The Political Process of Policymaking A Pragmatic Approach to Public Policy [Hardcover]

Philippe Zittoun analyses the public policymaking process focusing on how governments relentlessly develop proposals to change public policy to address insoluble problems. Rather than considering this surprising Sisyphean effort as a lack of rationality, the author examines it as a political activity that produces order and stability.Introduction: The Political Processof Policymaking PART I: CREATING SOCIAL DISORDER CONSTRUCTING, PROPAGATING AND POLICITISING SOCIAL PROBLEMS 1. A Pragmatic Approach to Public Problems 2. Definitional Struggles Around Unacceptable Problems PART II: DEFINING SOLUTION, A COMPLEX BRICOLAGE TO SOLVE PUBLIC PROBLEMS 1. Between Stratagem and Cognitive Bricolage: The Contribution of Simon and Lindblom 2. From Cognitive Bricolage to Language Games 3. The Five Couplings in Defining Solutions 4. From Coupling to Restoring Political Order PART III: PROPAGATING SOLUTION, ARGUMENTATIVE STRATEGIES TO CEMENT COALITIONS 1. Arguing to Persuade 2. Discussion as a Test of Persuasion Strategies 3. From Persuasion to Diffusion, Building Discursive Coalitions PART IV: POLICY STATEMENTS TO LEGITIMISE 'DECISION-MAKERS' 1. The Paradoxes of Taking Positions into Account 2. The Definitional Issues of a Topography of Positions 3. The 'Decision' to Fix Topographies Within Statements 4. An Empirical Example of Decision: Political Decision-making of the Paris Tramway Conclusion: How Public Policy Shapes Politics

Despite much lip-service given to the need to understand the profoundly political nature of public policies, there is a distinct tendency in many studies to address the subject in a mechanical way, treating the definition of policy goals and the articulation of the means to achieve them as technical issues subject to a precise instrumental logic and rationality. This excellent volume by Philippe Zittoun avoids this error and takes on the analysis of the political construction of public policy head-on. It develops and refines key definitions and methl3#