Richardson et al.'s respected and seminal Policy Styles in Western Europe (1982) shed valuable light on how countries tend to establish long-term and distinctive ways to make policies that transcend short-term imperatives and issues. This follow-up volume updates those arguments and significantly expands the coverage, consisting of 16 carefully selected country-level case studies from around the world. Furthermore, it includes different types of political regimes and developmental levels to test more widely the robustness of the patterns and variables highlighted in the original book.

The case studies - covering countries from the United States, Canada, Germany and the UK to Russia, Togo and Vietnam - follow a uniform structure, combining theoretical considerations and the presentation of empirical material to reveal how the distinct cultural and institutional features of modern states continue to have implications for the making and implementation of public policy decisions within them.

The book is essential reading for students and scholars of public policy, public administration, comparative politics and development studies.

About the Author

Michael Howlett is Burnaby Mountain Chair and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in the Department of Political Science at Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Jale Tosun is Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Reviews

"This new edited volume makes a much needed contribution to the comparative study of national policy styles. It does so by extending their study to include a wide and diverse range of countries - western and non-western, democratic and authoritarian and developed and developing. This is an informative, ambitious, and well-researched volume." - David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley, USA

"Students of comparative public policy have long struggled to find concepts that work across a wide range of countries. The concept of 'policy style' was very simple and not overly sophisticated, yet 'policy style' has become a generic term in comparative public policy. This new volume on policy styles will be seen as essential reading for anyone interested in understanding and comparing policy systems." - Jeremy Richardson, Nuffield College, Oxford, and University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Book Information
ISBN 9781138085671
Author Michael Howlett
Format Hardback
Page Count 402
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g