Analysis and Public Policy: Successes, Failures and Directions for Reform

Description

How do we incorporate analytical thinking into public policy decisions? Stuart Shapiro confronts this issue in Analysis and Public Policy by looking at various types of analysis, and discussing how they are used in regulatory policy-making in the US. By looking at the successes and failures of incorporating cost-benefit analysis, risk assessment, and environmental impact assessment, he draws broader lessons on its use, focusing on the interactions between analysis and political factors, legal structures and bureaucratic organizations as possible areas for reform. Front Matter......Page 1 Copyright......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Acknowledgements......Page 6 1. Policy analysis: roots and branches......Page 7 2. Regulation in the United States and comprehensive-rational analysis......Page 26 3. Cost-benefit analysis and the regulatory process......Page 38 4. Risk assessment and the regulatory process......Page 63 5. Environmental impact assessment......Page 88 6. Impact analysis and the regulatory process......Page 111 7. The use of analysis......Page 126 8. Using analysis to further democracy, not technocracy......Page 149 9. Building better branches......Page 164 Appendix: questions for interview subjects......Page 170 References......Page 172 Index......Page 187