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If knowledge is power, then John Hird has opened the doors for anyone interested in public policymaking and policy analysis on the state level. A beginning question might be: does politics put gasoline or sugar in the tank? More specifically, in a highly partisan political environment, is nonpartisan expertise useful to policymaking? Do policy analysts play a meaningful role in decision making? Does policy expertise promote democratic decision making? Does it vest power in an unelected and unaccountable elite, or does it become co-opted by political actors and circumstances? Is it used to make substantive changes or just for window-dressing? In a unique comparative focus on state policy, Pow...
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 le...
Most Christians believe that their views on social and political issues are biblically based. But are they really? Sometimes, Pregeant suggests, an exclusive emphasis on Jesus' death and resurrection crowds out the role of Jesus as teacher and example. This obscures the way in which authentic Christian faith cuts against the grain of many of our contemporary cultural values. The result is that some Christians unknowingly allow those secular values to undermine the potential of the gospel to challenge the injustices in our economic system and other aspects of our lives together. The author therefore invites the reader to an in-depth encounter with Jesus' ethical teachings and related biblical materials as a way of recovering that dimension of Christian discipleship. And the irony is this: some readers might find that even though they think of themselves as countercultural, they are in some ways quite captive to values that are actually counterbiblical. There is, however, a remedy for this--conversion of Christians to the Jesus ethic!
The story of how economic reasoning came to dominate Washington between the 1960s and 1980s—and why it continues to constrain progressive ambitions today For decades, Democratic politicians have frustrated progressives by tinkering around the margins of policy while shying away from truly ambitious change. What happened to bold political vision on the left, and what shrunk the very horizons of possibility? In Thinking like an Economist, Elizabeth Popp Berman tells the story of how a distinctive way of thinking—an “economic style of reasoning”—became dominant in Washington between the 1960s and the 1980s and how it continues to dramatically narrow debates over public policy today. I...
The trends and practices of public administration are ever changing and it is essential that they be appraised from time to time. Designed as a capstone survey of the field, The State of Public Administration focuses on leading edge issues, challenges, and opportunities that confront PA study and practice in the 21st Century.
Drawing on economics, sociology, geography, and psychology, Galster delivers a clear-sighted explanation of what neighborhoods are, how they come to be—and what they should be. Urban theorists have tried for decades to define exactly what a neighborhood is. But behind that daunting existential question lies a much murkier problem: never mind how you define them—how do you make neighborhoods productive and fair for their residents? In Making Our Neighborhoods, Making Our Selves, George C. Galster delves deep into the question of whether American neighborhoods are as efficient and equitable as they could be—socially, financially, and emotionally—and, if not, what we can do to change that. Galster aims to redefine the relationship between places and people, promoting specific policies that reduce inequalities in housing markets and beyond.
Covering basic univariate and bivariate statistics and regression models for nominal, ordinal, and interval outcomes, Applied Statistics for the Social and Health Sciences provides graduate students in the social and health sciences with fundamental skills to estimate, interpret, and publish quantitative research using contemporary standards. Reflecting the growing importance of "Big Data" in the social and health sciences, this thoroughly revised and streamlined new edition covers best practice in the use of statistics in social and health sciences, draws upon new literatures and empirical examples, and highlights the importance of statistical programming, including coding, reproducibility, transparency, and open science. Key features of the book include: interweaving the teaching of statistical concepts with examples from publicly available social and health science data and literature excerpts; thoroughly integrating the teaching of statistical theory with the teaching of data access, processing, and analysis in Stata; recognizing debates and critiques of the origins and uses of quantitative methods.