Intro -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- List of figures -- List of tables -- Abbreviations -- Contributors -- Part 1. Theorising, teaching and learning about policymaking -- 1. Public policy theory, practice and teaching: Investigating the interactions -- 2. A quixotic quest? Making theory speak to practice -- 3. What can policy theory offer busy practitioners? Investigating the Australian experience -- 4. Delivering public policy programs to senior executives in government-the Australia and New Zealand School of Government 2002-18 -- 5. How do policy professionals in New Zealand use academic research in their work? -- 6. The dilemmas of managing parliament: Promoting awareness of public management theories to parliamentary administrators -- Part 2. Putting policymaking theory into practice -- 7. Public policy processes in Australia: Reflections from experience -- 8. Using the policy cycle: Practice into theory and back again -- 9. Succeeding and failing in crafting environment policy: Can public policy theories help? -- 10. Understanding the policymaking enterprise: Foucault among the bureaucrats -- 11. The practical realities of policy on the run: A practitioner’s response to academic policy frameworks -- 12. Documenting the link between policy theory and practice in a government department: A map of sea without any land -- Part 3. How can theory better inform practice and vice versa? -- 13. Taking lessons from policy theory into practice -- 14. Synthesising models, theories and frameworks for public policy: Implications for the future -- 15. Public policy theory, practice and skills: Advancing the debate.
When it comes to policymaking, public servants have traditionally learned ’on the job’, with practical experience and tacit knowledge valued over theory-based learning and academic analysis. Yet increasing numbers of public servants are undertaking policy training through postgraduate qualifications and/or through short courses in policy training..