This book provides analytical, conceptual, and practical insights into how public policy processes and outcomes are conceptualized and framed. Drawing on Ghanaian experiences, but with extensive illustrations from other African countries, it showcases issues of commonality and diversity in public policy with analytical insights and real-life policy concerns that specifically address how citizens engage with the state, and how they think and function as social actors within the socio-cultural settings of Africa. The book brings public policy to life as a practical and problem-solving discipline, with examples of how policy actors such as the legislature, governance architects, the media, and the judiciary become arenas for contest. Linking public policy to development paradigms, governance, and responsible citizenship, it is important reading for students and scholars of public policy, governance, and politics in Africa, as well as practitioners.

Examines policy making processes and outcomes in Ghana Combines analytical insights with real-life practical policy concerns Draws on examples from other African countries to demonstrate commonality and diversity across the region

Autorentext

Michael Kpessa-Whyte is Associate Professor at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. His research focuses on the nexus between partisan politics and public policy.

James Dzisah is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Sociology, University of Ghana. His research focuses on knowledge production, globalization and development.

Klappentext

This book provides analytical, conceptual, and practical insights into how public policy processes and outcomes are conceptualized and framed. Drawing on Ghanaian experiences, but with extensive illustrations from other African countries, it showcases issues of commonality and diversity in public policy with analytical insights and real-life policy concerns that specifically address how citizens engage with the state, and how they think and function as social actors within the socio-cultural settings of Africa. The book brings public policy to life as a practical and problem-solving discipline, with examples of how policy actors such as the legislature, governance architects, the media, and the judiciary become arenas for contest. Linking public policy to development paradigms, governance, and responsible citizenship, it is important reading for students and scholars of public policy, governance, and politics in Africa, as well as practitioners.

Inhalt

Chapter 1- Introduction to Public Policy in Ghana: Conceptual and Practical Insights. Part I. Governance and Institutional Context of Public Policy.- Chapter 2- The Context and Content of Public Policy in Africa.- Chapter 3- Policy Capacity of the Legislature and Evidence-Informed Policy-making in Ghana: A Comparative Analysis Gedion.- Chapter 4 - The Executive Arm of Government and Public Policy in Ghana.- Chapter 5- It's Not Only About Value for Money: Evolution and Development of SOEs and the Making of State-Led Economic Development Policy in Ghana.- Chapter 6- Trends, Drivers, and Complexities of Policy Change: The Case of Ghana's Narcotics Policy Landscape.- Chapter 7- Ghana's Informal Automobile Repairs and Retail Sector.- Part II. Actors, Knowledge and Policy Matters.- Chapter 8- Ideas, Interests, and Institutions in Public Policy Making.- Chapter 9- Research and Knowledge in Policy Making.- Chapter 10- Think Tanks as Collective Policy Entrepreneurs and the Art of Policy Making in Ghana.- Chapter 11- Global pressures in policy making: Insights from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and Ghana's petroleum industry.- Chapter 12- The Politics of 'Physics Envy' and the Coloniality of Policy Making.- Part III. New Media, Public Opinion and Policy Publics.- Chapter 13- Public Policy Making in the Age of New Media Wilberforce.- Chapter 14- Political Delivery Marketing in Ghana.- Chapter 15- Public opinion and the policy making process in Ghana's Fourth Republic.- Chapter 16- An Analysis of Public Participation in Policy Making Processes.