Taking a critical approach, it examines the key concepts and ideas of public management. Comparative case studies introduce students to public management ideas from the US, the UK, and Europe. The new edition is fully updated to reflect the financial crisis and its impact on the way public services are now being reformed across the world.

Health services are among the most expensive and complex areas of social policy.Using qualitative comparative analysis to explore 11 developed countries’ health services, this volume considers the links between a range of different outcome measures and levels of funding, social determinants and different types of health expenditures. It also reflects on how those systems responded to the first wave of COVID-19.This ambitious text identifies which underpinning factors are as...

Designing Social Research aims to guide students and new researchers using everyday non-jargonised language through the jungle of setting up their own research study. Ian Greener provides readers an accessible combination of guidance on how to practically plan one′s research and understand the underpinning methodological principles that should inform the decisions we make about the methods we plan to use.This is the perfect starter book for anyone looking to design...

Incorporating insights from political economy and behavioural psychology, this radical book provides an up-to-date account of the dilemmas facing social policy this decade: where did we go wrong, and what we can do about it?Ian Greener reconsiders one of the leading analyses by Jessop of the relationship between the economic and the political, combining it with insights from behavioural science. Covering the economy, healthcare, education and social security, detailed case studies ...

Focusing on the policy approaches of Conservative governments since 2015, this book examines key social policy areas including education, health, housing, employment, children and young people, and more.Respected social policy researchers explore the degree to which the positions and policies of recent Conservative governments have differed from the previous Coalition government (2010–15). They consider the extent to which austerity has continued and the influence of other policy e...

NHS reform continues to be a topical yet contentious issue in the UK. Reforming healthcare: What's the evidence? is the first major critical overview of the research published on healthcare reform in England from 1990 onwards by a team of leading UK health policy academics. It explores work considering the Conservative internal market of the 1990s and New Labour's healthcare reorganizations, including its attempts at performance management and the reintroduction of market-based reform from...

By examining the role of evidence in social policymaking and the extent of its influence, Evidence and Evaluation in Social Policy delves deeply into one of the central questions of the field for the last 20 years.Chronicles the trend towards evidence-based policy over the last decadeAssesses the ways in which scarce resources can best be used for the best care, particularly in times of austerityDescribes methodological innovation, the ways in whi...