This brief text identifies the issues, resources, actors, and institutions involved in public policy making and traces the dynamics of the policymaking process, including the triggering of issue awareness, the emergence of an issue on the public agenda, the formation of a policy commitment, and the implementation process that translates policy into practice.

Throughout the text, which has been significantly revised and updated for this edition, Gerston brings his analysis to life with abundant examples from the most recent and emblematic cases of public policy making. At the same time, with well-chosen references, he places policy analysis in the context of political science and deftly orients readers to the classics of public policy studies. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and suggestions for further reading.

"The third edition of this concise introduction to the policymaking process has been thoroughly updated. ... Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate collections." — Choice

"A concise, descriptive, and straightforward overview of the politics of the policymaking process. ... Gerston's writing is clear. The book's categories and concepts are well defined and easy for beginning students to understand. The author provides students with an accessible and accurate description of policymaking from the standpoint of one who believes that understanding institutions is the first step in understanding public policy. He has succeeded in that task." — Perspectives on Politics (on the previous edition) (*)