Public Policy for Democracy

Helen Ingram; Steven Rathgeb Smith

doi:10.5771/9780815717720

Summary

A fundamental rethinking is under way about the roles of government, citizens, and community organizations in public policy. Can government be reconstructed to make public policies more responsive to citizens and thus more effective? This challenge is apparent in the activist policy agenda of the Clinton administration, which supports national service programs, government-voluntary collaborations, and community-based development projects.

Public Policy for Democracy is an important and timely contribution to the current discussion of how to get people more involved in their own governance. In this book, contributors urge policymakers and policy analysts to promote a more vigorous and inclusive democracy by incorporating concerns about citizenship in their craft, rather than strictly emphasizing efficiency and effectiveness.

The authors provide insight into how the social construction of politics affects the recipients of the policies and the public in general. They call attention to how policies reinforce negative stereotypes of some groups, such as welfare recipients, and often lead to political alienation and withdrawal. In addition, they discuss how polices using "clinical reason"a term borrowed from medicine and used as a way to classify peopleare increasingly applied to nonmedical situations, such as domestic violence, to restrict individual power and legitimacy. The authors argue that much needs to be done by the government itself to improve policy design and empower all citizens to participate in the democratic process. They identify concrete strategies for policymakers to enhance the role of citizens without sacrificing program effectiveness.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2011
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8157-4153-4
ISBN-Online: 978-0-8157-1772-0
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 274
Product type: Edited Book

1. Contents No access
1. Citizenship, Democracy, and Public Policy No access
2. Policy Design and American Politics No access
3. Deliberation, Policy Design, and Policy Studies No access
1. 1. Citizenship No access
  2. Deliberation No access
  3. Political Deliberation No access
  4. Citizenship and the Modern State No access
  5. Policies as Constitutions: Ends No access
  6. Policies as Constitutions: Powers No access
  7. Deregulation, Privatization, and Managed Markets No access
  8. Membership No access
  9. An Illustration: Superfund No access
  10. Conclusion No access
2. 1. The Model of Clinical Reason No access
  2. The Political Properties of Clinical Reason No access
  3. The Expansion of Clinical Authority No access
  4. Conclusion No access
3. 1. Previous Research No access
  2. Policy Design and Citizen Participation No access
  3. Dynamics and Pathologies of Social Construction No access
  4. Persistent Construction, Citizenship, and Participation No access
  5. Policy Design for Democracy No access
1. 1. Public Information Campaigns in Action No access
  2. The Dangers of Information Campaigns for Democracy No access
  3. The Value of Information Campaigns for Democracy No access
  4. The Paradox: Information Campaigns Have Two Faces No access
  5. Design Implications: Safeguards against Misuse No access
  6. Design Implications: Enhancing Positive Consequences No access
  7. Conclusion No access
2. 1. The Economic Opportunity Act No access
  2. The War on Poverty in Tucson: OEO and Model Cities No access
  3. The Neighborhoods and Citizen Activism in Tucson No access
  4. The Battle for Citizen Participation No access
3. 1. The Social Construction of the Amnesty Program No access
  2. A View from the Field No access
  3. The Implications of Legalization for Immigration Policy and Citizenship No access
1. 1. The Argument No access
  2. Family-Planning Services in Less Industrialized Countries No access
  3. Education in the United States No access
  4. Summary No access
2. 1. Citizenship in the Mixed Economy of Welfare No access
  2. The Growth of Contracting No access
  3. Federal Cutbacks and Changing Responsibilities for Service Funding No access
  4. The New Politics of Nonprofit Service Organizations No access
  5. Citizenship and the Changing Role of Nonprofit Agencies No access
  6. Contracting, Citizenship, and Policy Analysis No access
3. 1. The Implementation of Public Policy by Nongovernmental Entities No access
  2. Mental Health, Citizenship, and the Hollow State No access
  3. Entrepreneurship and Advocacy No access
  4. Discussion No access
  5. Citizenship and the Hollow State No access
  6. Conclusion No access
1. 1. Why Reconnected Citizenship? No access
  2. Policy Messages and Citizen Status No access
  3. Recasting Associationalism No access
  4. Recasting Representation in Industrial Relations No access
  5. Recasting Representation in Environmental Regulation No access
  6. Recasting Voter Registration: The Role of Public Information No access
  7. Conclusion No access
1. A No access
2. B No access
3. C No access
4. D No access
5. E No access
6. F No access
7. G No access
8. H No access
9. I No access
10. J No access
11. K No access
12. L No access
13. M No access
14. N No access
15. O No access
16. P No access
17. Q No access
18. R No access
19. S No access
20. T No access
21. U No access
22. V No access
23. W No access
24. Y No access