Rhetoric and Reality : Presidential Commissions and the Making of Public Policy.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- Preface -- 1. The President and Public Policy -- Rhetoric and Reality -- Public Policy-How Public Is It? -- Policy Action and Inaction -- How Is Policy Made? -- Who Makes Policy? -- Crisis and Creativity -- Presidential Commissions -- The View from the Top -- 2. The Organizational Dynamics of Policy Commissions -- Demands -- Creating Commissions -- Issue Areas -- Temporal Variations in Demand -- Information Costs -- Commission Staff -- Consultants -- Research -- Actual Information Costs -- Decision Costs -- Summary -- 3. Policy Elites -- Who's Who -- Who's Who among Commissioners -- Who Else? -- 4. Policy Outputs: Commission Recommendations -- Policy Alternatives -- Alternatives Recommended -- Political Manipulability: The Possible and the Practical -- 5. Policy Results: Presidential Action and Congressional Response -- The Next Step -- Recommendations and Responses -- Nonresponse -- Complexity -- Demands -- Information Costs -- Decision Costs -- Policy Outputs and Policy Results -- A Final Word on Complexity -- 6. Two Models: One of Rhetoric and One of Reality -- Rhetoric -- Reality -- Information Costs and Policy Type -- Information Costs and Presidential Response -- Policy Type and Presidential Response -- Another View from the Top -- The Demise of Government by Commission -- 7. Toward More-Public Rhetoric -- The Revival of Government and Commissions -- One of the First Carter Commissions -- Some Positive Signs -- A Final Bow to Reality -- Appendix A: Presidential Advisory Commissions -- Appendix B: Coding Procedure -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

This book provides a detailed development of the concept of rhetorical policy as a first step in the policymaking process. It explores more than 100 public commissions using a model of the policymaking process that includes demands, decision and information costs, and policy results and outcomes.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.