POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Affairs & Administration

Why do top-down reforms to public services so often over-promise and under-deliver? Using five concepts from psychology, economics and organisational sociology and diverse examples of successes and failures, Thomas Elston addresses this pressing question of good governance.

Written by leading voices in UK public policy and politics, this text examines the shifting UK political and policy landscape while also highlighting the features of politics that have endured. The book equips students with a robust understanding of public policy and enables them to locate this within a broader theoretical framework.

First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics, this book presents original critical reflections on the value of design approaches and how they relate to the classical idea of public administration as a design science.

Winlow and Hall argue that the only way to resurrect leftist politics is to begin from the beginning again. They identify the root causes of its maladies, describe how new cultural obsessions displaced core unifying principles, and outline how a new reincarnation of the left can win in the 21st century.

This volume analyses the impact of globalization on civil service systems across the Middle East and North Africa. It presents an analytical model to assess how globalization influences civil servants and traces the shifting patterns of power and accountability between civil servants, politicians and other actors.

This expert-led review of policy analysis in Spain is the first systematic study to provide a comprehensive overview of how policy actors generate information for the policy-making process.

This book tackles the prevailing contradiction within policy analysis, that rigorous thought should be uncontaminated by values, despite policy analysis being inherently values based. In resolving the issue, this book provides a new, solid foundation for policy analysis.

The third edition of this leading textbook offers a contemporary, lively and accessible overview of international actors and social policy formation, identifying key issues, debates and priorities for action in social policy across the Global South and North.

Matthew Quinn plots a landmark reimagination of governance and public administration, underpinned by sustainable development and civic republicanism.

Drawing on classical and emerging research perspectives, this comprehensive book provides an up-to-date review of local government in Europe.

In this comprehensive account, Janice Morphet analyses the role and use of outsourcing within the UK public sector since the mid-1970s and illustrates the impact it has had on ideology, policy narratives and public expectations in the present.

This topical book explores how the public perception of the UK decentralized governments has changed during the pandemic and uses case studies to discuss the actions taken by central government to undermine the devolution settlement, making a vital contribution to the future options for the UK within the context of Brexit and what follows.