ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book argues that in a field as complex as public policy, simplifying theories are an absolute necessity. Furthermore, "lenses" through which the world is viewed should be explicit rather than implicit. The book presents one such theory: the institutional analysis and development variant of institutional rational choice, the multiple-streams framework, a social constructionist framework, a policy network approach, the punctuated equilibrium framework, the advocacy coalition framework, the policy diffusion framework, and a related set of frameworks used in large-N comparative policy studies. It reviews the status of policy theory and suggests that several guidelines for improving it. The book utilizes the two frameworks that have developed the most since the mid-1980s—institutional analysis and development and the advocacy coalition framework–in an effort to discern fruitful guidelines for theoretical development.
