Which Country Has the World's Best Healthcare?

Abstract

tools fit the purpose of and facilitate their actions (tools for negotiations, evaluation, inducing a change in a target group, etc.). Applying the cycle approach results in tools with the same purpose popping up across the volume’s chapters. An obvious example is tools to evaluate interventions – they can be used ex ante, mid-term, or ex post (e.g. quasi/experiments, Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) – usually used ex ante rather than ex post in the policy cycle). I understand the nature of the simplification used in the handbook that was required to organize the complexity of the tools. However, readers should treat this grouping as an initial map, not as clear-cut toolbox compartments with unique tools assigned to the cycle. Summing up, The Routledge Handbook of Policy Tools is truly a one-stop shop to learn about past trends and recent emerging topics in the research and practice of policy tools. It would be a valuable companion for researchers and students of public policies, as well as useful reading for decision-makers and other stakeholders involved in public policy. Policy sciences is a practice-oriented discipline. Thus, this volume can potentially facilitate collaboration and shared understanding between research and practice. It can serve as a reference point in discussing tools’ options for collective problem-solving in the era of the Anthropocene.