In recent years a set of radical new approaches to public policy, drawing on discursive analysis and participatory deliberative practices, have come to challenge the dominant technocratic, empiricist models in policy analysis. In his major new book Frank Fischer brings together these various new approaches for the first time and critically examines them. The book will be required reading for anyone studying, researching, or formulating public policy. "This book is an excellent presentation and defense of the constructivist perspective on policy analysis, and makes a strong, positive case for the utility of postempiricist reasoning for understanding policy choices... an excellent, well-argues presentation. if a reader wants to understand the discursive perspective on policy, this volume would be a very appropriate place to begin."-- Political Science Quarterly Frank Fischer is Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University