Subject(s): Political planning -- Politics and government -- United States -- Policy sciences -- policy analysis -- Public policy -- Models of policy -- Institutionalism -- Policy as political activities -- Rationalism : policy as maximum social gain -- Incrementalism -- Group theory -- Elite theory -- Public choice theory -- Game theory -- Policy making process: decision making activities -- Interested groups and policy making -- Policy legitimation, implementation, evaluation -- Criminal justice : rationality and irrationality in public policy -- Law enforcement -- RICO , Capital punishment , prison -- Health and welfare L search for rational strategies -- Welfare state -- Poverty in America -- Social security -- Welfare reforms -- Homelessness and public policy -- Health care -- Education and group struggles -- Federal government'd role in education -- Obama education agenda -- Diversity in higher education -- Economic policy: challenging incrementalism -- Fiscal and monetary policy -- Economic theories -- American economy -- Financial crisis and nonincremental policy changes -- Growth and governmental spending -- Formal budgetary process -- Tax policy: special interests -- Federal tax system -- Capital gains controversy -- Global economy -- Elite preference for world trade -- Tax rate, tax code -- International trade and immigration: elite mass conflict -- Energy and environmental policy : externalities and interests -- Global warming/ climate change -- Energy policy -- Nuclear industry meltdown -- Politicians and bureaucracy -- Civil right : elite and mass interaction -- Civil right policy and movements -- Mass resistance and desegregation -- Racial balancing in schools -- Public policy -- Constitution and gender equality -- Public policy and disabled -- American federalism -- Politics and institutional arrangements -- Defence policy -- national security -- Nuclear threats -- Arms control -- Missile defences -- NATO and European security -- Military force -- Homeland security : terrorism and nondebeterrable threats -- 9/11 -- Policy evaluation : finding out what happens after a law is passed -- Bureaucracy