000			02026nam a2200181Ia 4500
999			_c161723 _d161723
005			20220408224702.0
008			200208s9999 xx 000 0 und d
082			_a327.73 POL
100			_aHow are public policies initiated in American politics?
245		0	_aPolitical innovation in America: the politics of policy initiation
260			_aNew Delhi
260			_bAllied Publishers
260			_c1986
300			_axiv, 185 p.
520			_aHow are public policies initiated in American poli tics? Do they spring fully formed from the fur rowed brow of the President? Are they the product of congressional committees? This pathbreaking book by Nelson Polsby looks for the first time at the process of political innovation. Drawing ex amples from foreign and domestic policy, Polsby examines the genesis of eight major government initiatives: the Peace Corps, the Truman Doctrine, the Council of Economic Advisers, Medicare, Com munity Action Programs, the National Science Foundation, civilian control of atomic energy, and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. As Polsby traces the development of each of these programs and policies, he finds that there are at least two kinds of innovation in the American polit ical system: policy initiations that occur swiftly, as a response to some acute need or demand, and those that incubate over a longer period of time. In the latter case, a separation of functions ap pears between specialists who invent alternatives and politicians who harvest them and adapt them to political ends. Polsby has explored empirically the preconditions of political innovations, and he draws conclusions that have general applicability for the understand ing of innovation in the American political system. His characteristically witty and stimulating book opens a third branch of inquiry in political science - on a coequal footing with the study of legisla tive enactment politics and the study of policy implementation.
650			_aUnited States - Foreign relations
942			_cDB _2ddc