ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the contribution of some of the work in that subfield to understanding of the policy process, particularly, what we have learned about the policy process from large-N comparative studies. It considers all of those types of studies, while focusing primarily upon large-N comparative studies that have involved the American states. The measures of malapportionment failed to show statistically significant correlations with most of the state policy indicators, once the environmental variables of income and industrialization were controlled. The dependent variables in Dye, Sharkansky, or Hofferbert (DSH)-style studies are what the models depict as policy "outputs." Early studies leaned heavily upon public expenditures as interval-level data. Comparative policy studies using the DSH approach represent a considerable proportion of the body of literature in the field of public policy studies. The availability and cost of data tend to direct one toward initial policy adoptions and away from policy modifications and abandonments.
