Books in the American Governance and Public Policy series series

Bridging the gap between textbook models of how public policy should work, and how the process actually works in contemporary Washington, this book provides a framework that integrates the roles of political interests and policy ideals in the contemporary policy process.

Medicaid, one of the largest federal programs in United States, gives grants to states to provide health insurance for over 60 million low-income Americans. This title examines the program's evolution during the presidential administrations of Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama and its pivotal role in the epic health reform law of 2010.

Democratic government is about making choices. Sometimes those choices involve the distribution of benefits. This work examines the repercussions of unpopular government decisions in Canada and the USA, the two great democratic nations of North America.

Colliding environmental and development interests have shaped national policy reforms supporting both oil development and environmental protection in Alaska. This book illuminates the processes and consequences of these reforms at the state, national, and international levels.

Created in 1974, the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has become one of the most influential forces in national policymaking. This title discusses the CBO's role in larger budget policy and the more narrow 'scoring' of individual legislation, such as its role in the 2009-2010 Obama health care reform.

Governments throughout the industrialized world make decisions that fundamentally affect the quality and accessibility of medical care. This title explores an alternative regulatory approach to medical care based on the delegation of decisions about the allocation of scarce medical resources to private nonprofit organizations.

Through a comparative examination of institutions and testing theories of the use of policy analysis, Hird draws conclusions that are more useful than those derived from single cases. Hird examines nonpartisan policy research organizations established by and operating in U.S.

Examines reasons why environmental laws seldom work out exactly as planned. Casting federal-state working relationships as 'pulling together,' 'coming apart,' or somewhere in-between, this title provides dozens of observations from federal and state officials.

Although the linking of 'ethics' and 'politics' may seem more like the ingredients for a comedian's monologue, it is a sober issue and one that affects every American. This title offers an exploration with that moment when New York became the first state to enact a general ethics law, setting standards and guidelines for behavior.

That there is a 'digital divide' - which falls between those who have and can afford the latest in technological tools and those who have neither in our society - is indisputable. This title redefines the issue as it explores the cascades of that divide, which involve access, skill, political participation, as well as the obvious economics.

Argues that since the 1980s a distinctive suburban politics has emerged in the United States. This title also argues that the political differences between urban and suburban voters have found expression in changes in congressional representation and new electoral strategies for the major political parties.

Over the years local governments across America have increasingly turned specialized functions over to autonomous agencies. This book offers a comprehensive examination of the causes and consequences of special-purpose governments in more than 300 metropolitan areas in the United States.

Comparing national efforts to preserve public lands, this title investigates how effectively and under what conditions governments can provide goods for future generations. It examines the effect of institutional structure on the public delivery of these goods.

The politics of building dams and levees and other structures are just part of the policies determining how American rivers are managed or mismanaged. This title looks at how public policy and rivers interact, examines the physical differences in rivers that affect policies, and analyzes the political differences among the groups that use them.

To determine when and how a catastrophic event serves as a catalyst for true policy change, this work examines four categories of disasters: aviation security, homeland security, earthquakes, and hurricanes. It explores lessons learned from each, focusing on three types of policy change.

Whether joining forces to address tobacco legislation or proposed air safety regulations, Washington lobbyists with little in common are combining their clout to get results. This book examines why coalition strategies have emerged as a dominant lobbying technique, when lobbyists use them, and how these strategies affect their activities.

A study of two successful divestment agencies - the US Resolution Trust Corporation and the German Treuhandanstalt - that presents a complex understanding of the two agencies' performance in privatizing hundreds of billions of dollars of assets following two very different crises, the savings and loan debacle in the US and unification in Germany.

After World War II, the US and Canada struck out on divergent paths to public health insurance. This work probes the historical development of health care in each country, honing in on the social and political aspects of each country, and the politics of race in the US and territorial politics in Canada.

Based on analyses of public laws, presidential speeches, congressional testimony, political advertising, and personal interviews, this title draws on concepts of federalism and agenda-setting to offer a view of the growing federal role in education policy. It also provides insights about the nature of federalism in the United States.

Begins with educational reforms from the Progressive era in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the civil rights movement and ending with Pennsylvania's 2004 tax relief measure. This title explores what factors determine education spending levels in school districts.

Compares and contrasts the developments in three major federal policy areas in the United States: welfare, Medicare, and Social Security. This title concentrates on three cases of social policy reform (or attempted reform) that took place during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W Bush, Beland and Waddan.

In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act rocked America's schools with new initiatives for results-based accountability. This work takes a critical look at mayoral control of urban school districts, beginning with Boston's schools in 1992 and examining more than 100 school districts in 40 states.

Presents a systematic analysis of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) political representation that explores the dynamics of state legislative campaigns and the influence of lesbian and gay legislators in the state policymaking process.

Provides a combination of contemporary policy analysis, an interbranch perspective, and diverse methodological approaches that speak to a gap in the literature dealing with the role of the courts in the American policymaking process. This book unravels the interplay of governmental agencies and provides a look at how the US government functions.

Traces the competing forces that interject conflict into an overall consensus on the value of a liberalized trade policy. This title shows why it is impossible to understand trade legislation without first understanding how electoral politics and the institutional rules of Congress distort legislators' interests, incentives, and policy goals.

Proposing a framework for research based on the premise that any particular governance arrangement is embedded in a wider social, fiscal, and political context, this title argues that theory-based empirical research, when well conceived and executed, can be a primary source of fundamental, durable knowledge about governance and policy management.

Explores how brownfields (environmentally contaminated land), trashed lots and abandoned buildings, and greenspaces (parks, community gardens, etcetera) are affected by the decisions of local governments, and shows how vacant land can be a valuable strategic asset for localities.

Disasters like earthquakes are known as focusing events - sudden calamities that cause both citizens and policymakers to pay more attention to a public problem and often to press for solutions. This book explains how and why some public disasters change political agendas and, ultimately, public policies.