With case studies and practice scenarios, this real-world book explains and analyzes the tools, techniques, and processes used to formulate and adopt policy decisions in the modern Executive branch.

Written to give students of political science and public policy a practical, first-hand understanding of how to apply the knowledge of institutional structure and theories of decision-making they've learned in class, Shambaugh and Weinstein explain the tools used to navigate the policymaking process in the Executive branch. With the aim of developing students into effective policymakers, the authors argue that understanding the specific tools and techniques used in policymaking is critical—the likelihood that policymakers will support the formulation, adoption, and implementation of a particular policy is often as much a function of the legitimacy of the process through which it was created as the merits of the policy itself. They argue that procedural legitimacy is, in turn, a function of both the tools and techniques used in developing policy and managing the policymaking process. An abundance of case studies, examples of actual documents, and practice scenarios give this book an eminently real-world orientation and encourages students to apply what they've learned.