'With this important collection, Hardy Hanappi and Wolfram Elsner, have brought together an outstanding volume that is likely to have its impact on the development of evolutionary economics. Expansive in its scope, the innovative contributions range from evolutionary and institutional mechanisms, dynamic market complexity as well as ontological groundwork of the rapidly emerging new evolutionary economics science. The book will be of great interest to academics, students and researchers of evolutionary and institutional economics.' - Kurt Dopfer, University of St Gallen, Switzerland
This is part of a ten volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of political science. This work explores the business end of politics, where theory meets practice in the pursuit of public good.
Field experiments -- randomized controlled trials -- have become ever more popular in political science, as well as in other disciplines, such as economics, social policy and development. Policy-makers have also increasingly used randomization to evaluate public policies, designing trials of tax reminders, welfare policies and international aid programs to name just a few of the interventions tested in this way. Field experiments have become successful because they assess causal claims in ways that other methods of evaluation find hard to emulate. Social scientists and evaluators have rediscovered how to design and analyze field experiments, but they have paid much less attention to the challenges of organizing and managing them. Field experiments pose unique challenges and opportunities for the researcher and evaluator which come from working in the field. The research experience can be challenging and at times hard to predict. This book aims to help researchers and evaluators plan and manage their field experiments so they can avoid common pitfalls. It is also intended to open up discussion about the context and backdrop to trials so that these practical aspects of field experiments are better understood. The book sets out ten steps researchers can use to plan their field experiments, then nine threats to watch out for when they implement them. There are cases studies of voting and political participation, elites, welfare and employment, nudging citizens, and developing countries.
Public Policy Analytics: Code & Context for Data Science in Government teaches readers how to address complex public policy problems with data and analytics using reproducible methods in R. Each of the eight chapters provides a detailed case study, showing readers: how to develop exploratory indicators; understand ‘spatial process’ and develop spatial analytics; how to develop ‘useful’ predictive analytics; how to convey these outputs to non-technical decision-makers through the medium of data visualization; and why, ultimately, data science and ‘Planning’ are one and the same. A graduate-level introduction to data science, this book will appeal to researchers and data scientists at the intersection of data analytics and public policy, as well as readers who wish to understand how algorithms will affect the future of government.
This is a study of the ways in which the federal, state, and local governments share responsibility for policies, producing a system that combines uniformity and diversity. While numerous empirical studies in recent years have detailed particular examples of reforms in federalism, there has been no widely accepted theory by which to evaluate the significance of those details. Thomas Anton synthesizes the particulars to discover what is true in general about the state of American Federalism. He uses a "benefits coalition" conceptual framework on which to organize his discussion.The author sees the purpose of American government as the creation and distribution of benefits to designated populations. He identifies three main types of benefits, which are directed toward individuals both outside and within government: (1) economic-the improvement of economic well-being; (2) juridical-assigning rights and obligations, as in determining eligibility to vote; and (3) symbolic-for example, in designating holidays and in fostering public activities that promote pride in and support for the system.Because of their profound affect on the quality of our lives as well as their increasing cost, the policies and programs jointly pursued by American governments are the focus of reform proposals that now occupy a prominent position on the national agenda. For these and other reasons, Anton's analytical and broadly defined discussion of American Federalism is especially timely. Author note: Thomas Anton is Professor of Political Science and Director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions at Brown University.
The ideal introductory textbook to the politics of the policymaking process This textbook uses modern political economy to introduce students of political science, government, economics, and public policy to the politics of the policymaking process. The book's distinct political economy approach has two virtues. By developing general principles for thinking about policymaking, it can be applied across a range of issue areas. It also unifies the policy curriculum, offering coherence to standard methods for teaching economics and statistics, and drawing connections between fields. The book begins by exploring the normative foundations of policymaking—political theory, social choice theory, and the Paretian and utilitarian underpinnings of policy analysis. It then introduces game theoretic models of social dilemmas—externalities, coordination problems, and commitment problems—that create opportunities for policy to improve social welfare. Finally, it shows how the political process creates technological and incentive constraints on government that shape policy outcomes. Throughout, concepts and models are illustrated and reinforced with discussions of empirical evidence and case studies. This textbook is essential for all students of public policy and for anyone interested in the most current methods influencing policymaking today. Comprehensive approach to politics and policy suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students Models unify policy curriculum through methodological coherence Exercises at the end of every chapter Self-contained appendices cover necessary game theory Extensive discussion of cases and applications
Dispelling the myth of scientific purity and detachment, Daniel S. Greenberg documents in revealing detail the political processes that underpinned government funding of science from the 1940s to the 1970s.
This pioneering volume is devoted to the analysis of education from the perspective of political science, applying the full range of the discipline’s analytical perspectives and methodological tools. The contributions demonstrate how education policy can be explored systematically from a variety of political science perspectives: comparative politics, public policy analysis and public administration, international relations, and political theory. By applying a governance perspective on education policy, the authors explore the changing institutional settings, new actors’ constellations, horizontal modes of interaction and public-private regulatory mechanisms with respect to the role of the state in this policy field. The volume deals with questions that are not merely concerned with the content or outcomes of education, but it explicitly takes a political science view on how education politics work. Including country case studies from the Americas and across Europe, institutional analyses of education policy in the EU and the WTO/GATS as well as normative reflections on the topic, the volume provides a grand overview on the diversity of issues in education policy. Dealing with a so far neglected field of policy, this book provides a comprehensive and accessible analysis of a rapidly changing topic. Education in Political Science will be of interest to scholars and students of political science, education, sociology and economics.
