Working for Policy

Abstract

There are now many people involved in 'making policy', but there is not a great deal written about how they do it. Most of the books on policy tend to refer obliquely, if at all, to the actual practice of policy work, and offer little guidance to policy workers or students of policy. 'Policy work' seems to be something that you learn on the job. This book addresses directly the nature of policy work. It blends academic and experiential knowledge of the policy process in describing, analysing and evaluating what modern policy workers do in particular situations, and why is that the appropriate thing to do, how it contributes to the policy process, what impact it has, and what can we learn from this about the skills and knowledge required for policy work in complex modern societies.