Description Public administration and policy analysis education have long emphasized tidiness, stages, and rationality, but practitioners frequently must deal with a world where objectivity is buffeted by, repressed by, and sometimes defeated by value conflict. Politics and policy are "messy" and power explains much more about the policy process than does rationality. Public Policy Praxis, now in a thoroughly revised fourth edition, uniquely equips students to better grapple with ambiguity and complexity. By emphasizing mixed methodologies, the reader is encouraged, through the use of a wide variety of policy cases, to develop a workable and practical model of applied policy analysis. Students are given the opportunity to try out these globally applicable analytical models and tools in varied case settings (e.g., county, city, federal, international, plus urban and rural) while facing wide-ranging topics (starving farmers and the red panda in Nepal, e-cigarettes, GMOs, the gig economy, and opioid abuse) that capture the diversity and reality of public policy analysis and the intergovernmental and complex nature of politics. The fourth edition expands upon its thorough exploration of specific tools of policy analysis, such as stakeholder mapping, content analysis, group facilitation, narrative analysis, cost-benefit analysis, futuring, and survey analysis. Along with teaching "how to," the authors discuss the limitations, the practical political problems, and the ethical problems associated with different techniques and methodologies. Many new cases have been added, along with clear instructions on how to do congressional research and a Google Trends analysis.　 An expanded online Teaching Appendix is included for adopters, offering original cases, answers to problems, alternative approaches to case use, teaching exercises, student assignments, pedagogical ideas, and supplemental material directly tied to concepts covered in the text.　 With an easily accessible and conversational writing style,　Public Policy Praxis　is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in public policy analysis, community planning, leadership, social welfare policy, educational policy, family policy, and special seminars. Table of Content List of Figures List of Tables List of Boxes List of Cases Preface to the Fourth Edition Acknowledgments Part I Overview Chapter 1 Public Policy, Power, the People, Pluralism, and You Mini-Case: Opioid Abuse and Waterville Introduction Introducing Narrative Analysis Value Conflict A Political System Public Policy and Linkage Mechanisms Power and Policymaking An Ideal (Direct) Democracy Representative Democracy Interest Group Democracy (Pluralism) Elitism Elite Democracy: The Irony of Democracy Effect of Power Structures on the Policy Analyst Stakeholder Analysis Mini-Case: This Isn’t a Hilton Hotel, MA’AM Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms The "Gig Economy" Case: Uber (and Lyft) from Boise to Burlington Part II Theory & Practice: Rationality, Nonrationality, Politics, and the Policy Process Chapter 2 The Rational Public Policy Method Genesis of the Rational Model The Rational Public Policy Method in Theory A Critical Reaction The Rational Model in Practice Rationality or Something Else? Mini-Case: Portersville Health Clinic Model Evaluation Heading to a Conclusion Concluding Thoughts Mini-Case: Democracy or Science? Climate Change and GMOs Glossary Terms Chapter 3 The Positivist Toolbox Introduction In Defense of Rationality and Big Data: Evidence Based Politics Shaundra the Policy Analyst Tool #1: Sampling and Mail Surveys Tool #2: Extrapolation and Forecasting Tool #3: Measures of Central Tendency Tool #4: Discounting Tool #5: Cost-Benefit Analysis Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Chapter 4 Critiques of the Rational Approach Examples of the Power of Nonrational Explanations Critiques of the Rational Model Case Study: Vaping Politics and Policy – Up in Smoke Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Chapter 5 The Nonrational (Political) Approach Essence and Overview of the Policy Process Problem Identification/Gaining Agenda Status Policy Formulation, Adoption, and Funding Policy Implementation Policy Evaluation, Adjustment, Termination Mini-Case: The Pocatello Prison Siting Story: A Case of Politics Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Case Study: "Opioids and The Political Model of Policy Analysis" 　 Part III Practice and Theory: Problem Definition, Pragmatism, Policy Analysis, Methodologies and Democracy Chapter 6 A Pragmatic Public Policy Analysis Method The Rational Public Policy Analysis Method: History and Form A Five-Step Method Summary of the Five-Step Method Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Case Study: Playing Politics: Bison, Brucellosis, Business, and Bureaucrats Chapter 7 Problem Definition, Mixed Methodologies, and Praxis Anti-Praxis: The Two Tracks of Policy Analysis The Ambiguous and Subjective Nature of Events in the System School Shootings and Problem Definition What Is the "Truth" and How Are Policies Generated? Stone and Company: The Symbolic Representation of Problem Definition The Social Construction of Public Problems Mixed-Methods Tools Using Language in Problem Definition: The Yellowstone Bison Controversy Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Case Study: School Shootings and Focus Group Research: Narrative Analysis and Problem Definition Chapter 8 Doing Democracy: A New (Six) Step Model Defining Democracy Democracy as an Ambiguous Symbol The Critique of Traditional Policy Analysis Structuring Democracy Communitarianism and Democracy Democratizing Steps I through IV and Inserting a New Fifth Step into a Six Step Model Doing Democracy: Postpositivist Tools Ethics as Democracy A Tie that Binds Mini-Case: Kathmandu: Red Pandas, Hunger, USAID, and Agriculture in Nepal Concluding Thoughts Glossary Terms Case Study: Big-Mart: Cheap Goods at What Price? Stakeholders and Storytellers: Playing Politics and the Policy Process Part IV: Conclusion – Praxis/Practice Chapter 9 Letting you Show Off Do Facts Matter? Mini-Case: Opioid Abuse and Waterville (Revisited) Concluding Thoughts Glossary Bibliography Index