Politics and Public Policy

This is the first book to explore the public policy process through 19 contributions from diverse scholars from all over the world, using empirical material to demonstrate how many of the key theories and concepts may be applied to its analysis.

In this book, the authors use the latest research to explore financial differences across the UK’s three main parties in the four years leading up to the 2010 General Election, revealing an unhealthy picture of grassroots party organisation in which the capacity to engage with many voters is concentrated in a few constituencies.

Combining theory and international practice,this book examines how local government can develop active citizens and make a difference to the well-being of those in disadvantaged areas.

This timely book by award-winning journalist Mary O’Hara chronicles the true impact of austerity on people at the sharp end of the cuts, based on her 12-month journey around the country in 2012 and 2013 and fully updated for the paperback edition

Informed by historical research and sociological analysis, this book helps readers re-evaluate their understandings of British drinking culture. It is essential readying for students and academics.

The book offers critical reflections on the recent history and future direction of policy studies, advancing the debate by rethinking the ways in which scholars and students of policy studies can (re)engage with pertinent issues. First published as a Special Issue of Policy & Politics.

This unique book presents all 73 female presidents and prime ministers from around the world, from 1960 (when the first was elected) to 2010, through a series of fascinating case studies that discuss the motives, achievements and life stories of these women of power.

Challenging current thinking, this important book is the first to focus on the role of area-based initiatives to tackle the link between education, disadvantage and place. Aimed at all those actively seeking to tackle disadvantage, including policymakers, practitioners, academics and students.

Father and daughter provides an unique ‘insider perspective’ on two key figures in twentieth-century British social science, combining biography of Richard Titmuss and autobiography by his daughter Ann Oakley.

In China and Post-Socialist Development the emergence of China as an economic superpower is examined and framed within the context of the East Asian developmental miracle, arguing that China’s approach – broadly in opposition to the neo-liberal doctrine – has brought impressive results.

Why we can’t afford the rich exposes the unjust and dysfunctional mechanisms that allow the top 1% to siphon off wealth produced by others. With an updated Afterword, Andrew Sayer shows how the rich worldwide have increased their ability to hide their wealth, create indebtedness and expand their political influence.

In this topical book, expert scholars from the Nordic countries, the UK and the US demonstrate how modern fatherhood is supported in Nordic countries through family and social policies, and how these shape and influence the images, roles and practices of fathers in a diversity of family settings and variations of fatherhoods.