This handbook provides a unique, systematic and comprehensive overview from leading experts in the field of the policy-making tools deployed at all the phases of the policy process. It covers the fundamentals of both new and established policy tools - from regulation and public enterprises to subsidies and information campaigns, as well as new tools, such as social impact investing, nudges, crowdsourcing, co-production and new digital governance and data analysis techniques.

The book consists of nine sections with five corresponding to the major research emphases of studies on policy tools across the stages of the policy cycle (agenda-setting, formulation, decision-making, implementation and evaluation). These are accompanied by overviews of key research and concepts, a discussion of how different kinds of tools can be usefully combined in simple or complex policy portfolios or mixes, and a concluding section on future research directions. Consolidating the state of knowledge and uniting classic foundational material with recent advancements in theory and practice in one location, the handbook is a defining volume in this field.

The Routledge Handbook of Policy Tools is essential reading and an authoritative reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners of public policy, public administration, and public management, as well as those interested in comparative politics and government, public organizations and the use of policy tools and instruments in individual policy areas from climate change to public health.

About the Author

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

Reviews

"Comprised of 44 chapters and featuring a line-up of distinguished international scholars, this excellent handbook is the best and the most comprehensive overview available of the policy tools approach in public policy research. This is why all university students, academic researchers, and policy practitioners interested in policy tools should read it."

Daniel Beland, McGill University, Canada

"This comprehensive volume provides definitive analyses of the critical connections between choosing appropriate policy tools and achieving desired policy outcomes. Michael Howlett has assembled a stellar cast of international scholars. They demonstrate the critical challenges of designing policy mixes for important problems, while taking account of evaluation evidence and changing political contexts. They provide new insights into how emerging problems are being tackled through new techniques such as big data analysis, behavioural psychology and co-production."

Brian Head, University of Queensland, Australia

"This excellent volume advances understandings of how combinations of policy tools manipulate both the substance and the processes of policymaking. It provides a great service to anyone interested in using tools as an analytical framework. And it will be welcomed by everyone who is concerned with better understanding how the policy process works."

Jenny M Lewis, University of Melbourne, Australia

"The Handbook's combination of the policy tools approach with the stages where the tools are deployed in the policy process - e.g., agenda setting, policy formulation and policy decision-making - has never been this comprehensively, systematically and successfully carried out before in the literature."

Evert Vedung, Uppsala University, Sweden

"The study of policy instruments traditionally constitutes a central topic of policy sciences. In the last decade, the research on policy tools accelerated very significantly. This important and complete book takes research on policy tools to a new level by organizing and synthesizing a large volume of new findings and perspectives."

Arnost Vesely, Charles University, Czech Republic

Book Information
ISBN 9780367757748
Author Michael Howlett
Format Hardback
Page Count 598
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 1820g