Summary: The contributors investigate policy paradigms and their capacity to explain the policy process - actors, ideas, discourses and strategies employed - to provide readers with a better understanding of public policy and its dynamics. Drawing together leading researchers in the field, this edited collection offers a unique insight into a selection of policy paradigms, investigating their significance for public policy, policy making and policy change, in both theory and practice. The contributions open up new avenues of research on policy dynamics while re-evaluating the accuracy and effectiveness of existing policy orthodoxy.