Public Policy: Origins, Practice, and Analysis

What is the most pressing problem facing the American public today? Is it
immigration reform, health care costs, the student debt crisis, stagnating wages,
or a budget deficit reaching into the trillions? How about climate change or the
threat of plastic pollution in the ocean? What about gun violence and gun rights?
The problems facing the U.S. are numerous, but solutions exist, and it is within
the power of government to provide those solutions by developing thoughtful and
effective public policy.
We know that public refers to the people, and American government was
established to serve at the will of the people. Unlike the word “public’s” precise
definition, public policy has numerous ways to be defined and just as many
opinions about what it entails. Table 1.1 provides definitions for public policy from
some of the leading textbooks on this topic.

Compartir: