Pathways of Power: The Dynamics of National Policymaking (American Governance and Public Policy series) - Softcover

Conlan, Timothy J.; Posner, Paul L.; Beam, David R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1626160392 ISBN 13: 9781626160392

Publisher: Georgetown University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Conventional treatments of the policy process portray a single, idealized model of “how a bill becomes law”;  journalistic treatments tend to emphasize the role of special interests and campaign contributions to Congress; and many college textbooks describe a common set of stages through which all policies progress, from agenda setting to legitimation to implementation.  While these approaches have their merits, they fail to convey--much less explain--the great diversity of political processes that shape specific policies in contemporary Washington.  Rather than a single route along which all policies progress, this book argues that the policy process is best understood as a set of four distinctive pathways of public policymaking, each of which requires different political resources, appeals to particular actors in the system, and elicits its own unique set of strategies and styles of coalition building.  The book analyzes 42 federal policy cases from 1980 to the present in eight domestic policy arenas.  The cases represent the most important legislation, supplemented as needed by other cases to give adequate representation to each pathway.

About this title

About the Author

Timothy J. Conlan is University Professor of Government at George Mason University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on public policy and intergovernmental relations, is a fellow with the National Academy of Public Administration, and has received the "best book," "best paper," and Daniel Elazar Distinguished Scholar Award from the Federalism Section of the American Political Science Association. He is the coauthor, with Paul Posner, of Intergovernmental Management for the 21st Century. Paul L. Posner is professor and director of the Master's in Public Administration program at George Mason University. He is a fellow and member of the Board of the National Academy of Public Administration, was president of the American Society for Public Administration, and is recipient of the American Political Science Association's Daniel Elazar Distinguished Scholar Award. His book, The Politics of Unfunded Mandates, won the Martha Derthick Best Book Award from the Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Section of the American Political Science Association and the best book award from the Academy of Management's Public and Nonprofit Division. David R. Beam (1942-2012) was director of the graduate program in public administration at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Previously, he served on the federal government's advisory commission on intergovernmental regulations. He retired in 2003, having published 11 major works and more than 45 scholarly articles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1626160392
• ISBN 13: 9781626160392
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192