In recent years, a set of radical new approaches to public policy, drawing on discursive analysis and participatory deliberative practices, have come to challenge the dominant technocratic, empiricist models in policy analysis. In this title, Frank Fischer brings together these various new approaches and critically examines them.

Preface ; 1. Making Social Science Relevant: Policy Inquiry in Critical Perspective ; PART I. PUBLIC POLICY AND THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY ; 2. Constructing Policy Theory: Ideas, Language and Discourse ; 3. Public Policy as Discursive Construct: Social Meaning and Multiple Realities ; PART II. PUBLIC POLICY AND DISCURSIVE POLITICS ; 4. Public Policy and Discourse Analysis ; 5. Discourse versus Advocacy Coalitions: Interpreting Policy Change and Learning ; PART III. DISCURSIVE POLICY INQUIRY: RESTITUTING EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ; 6. Postempiricist Foundations: Social Constructionism and Practical Discourse ; 7. Interpreting Public Policy: Normative Frames and Methodological Issues ; 8. Public Policy as Narrative: Stories, Frames, and Metanarratives ; 9. Policy Analysis as Discursive Practice: The Argumentative Turn ; PART IV. DELIBERATIVE GOVERNANCE ; 10. Citizens and Experts: Democratizing Policy Deliberations ; 11. The Deliberative Policy Analyst: Theoretical Issues and Practical Challenges