The second edition of this highly regarded Australian public policy text is designed for second and third year undergraduate students. Reviewers of the first edition commented on its excellence as an introductory text to the area of public policy and its comprehensive and thorough approach.

• “It is comprehensive on the broader economic and institutional aspects of policy”
• “it provides one of the most extensive bibliographies I have seen for a long time”
• “difficult concepts are broken down into comprehensible language and well explained”
• “the case studies are good value”
• “well laid out”
• “sets out both theoretical perspectives and empirical material making it invaluable to students”.

The second edition builds on these strengths and brings a new contributing author and new chapter structure and content to significantly improve and update the text.

1. Studying Public Policy
2. The Role of the State: ideological perspectives
3. The Role of the State: analytical perspectives
4. Government and the Economy in Australia
5. Explaining public policy: theoretical perspectives
6. Interest Groups and the Policy Process
7. Federalism and Public Policy in Australia
8. Government, Parliament and Policy
9. Australia in the World Economy: trade and industry policy
10. Managing the Economy: making macro-economic policy
11. Raising revenue: tax policy and tax politics
12. Social Policy: the Australian welfare state
13. Women’s Policy: special interests or mainstream? (Gillian Whitehouse)
14. Environmental Policy and Politics in Australia (Kate Crowley)
15. The Politics of Citizenship: identity, ethnicity & race (Nick Economou)

Alan Fenna is a Lecturer in Politics in the School of Social Sciences and Asian languages at Curtin University.  He specialises in Australian and comparative public policy.  Alan has recently completed a visiting professorship at Wilfred Laurier University in Ontario, Canada. 

Kate Crowley has contributed a chapter on environmental policy and teaches at the University of Tasmania.
Nicholas Economou who has contributed a chapter on the politics of citizenship, teaches at Monash University. 
Gillian Whitehouse has contributed a chapter on women’s policy and teaches at the University of Queensland.