C. Nicandro Cruz UNAM. México

This book is an precise and extensive endeavor for understanding the problems, boudaries and potential use and application of knowledge for improving governmental performance.

Te basis of Dunn's approach to policy analysis, is that it depends to the production and transformation of five policy relevant information (about policy problems, policy futures, policy actions, policy outcomes and policy performance) through five policy-analytic procedures (problem-structuring, forecasting, recommendation, monitoring, and evaluation).

Perhaps the most important distinction is that problem structuring, "...which affects the use and asessment of the other four procedures, is really a metamethod (method of methods) that funtions as central regulator of the overall process of policy analysis." (page 65)

This analytical framework provide one of the most single effective way to analyze public policies and government programs, where the most important analyst's role is both to generate useful knowledge for decision making in all phases of policy process, and to generate plussible arguments by analythical procedures.

It is an ideal book for bachelor and graduate students interested in public problems that face governements, and in the role that can play all policy analyst in policy making.

Dunn's contribution to the study and use of policy analysis in academic and professional activities its out of question. 06-04-200

nickcruz@teleline.es

What is educative policy What is the politics analysi

The book has been written to be used as a qualified introductory volume in evaluation at academic institutions as well as within public administration. Besides being a good text book for those wanting to learn about making evaluation, the book serves well as a source book for the other important audience - those who fund or use evaluation research. Being an introductory volume, it does not go into details of evaluation methodology nor offer any new approaches, but aims at an overview of the existing literature and experience. The evaluation literature is very vast, and there are many approaches and arguments. Vedung's book is a most sensible and realiable compass when entering that jungle. Vedung makes two important limitations in his book. First of all, evaluation in this context is limited to gevernment interventions only, that is, to politically or administratively planned social change, like public policies, public programs and public services. The other limitation is that he is only interested in retrospective assessment of public interventions. Both of these limitations exclude a wide array of evaluation activities, especially in the US, as Vedung points out, but they certainly make the book a coherent and more accessible. The limitations mean, however, that we will for instance not learn much about evaluation which is carried out for assessing developments in work life, or evaluation which aims at clarifying and developing the aims and working methods of social movements. Vedung defines evaluation as 'careful, retrospecive assessment of merit, worth, and value of hte admisnistration, output and outcome of government interventions, which is intended to play a role in future practical action situations' (p. 13). This somewhat dry definition should not put the reador off, as the text turns out to be a very enjoyable experience. Vedung has the skill of presenting complicated methodological issues whith simplicity and clarity. This is greatly helped by the fact that he is not hesitant in promptly presenting his own stand or opinion which obviously stems from a vast array of practical experience in various fields of evaluation research. In most instances, one feels inclined to agree with his balanced and moderate views. After presenting his definition for evaluation and describing a spinning top-model for decision making where evaluation is located in between intervention implementation and feedback (p. 16), Vedung moves on to shortly discuss the history of the theories of public management. Often evaluation is seen as a part of the top-down management doctrines. Vedung states that this is far from the only way of seeing evaluation. Evalaution can be a part of more bottom-up or pluralist management doctrines as well, as the examples of professional evaluation, client-oriented evaluation, and stakeholder evaluation show... Vedung takes the middle-ground in the 'eternal' disbute on causality in evaluation research. He recognizes the depth of the problem but does not give up on giving impact assessment a high value in evaluation research. He writes: 'There is no satisfactory, widely recognized solution to the causality problem in the social sciences generally, and even less so in evaluation theory. ... The problem is of course that past counterfactual states can never be known with certainty' (p. 168-169). In evaluation, the ideal would be to have a consummate physical copy of the program situation. In the classical experimental design, the control group would constitute such a duplicate of the experimental group. Since the perfect experimental design is almost unattainable in the real world of public policy, approximate approaches must be used. There are several such approximations available to the evaluator, and Vedung discusses these on pages 173-190, giving a good overview of the existing knowledge. The conclusion of this all is that evaluation researchers must learn to live with the insight that public policy making can never be transformed into science in the way desired ty outright technocrats and radical experimentalists. Evaluation methodology must be adjusted to the rules of the political game, not the other way round (s. 192). There are two alternatives left: one is to surrender, the other is to use weaker designs. Vedung like the majority of evaluation researchers, chooses the latter. His discussion on naturalistic design offers several usable and sensible, even if not novel ways out of the dilemma. Chapter 15 takes the reader beyond the point where typical academic research ends: how is the research used. An evaluator can be expected to influence the ways the research results are used and interpreted. 'Engineering model' which means that leaving the report to the decision makers is the end of the work for the researchers, is an acceptable, but acording to Vedung, a rare case in real life. He offers other models for the researchers: the inlightening, the interactive, hte legitimizing, which all, even the last one, are acceptable to him. Only the tactical use of evaluation research should never be tolerated. This book is most useful, heavy on information and insights. It is loyal to the state and seems to get its main fuel and passion from the cahllenge of combining democracy and science like evaluation, the two dreams of the ideal system of governing in the western societies. Vedung finishes his book by stating that this 'thorny' topic is vastly underplayed in evaluation literature and needs further clarification. The real delight in the end of the book is the glossary. The author has done a wonderful job in compilling a 22 page long glossary of key concepts in evaluation. This is an extremely useful and creative source for anyone entering or trying to make sense of the field, combining both amusing statements and charp exact definitions for complex methodological approaches. Marja Holmila/Researcher, Ph.D National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES), Siltasaarenkatu 18, P.O.BOX 220, FIN-00531 Helsinki, Finland

Evert Vedung's book 'Public Policy and Program Evaluation' is a very notable addition to the ever growing list of books dealing with evaluation and implementation.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone involved with program evaluation in the capacity of student, government official (program implementer) or government program evaluator.

Vedung's writing style is clear and simple. He explains and defends his arguments in a very precise and systematic fashion and that makes the book very comprehensible and easy to read.

Evaluation is a diverse discipline, thus one needs to systematize and clarify the themes he talks about right from the start. Evert Vedung does just that.

In the first four chapters of the book he introduces the reader to the diverse cosmos of evaluation. Initially he semantically defines evaluation and explains that he confines evaluation to the after-the-fact assessments. That is, he covers on-going or terminated activities but not before-the-fact analysis of potential not-yet adopted interventions (p.8).

He also talks of different evaluation models and he schematically classifies them into effectiveness, economic and professional models (p.36). Later, he analyzes each model in more detail. Among others, he puts emphasis on the typology of effects that a government intervention could have and presents some of these effects as Intended - Unintended and Anticipated - Unanticipated (pp. 49-59).

In chapter five he formulates his approach to public policy evaluation by listing eight problems - that he sees vital - in the form of questions.

1. Purpose problem: For what overall is the evaluation launched? 2. Organization (evaluator) problem: Who should exercise the evaluation and how? 3. Intervention analysis problem: How is the government intervention described? Is the evaluant regarded as a means or a self-contained entity? 4. Conversion problem: What does the execution look like between the formal in instigation of the intervention and the final outputs? 5. Results problem: What are the outputs and the outcomes -immediate, intermediate and ultimate - of the intervention? 6. Impact problem: What contingencies (causal forces) - the intervention included - explain the results? 7. By what value criteria should the merits of the intervention be assessed? By what standards of performance on the value criteria can success or failure or satisfactory performance be judged? And what are the actual merits of the intervention? 8. Utilization problem: How is the evaluation to be utilized? How is it actually used?

Questions one and two concern the evaluation of the intervention, questions three through seven pertain to the investigation proper and question eight refers to the feedback process or the utilization aspect of evaluation (pp. 93-94). In the rest of the book (chapters 6-15) Vedung expands on each of these eight problems in detail.

I particularly liked chapters 11 and 12 which are connected to question six. In chapter 11 he discusses impact assessment logic, several experimental designs and methods. The presentation of the notion of the counterfactual - the basis, that is, of experiments - is very clear. In chapter 12 he talks of generic, statistical and shadow controls. Although others have written whole books on experimental design Evert Vedung presents the essence of this subject in these two chapters.

Surely, things could have been added. For example, he omits discussing impact assessment methodologies from the econometrics point of view although they are widely in use nowadays (that is, evaluation studies using regression models). On the other hand, had he included regression methods, that might have produced a much more difficult and technical text, and that in turn would have decreased the audience coverage of the book.

Being myself both a student of evaluation and an evaluator - I presently evaluate the process through which government subsidies are distributed to enterprises -, I enjoyed the book immensely. In it, I found uses and connections both for my work and for my studies.

Takis Venetoklis/Researcher, BBA, MPS, Ph.D cand.,

Government Institute for Economic Research (VATT) Hämeentie 3, POB 269, 00531 Helsinki, Finland

This book rebuts both environmentalists and road lobbyists, by explaining why neither expanded transit nor expanded roads will have significant impacts upon congestion: expanded transit is of minimal value because it affects so few people (except perhaps in downtowns), expanded roads don't work because of what Downs calls "triple convergence" -- when a road is built it fills up because (1) drivers who used alternative routes switch to the new or widened road, (2) drivers who avoided rush hour start traveling during rush hour, and (3) drivers who used public transit switch to the improved expressway. (And triple convergence doesn't even take into account the long-run congestion that results when people move to be near a widened or new expressway, thus causing additional ridership increases). The only solution is to reduce demand for transportation, by encouraging ride sharing through tolls, fuel tax increases and other unpopular steps. In short, the most effective ways of reducing congestion are also the least politically popular.

I have used Anthony Downs, "Stuck in Traffic" for three years for a short course in urban transportation planning. Students find it clear and yet realistic on how simplistic solutions like "building more highway lanes" have unintended consequences that cancel out the gains.

He also looks at urban planning solutions, and shows that some gains might occur from increasing housing densities from very low to low or moderate, but most other solutions have little effect.

Finally, the most powerful solutions, including higher gasoline taxes, increased public funding for transit, and tolling on highways are also the least palatable politically.

Downs, an economist, is strong on the economic aspects of transportation, and has a good grasp on the planning issues. The book does not cover any of the engineering details of possible schemes.

Overall, an clearly written and strongly argued book.

Jim Mars School of Urban and Regional Planning Ryerson Polytechnic University Toronto, Ontario, CANADA

Frank Schwartz demonstrates a keen knowledge of Japanese policy-making and the "art" of consensus in Japan--a methodology which has led to the dismal economic environment the country now suffers. He shows that although consensus may be worthwhile, leadership is more often required to steer a nation towards growth and prosperity.

Arthur Milton, the man who saved me millions on my insurance thanks to his previous book, has really written a great book here. My grandson gave me this as a gift. Mr. Milton has plainly put to paper, those thoughts that many of us share about this great country. No, the US is not perfect by any stretch. It is out duty as Americans to fix those problems we have and Mr. Milton gives some wonderful suggestions. I would recommend this book to all my fellow countrymen. God Bless America!

this book doesn't beat around any topiary material culture, if you know what i mean. its necessary for every undergrad/ grad anthro student who still hasn't quite decided what to do with themselves post-collegiately... its packed with examples and studies. there's so much information that it comes across as boring. however, sometimes reality is boring. deal with it and get a job far away from school with your anthropology degree!

In this book Paolo Soleri exposed the ideas he have in the design of Arcosanti. I find the book really interesting although I don't agree 100% with his ideas, Soleri exposed his ideas in an orderly matter. This makes the book really easy to read. With each idea there is also a short paragraph outlining how this could be implemented or applied in Arcosanti. I enjoyed very much the book and also got a chance to understand better Arcosanti. Moreover the books seem more interesting to read because Soleri is not only writing his ideas but he is also building Arcosanti in Arizona. I recommend this book to architects and urban planners that are interested in new ideas and solutions to solve the urban mess that we are currently living.

Collaboratively compiled and edited by Dele Olowu and Soumana Sako, Better Governance And Public Policy: Capacity Building For Democratic Renewal In Africa is a resource of informed and informative essays accessibly written by a variety of learned authors, and presented with three overall goals: to describe recent governance alterations in African countries; to analyze the effects these changes have upon institutional reforms; and to scrutinize building institutional capacities to consolidate economic liberalization and democratization in African countries. A scholarly, heavily researched, wide-ranging study of the unique difficulties and challenges faced by African society and government today, Better Governance And Public Policy is a welcome and timely addition to African Studies collections and International Studies reading lists.

Mr. Ozawa details a variety of ideas to reform and modernize Japan's economy, political system, and society. He advocates more freedom (and responsibility) for the lives of all Japanese. He thinks the government patronizes the citizenry and treats them like dependent children. Mr. Ozawa believes that the Japanese people should be given more freedom to decide how to live their lives. However, he emphasizes that more freedom will require individual citizens to take responsibility for their own fate.