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Book Review: Peter Knoepfel, Corinne Larrue, Frédéric Varone and Michael Hill (2007) Public Policy Analysis. Bristol: The Policy Press, ISBN-13 978—1—8613—4907—1

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
DOI10.1177/09520767080230040504
Date01 October 2008
Published date01 October 2008
AuthorPeter John
Subject MatterArticles
/tmp/tmp-1873o9MnuvkAQo/input Public Policy and Administration 23(4)
local environmental forums, aid programmes in Mozambique, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, inter-municipal and regional govern-
ment in the UK, Denmark, Spain and Germany. While these do not form a
coherent set, they are nevertheless worthy and interesting and attempt to address
the legitimacy and democracy themes. This is admirable and valuable material
that should grace any public administration bookshelf. The richness of this
material is reflected in the summary concluding chapter, but the theoretical ques-
tions remain only partially answered because of the brevity of the initial discus-
sions. There is no collected bibliography at the end, which would have been very
helpful.
roger levy, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
Peter Knoepfel, Corinne Larrue, Frédéric Varone and Michael Hill (2007)
Public Policy Analysis
Bristol: The Policy Press, ISBN-13 978–1–8613–4907–1
It is easy to forget that the concepts and language used to study public policy were
largely developed by academics working in the North American social and politi-
cal context. Before the 1960s, the term public policy did not really exist. With the
exception of Lasswell and other early pioneers, it tended to be subsumed within
the longer running sub-discipline of public administration. Then US scholars –
Wildsavsky, Heclo, Dye and many others – set out how to study public policy and
developed the more applied field of policy analysis. It is a reflex action to assume
the concepts they used and the underlying assumptions are the only ones on offer
and have a universal application. So it is no surprise to find UK academics, such
as Hogwood, Jordan and Richardson, adopting the approach wholesale to under-
stand British policy making. But outside North America others studied public
policy rather differently. In particular, French academics using concepts from
organizational sociology and German writers using a more sociological concep-
tion of the...

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