Martin-J Smith

Forty years ago, central government was seen as the key actor in the making of public policy. Today, it is often portrayed as a parochial council, impotent in the face of uncontrollable global forces. This textbook analyses the changing nature of public policy over the last three decades, looking at the impact of governance and offering a theoretically and critically informed account of the changing nature of the state. Taking the shift from government to governance as its theme, the book provides a critical assessment of recent theoretical debates on policy-making: the New Right reforms of the state; the impact of Europeanization, internationalization, and globalization; and most recently, the process of devolution under the Blair Labour government. In addition, a series of new and accessible case studies of policy-making are presented in box form, using the authors own wide-ranging interviews with over 200 ministers, civil servants, and interest groups-providing the reader with solid empirical material to illuminate the chapters.