LIST OF PANELS

The literature in the policy sciences on policy tools or instruments historically has focused almost exclusively on implementation tools (Hood 1986; Salamon 2002;  Hood and Margetts 2007; Howlett 2011). However each of the stages  of the policy process is also subject to government action (Wu et al 2010) and distinct sets of policy tools can be identified in each of the non-implementation stages of policy-making. This panel addresses the situation with respect to agenda-setting or the stage in which policy issues and problems are first brought to the attention of policy-makers and included as subjects of possibly government policy-making activities; policy formulation or the process of developing alternative options for government action; decision-making or the process of selecting a specific alternative; and policy evaluation or the process of monitoring and reporting on the results of policy outputs and outcomes. This papers on the panel will examine the literature on these subjects and focus attention on the tools commonly employed in these activities.

The literature in the policy sciences on policy tools or instruments historically has focused almost exclusively on implementation tools (Hood 1986; Salamon 2002;  Hood and Margetts 2007; Howlett 2011). However each of the stages  of the policy process is also subject to government action (Wu et al 2010) and distinct sets of policy tools can be identified in each of the non-implementation stages of policy-making. This panel addresses the situation with respect to agenda-setting or the stage in which policy issues and problems are first brought to the attention of policy-makers and included as subjects of possibly government policy-making activities; policy formulation or the process of developing alternative options for government action; decision-making or the process of selecting a specific alternative; and policy evaluation or the process of monitoring and reporting on the results of policy outputs and outcomes. This papers on the panel will examine the literature on these subjects and focus attention on the tools commonly employed in these activities. References   Hood, C. The Tools of Government. Chatham: Chatham House Publishers, 1986. Hood, Christopher, and Helen Z. Margetts. The Tools of Government in the Digital Age. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Howlett, Michael. Designing Public Policies: Principles and Instruments. New York: Routledge, 2011. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415781336/. Salamon, L. M. The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Wu, Xun, M. Ramesh, Michael Howlett, and Scott Fritzen. The Public Policy Primer: Managing Public Policy. London: Routledge, 2010.