Ambiguity and Choice in Public Policy : Political Decision Making in Modern Democracies Paperback / softback

by Nikolaos Zahariadis

Part of the American Governance and Public Policy series series

Paperback / softback

Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks

Description

Zahariadis offers a theory that explains policymaking when "ambiguity" is present - a state in which there are many ways, often irreconcilable, of thinking about an issue.

Expanding and extending John Kingdon's influential "multiple streams" model that explains agenda setting, Zahariadis argues that manipulation, the bending of ideas, process, and beliefs to get what you want out of the policy process, is the key to understanding the dynamics of policymaking in conditions of ambiguity.

He takes one of the major theories of public policy to the next step in three different ways: he extends it to a different form of government (parliamentary democracies, where Kingdon looked only at what he called the United States' presidential "organized anarchy" form of government); he examines the entire policy formation process, not just agenda setting; and he applies it to foreign as well as domestic policy.

This book combines theory with cases to illuminate policymaking in a variety of modern democracies.

The cases cover economic policymaking in Britain, France, and Germany, foreign policymaking in Greece, all compared to the U.S. (where the model was first developed), and an innovative computer simulation of the policy process.