J. A. Chandler, Public Policy and Private Interest: Ideas, Self‐Interest and Ethics in Public Policy (London: Routledge, 2017). 246 pp. $53.95 (paper), ISBN: 9780415558327.

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12929
• Author: Robert W. Smith
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Date: 01 March 2018

Book Reviews 323

J. A. Chandler , Public Policy and Private Interest: Ideas,

Self-Interest and Ethics in Public Policy ( London: Routledge , 2017 ).

246 pp. $53.95 (paper), ISBN: 9780415558327 .

T his book is offered as a companion textbook

for undergraduate and graduate courses in

public policy, yet the book is an equally

compelling read for anyone interested in the

development of contemporary public policy and

public policy analysis. The book will be controversial

to some because it immediately and primarily

introduces the need to take a more subjective, rather

than a positivist, approach to the processing of public

policy. The book opens with the proposition that

public policy has become too self-referential and

inward looking and, therefore, detached from broader

sociological and political theory. However, this is

precisely the strength of the book and where it makes

its greatest contribution to establishing a balance

between subjective and positivist norms in the field

of public policy analysis.

Chandler fundamentally maintains that the content

of public policy reflects a combination of ideology,

ethical values, and self-interest. He argues that

positivist and rational thinking has dominated policy

studies to the detriment of whether decisions are fair

and just for those individuals to be guided by that

policy, and whether they are made in the interest of

the majority rather than that of the policy makers.

Moreover, he advances that the positivist approach

cannot explain why policies take the form they do,

nor whether the decisions made make any sense in

terms of effectiveness let alone morality or justice.

Therefore, he offers, it is imperative to place the

subjective elements of the policy process to the

foreground to view policy from an alternative

perspective. This alternative embodies a central

concern with philosophical understanding and

discourse, and hence addresses the moral and ethical

dimensions that surround public policy. The book

places the essence of public policy making at center

stage as the prevailing patterns of moral and ethical

attitudes in society.

From this perspective, the book is refreshing and eye-

opening and does not simply critique the positivist

threads in modern policy making. Chapter 2 describes

how policy analysis was an attempt to develop a more

scientific methodology for the best outcomes for

policy problems. It emerged as a separate subfield to

scientifically establish processes that could establish

optimum solutions to problems, for the benefit of

society. These well-intentioned efforts of the mid-

twentieth century, he points out, never fulfilled their

original aims, but raised controversies that have

produced a more sophisticated understanding of how

public policies are formed and processed. Yet the

element lacking in further elaboration of the positivist

approach has been development of the subjective

answers to policy problems. Chapter 3 explores the

notion that, while a rational response to policy content

may be important to some, it is not as important to

others. He suggests that the motives behind policy

Reviewed by: Robert W. Smith

University of Illinois

Robert W. Smith is dean of the College

of Public Affairs and Administration at the

University of Illinois, Springfield. Smith ’ s

research interests and publications are

in the areas of government ethics, public

budgeting and finance, organization theory,

and public policy.

E-mail: rsmit27@uis.edu

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 78, Iss. 2, pp. 323–325. © 2018 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12929.