Title: The politics of information : problem definition and the course of public policy in America /
Authors: Baumgartner, Frank R., 1958-; Jones, Bryan D.
Year: 2015
Subjects: Federal government Information resources management United States.; Policy sciences United States.; United States Politics and government; United States Politics and government
Abstract: How does the government decide what's a problem and what isn't? Like individuals, Congress is subject to the "paradox of search." If policy makers don't look for problems, they won't find those that need to be addressed. But if they carry out a thorough search, they will almost certainly find new problems - and with the definition of each new problem comes the possibility of creating a program to address it. With The Politics of Attention, leading policy scholars Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones demonstrated the central role attention plays in how governments prioritize problems. Now, with The Politics of Information, they turn the focus to the problem-detection process itself, showing how the growth or contraction of government is closely related to how it searches for information and how, as an organization, it analyzes its findings. Better search processes that incorporate more diverse viewpoints lead to more intensive policy-making activity. Similarly, limiting search processes leads to declines in policy-making. At the same time, the authors find little evidence that the factors usually thought to be responsible for government expansion - partisan control, changes in presidential leadership, and shifts in public opinion - can be systematically related to the patterns they observe. -- from back cover.
Contents: Search, information, and policy agendas -- Organizing for expertise or organizing for complexity? -- Information, search, and government -- The rise and decline of institutional information processing in the executive and legislative branches -- From clarity to complexity in Congress -- The search for information and the great new-issue expansion -- The thickening and broadening of government -- Rounding up the usual political suspects -- Organizing information and the transformation of U.S. policy making -- Organizing complexity.