How to Do Public Policy

Anke Hassel is Professor of Public Policy at the Hertie School. Anke Hassel has extensive international experience and scientific expertise in the fields of the labour market, social partnership, codetermination and the comparative political economy of developed industrial nations. She was an expert in the fact-finding committee on growth, prosperity and quality of life in the German Bundestag (2012-13) and a member of the German Federal Government's High-Tech Forum (2019-21).Kai Wegrich is Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy at the Hertie School. His main research interests lie in the areas of bureaucratic politics, regulation, policy implementation and public sector reform. His publications include The Problem-Solving Capacity of the Modern State (co-edited with Martin Lodge, Oxford University Press, 2014) and The Blind Spots of Public Bureaucracy and the Politics of Non-Coordination (co-edited with Tobias Bach, Palgrave, 2019).

• Part I: Process Intro to Part I: Understanding the Policy Process 1: Public Policy 2: The Dual Structure of Policy Making 3: How to Set the Agenda Part II Policies Intro to Part II: Understanding the Toolbox 4: How to Choose and Design Policy Instruments 5: How to Implement Public Policy 6: How to Evaluate Policies Part III: Capacities Intro to Part III: Understanding Capacities 7: How to Engage with Stakeholders 8: How to Coordinate Public Policy 9: How to Work with Institutions 10: Conclusions Annex

This is an excellent textbook to prepare students in public policy programmes for professional roles in the "engine room" of the policy process. It is well-structured and presents the approaches and analytical methods of public-policy studies lucidly. The authors uniquely and most impressively achieve to integrate technical policy analysis with the perspective of empirical political science. They discuss the tools and limits of evidence-based policy analysis brilliantly and combine them with a sophisticated, but non-cynical, awareness of how policy choices are shaped by multi-actor politics, responding to the contingent salience of political scandals, crises, and windows of opportunity. The book effectively conveys the teachable skills for policy analysts with a realistic awareness of the importance and the limits of their role in the irreducible contingencies of political processes.