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American Public Policy is an introductory undergraduate text that focuses on the substantive issues of public policy. Most texts stress methods of policy analysis, models of policy, or the policymaking process. Although these topics are important, their dominance at the introductory level often makes the subject too abstract to engage students’ imaginations. In our own teaching, we have found that an interest in more rigorous analysis grows most naturally out of a lively classroom discussion of specific policy debates—for example, welfare, abortion, tax reform, immigration, or crime control. American Public Policy is unique in its emphasis on such issues, combining history and description with presentation of alternative solutions.

This text is intended for the first undergraduate course in public policy, either a one-semester course or part of a two-semester sequence that includes both political institutions and public policy …