Introduction: Public Policy Failure, the Demise of Experts, and the Dawn of a New Era

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century, there have been distinctive public policy eras. Much demarcation between epochs arose because of tipping-point moments of change in overarching theory/philosophy about societal values and conjecture concerning how to instantiate such values with rules and regulation. In the contemporary era, public policy development is visceral in nature and largely undertaken based on consensus about what “feels” right. A reason for this change in emphasis concerns the long-term failure of experts and decision makers to deliver results for ordinary people; failure exacerbated by abrupt moments of crises. This book explores aspects of how the new approach to public policy creation influences management as a discipline. The first chapter is contextual. It argues that – largely because of widespread skepticism about the worth of specialists and theory and suspicion that expertise has been co-opted by moneyed interests – public policy is no longer done as it once was.