Böcker i American Governance and Public Policy series-serien

Bridging the gap between textbook models of how public policy should work, and how the process actually works in contemporary Washington, this book provides a framework that integrates the roles of political interests and policy ideals in the contemporary policy process.

Offers a comprehensive analysis of the politics behind the use of mandates requiring state and local governments to implement federal policy. This book reveals how mandates have changed the way policy is formed in the United States and the fundamental relationship between the federal government and the state and local governments.

Proposing a framework for research based on the premise that any particular governance arrangement is embedded in a wider social, fiscal, and political context, this title argues that theory-based empirical research, when well conceived and executed, can be a primary source of fundamental, durable knowledge about governance and policy management.

Through a comparative examination of institutions and testing theories of the use of policy analysis, Hird draws conclusions that are more useful than those derived from single cases. Hird examines nonpartisan policy research organizations established by and operating in U.S.

The politics of building dams and levees and other structures are just part of the policies determining how American rivers are managed or mismanaged. This title looks at how public policy and rivers interact, examines the physical differences in rivers that affect policies, and analyzes the political differences among the groups that use them.

Disasters like earthquakes are known as focusing events - sudden calamities that cause both citizens and policymakers to pay more attention to a public problem and often to press for solutions. This book explains how and why some public disasters change political agendas and, ultimately, public policies.

Universal health care was on the national political agenda for nearly a hundred years until a comprehensive health care reform bill supported by President Obama passed in 2010. This title assesses the impact of interest groups to determine if they are capable of shaping policy in their own interests or whether they influence policy at the margins.

To determine when and how a catastrophic event serves as a catalyst for true policy change, this work examines four categories of disasters: aviation security, homeland security, earthquakes, and hurricanes. It explores lessons learned from each, focusing on three types of policy change.

Examines the economic, political, and social causes and consequences of declining wages in the United States. This title presents a comprehensive analysis of the many factors affecting labor costs and concludes that many of them result from choices made by the states themselves through the laws and policies they enact.

As budgetary concerns have come to dominate Congressional action, the design and implementation of welfare programs have come under greater scrutiny. This book focuses on the food stamp program to examine how the integration of welfare and budgeting has affected both politics and people.

Environmental groups for the first time formalized their role in shaping US and international trade policy during their involvement in NAFTA negotiations. Examining the role that environmental politics play in trade policy, this volume offers fresh insights into the political effectiveness of environmental organizations.

After World War II, the US and Canada struck out on divergent paths to public health insurance. This work probes the historical development of health care in each country, honing in on the social and political aspects of each country, and the politics of race in the US and territorial politics in Canada.

Presents the study of lobbying strategies and outcomes in the United States and the European Union. This book challenges the stereotypes that attribute any differences between the two systems to cultural ones - the American, a partisan and combative approach, and the European, a consensus-based one.

Looks at why some environmental conflicts expand to attract a lot of attention and participation, while others generate little interest or action. This title examines the expansion and containment of political conflict around forest policies in the United States and Canada.

Begins with educational reforms from the Progressive era in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the civil rights movement and ending with Pennsylvania's 2004 tax relief measure. This title explores what factors determine education spending levels in school districts.

A study of two successful divestment agencies - the US Resolution Trust Corporation and the German Treuhandanstalt - that presents a complex understanding of the two agencies' performance in privatizing hundreds of billions of dollars of assets following two very different crises, the savings and loan debacle in the US and unification in Germany.

American and Canadian governments deal with rising auto insurance rates in different ways, a difference attribute to variances in political pressure. This title argues two additional factors such as: the importance of politicians' beliefs about the potential success of various solutions and the role of governmental institutions.

Provides a theoretical framework that accounts for how different types of cities arrive at decisions about residential growth and economic development.

Based on analyses of public laws, presidential speeches, congressional testimony, political advertising, and personal interviews, this title draws on concepts of federalism and agenda-setting to offer a view of the growing federal role in education policy. It also provides insights about the nature of federalism in the United States.

Integrates the study of politics and public policy across a spectrum of regulatory and social welfare policies in the United States and several nations of Western Europe. This title distills the prominent issues, politics, and roles played by governmental institutions into an understanding of the policymaking in and among transatlantic nations.

Offers a model of strategic lobbying that shows why some group lobbyists feel compelled to fight stronger, wealthier groups even when they know they will lose. This title offers answers about what kinds of policies are more likely to lead to intense competition and what kinds of interest groups have an advantage in protracted conflicts.

A comprehensive analysis of the financial condition, management, and policy making of local governments in a metropolitan region that offers local governments currently dealing with the Great Recession a better understanding of what affects them financially and how to operate with less revenue.

With budgets squeezed at every level of government, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) holds outstanding potential for assessing the efficiency of many programs. This book addresses the application of CBA to social policy. It discusses the applicability of CBA to actual programs, describing both proven and promising examples.

Democratic government is about making choices. Sometimes those choices involve the distribution of benefits. This work examines the repercussions of unpopular government decisions in Canada and the USA, the two great democratic nations of North America.

Medicaid, one of the largest federal programs in United States, gives grants to states to provide health insurance for over 60 million low-income Americans. This title examines the program's evolution during the presidential administrations of Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama and its pivotal role in the epic health reform law of 2010.

Compares and contrasts the developments in three major federal policy areas in the United States: welfare, Medicare, and Social Security. This title concentrates on three cases of social policy reform (or attempted reform) that took place during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W Bush, Beland and Waddan.

Colliding environmental and development interests have shaped national policy reforms supporting both oil development and environmental protection in Alaska. This book illuminates the processes and consequences of these reforms at the state, national, and international levels.

Created in 1974, the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has become one of the most influential forces in national policymaking. This title discusses the CBO's role in larger budget policy and the more narrow 'scoring' of individual legislation, such as its role in the 2009-2010 Obama health care reform.

In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act rocked America's schools with new initiatives for results-based accountability. This work takes a critical look at mayoral control of urban school districts, beginning with Boston's schools in 1992 and examining more than 100 school districts in 40 states.

Presents a systematic analysis of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) political representation that explores the dynamics of state legislative campaigns and the influence of lesbian and gay legislators in the state policymaking process.