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Politics and Public Policy

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Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Synonyms

Civics; Democracy; Diplomacy; Government; Polity; Public affairs; Statecraft

Definition

Politics is the means by which a community makes collective decisions about public issues.

Introduction

This article provides an overview of the relationship between politics and public policy. It will examine what politics is, why it exists, the venues in which it occurs, and the ways in which it can shape public policy. Politics is only one way of determining public policy decisions. Politics will be contrasted with the other ways of making public policy, namely, ideology, expertise, and authority. This article will also examine the sources of politics, the contrast between politics and rationality as sources of policy, and the question of how power is distributed in modern democracies.

Main Text

Public policy refers to the decisions and actions that are taken by the government when it addresses public issues or those that concern the entire community. Politics refers to the way in which...

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Further reading

  • Beetham D (2005) Democracy: a beginner’s guide. Oneworld Publications, Oxford

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  • Colebatch H (2002) Policy, 2nd edn. Open University Press, Buckingham

    Google Scholar 

  • Crick B (2005) In defence of politics. Continuum, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Heywood A (2013) Politics, 4th edn. Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills

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  • Lindblom C, Woodhouse EJ (1992) The policy-making process, 3rd edn. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs

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  • Matheson C (2009) Understanding the policy process: the work of Henry Mintzberg. Public Adm Rev 69(6):1148–1161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minogue K (2000) Politics: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Craig Matheson

Authors
  1. Craig Matheson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Craig Matheson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Cite this entry

Matheson, C. (2016). Politics and Public Policy. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_1407-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_1407-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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