ABSTRACT
This book is about how public policy is made in the United States. As a book on a particular field of the social sciences, it goes beyond simple description to introduce you to theories and ways of thinking about the policy process. This is not to deny the value of understanding the substance of the many policies themselves. I am sure that you, your family, and friends have often puzzled over why the government does some of the things it does, particularly when those things are contradictory. Why does, for example, the government provide support for tobacco farming and discourage people from smoking? Why does the government give people tax breaks for buying houses? Why don’t renters get similar tax breaks? Or landlords, who could pass the savings on to renters? Why doesn’t the United States have a single-payer, comprehensive health insurance system like many other countries? Why was the idea of creating such a system so passionately resisted? Why is the federal government so deeply involved in crime and education policy when our constitutional system places the primary responsibility for these programs in the state and local governments? Is regulation of consumer product safety better for public safety, or would greater reliance on the market and better information for consumers work better to promote public safety? These are questions that motivate many people of all ideological and political persuasions to understand public problems and find solutions to them.
