The policy state : an American predicament / Karen Orren, Stephen Skowronek.
2017
KF450.P8 O77 2017 (Mapit)
On loan from Stacks, due 29. Jun 2025
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Author
Title
The policy state : an American predicament / Karen Orren, Stephen Skowronek.
Added Author
Imprint
Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2017.
Copyright
©2017.
Description
viii, 253 pages ; 25 cm
Formatted Contents Note
Part I. Introduction. Public policy and state formation
The policy motive
Part II. The policy state. Rights in the policy state
Structure in the policy state
Politics in the policy state.
The policy motive
Part II. The policy state. Rights in the policy state
Structure in the policy state
Politics in the policy state.
Summary
Policy is government's ready response to changing times, the key to its successful adaptation. It tackles problems as they arise, from foreign relations and economic affairs to race relations and family affairs. Karen Orren and Stephen Skowronek take a closer look at this well-known reality of modern governance. In The Policy State they point out that policy is not the only way in which America was governed historically, and they describe the transformation that occurred as policy took over more and more of the work of government, emerging as the raison d'être of the state's operation. Rather than analyze individual policies to document this change, Orren and Skowronek examine policy's effect on legal rights and the formal structure of policy-making authority. Rights and structure are the principle elements of government that historically constrained policy and protected other forms of rule. The authors assess the emergence of a new "policy state," in which rights and structure shed their distinctive characteristics and take on the attributes of policy. Orren and Skowronek address the political controversies swirling around American government as a consequence of policy's expanded domain. On the one hand, the policy state has rendered government more flexible, responsive, and inclusive. On the other, it has mangled government's form, polarized its politics, and sowed deep distrust of its institutions. The policy state frames an American predicament: policy has eroded the foundations of government, even as the policy imperative pushes us ever forward, into an uncertain future.-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Location
STA
Call Number
KF450.P8 O77 2017
Language
English
ISBN
9780674728745 hardcover alkaline paper
0674728742 hardcover alkaline paper
0674728742 hardcover alkaline paper
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