Table of Contents

Editors' Introduction
I. The Argumentative Turn: Policy Institutions and Practices
Policy Discourse and the Politics of Washington Think Tanks / Frank Fischer
Discourse Coalitions and the Institutionalization of Practice: The Case of Acid Rain in Great Britain / Maarten A. Hajer
Political Judgment and the Policy Cycle: The Case of Ethnicity Policy Arguments in the Netherlands / Robert Hoppe
Counsel and Consensus: Norms of Argument in Health Policy / Bruce Jennings
II. Analytical Concepts: Frames, Tropes, and Narratives
Survey Research as Rhetorical Trope: Electric Power Planning Arguments in Chicago / J. A. Throgmorton
Reframing Policy Discourse / Martin Rein and Donald Schon
Reading Policy Narratives: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends / Thomas J. Kaplan
Learning from Practice Stories: The Priority of Practical Judgment / John Forester
III. Theoretical Perspectives
Policy Analysis and Planning: From Science to Argument / John S. Dryzek
Planning Through Debate: The Communicative Turn in Planning Theory / Patsy Healey
Policy Reforms as Arguments / William N. Dunn
Guidelines for Policy Discourse: Consensual versus Adversarial / Duncan MacRae, Jr.
Contributors
Index

Promotional Information

Explores the interplay of language, action, and power in both the practice and the theory of policy-making

About the Author

Frank Fischer is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University in Newark and a member of the Bloustein Graduate School of Planning and Public Policy on the New Brunswick campus.

John Forester is Professor of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University.

Reviews

"Fischer and Forester break new ground and provide a fascinating new way of viewing policy analysis... An innovative view of policy analysis that addresses crucial developments in contemporary epistemology." Dennis J. Palumbo, Journal of Politics "This book has the potential to be important in the field, the leading statement for a movement. It does not call merely for words to balance the statistics, as in the tired debate between the humanities and the sciences. On the contrary, it argues that the words and the statistics are all part of the argument. The contributors apply theories of judgment ranging from classical rhetoric to modern theories of narrative to see the judging whole. The book proposes a new way to see old debates... In short, the book is excellent." Donald N. McCloskey, University of Iowa