Reform in a World of Contradictions.