Studying Public Policy develops an analytical framework of the subject for students in public policy courses. Instead of focussing on the substantive policy of a particular policy area, the book examines the theoretical and conceptual foundations of, and approaches used in, the policy sciences.

Studying Public Policy develops an analytical framework that will enable students to study public policy more effectively. The first of the books three parts examines different approaches to studying public policy by providing inventories of the relevant types of policy actors, structures, and ideas involved in public policy-making. Part Two then breaks down the policy process into the five sub-processes or sub-stages set out in the policy cycle model and analyzes the variables affecting each stage. Part Three concludes the text with a general commentary on the nature of policy change and stability.