The essays in this collection explore issues related to public policy and higher education. They are intended to provide foundational readings in public policy and to explore contemporary public policy issues facing higher education. The chapters are: (1) "The Nature of the Policy Process" (Randall B. Ripley); (2) "Promoting Policy Theory: Revising the Arenas of Power" (Robert J. Spitzer); (3) "Between Planning and Politics: Intellect vs. Interaction as Analysis" (Aaron Wildavsky); (4) "American Federalism" (James MacGregor Burns, J. W. Peltason, Thomas E. Cronin, and David B. Magleby); (5) "Rethinking Federalism" (Alice M. Rivlin); (6) "The Higher Education Act of 1992: Skills, Constraints, and the Politics of Higher Education" (Susan B. Hannah); (7) "The Federal Government and Higher Education" (Lawrence E. Gladieux, Arthur M. Hauptman, and Laura Greene Knapp); (8) The Changing Structures of State Higher Education Leadership" (Aims C. McGuinness, Jr.); (9) "Governors versus College Presidents: Who Leads?" (J. Wade Gilley); (10) "The Peculiar Mixture: Public Norms and Private Space" (Stephen K. Bailey); (11) "The Study of Public Policy" (James E. Anderson); (12) "The Higher Education Acts Contrasted, 1965-1986: Has Federal Policy Come of Age?" (Francis Keppel); (13) "The Science of 'Muddling Through'" (Charles E. Lindblom); (14) "Conducting Policy Analysis in Higher Education" (Judith I. Gill and Laura Saunders); (15) "The Evolution of Access Policy: 1965-1990" (Judith S. Eaton); (16) "Achieving the National Education Goals: The Status of Minorities in Today's Global Economy" (Esther M. Rodriguez and Michael T. Nettles); (17) "The College Tuition Spiral: An Examination of Why Charges Are Increasing" (Arthur M. Hauptman and Jamie P. Merisotis); (18) "Political Influences on State Policy: Higher Tuition, Higher-Aid, and the Real World" (Carolyn P. Griswold and Ginger Minton Marine); (19) "The Role of States and Acceditors in Shaping Assessment Practice" (Peter T. Ewell); (20) "Roots and Realities of State-Level performance Indicator Systems" (Sandra S. Ruppert); (21) "Developing and Viewing Faculty as an Asset for Institutions and States" (Daniel T. Layzell, Cheryl D. Lovell, and Judith I. Gill); (22) "State Postsecondary Review Entities: One Step Forward and Two Steps Back in State-Federal Relationships?" (Cheryl D. Lovell); (23) "A Model for Successful Restructuring" (Aims C. McGuinness, Jr.); (24) "Postsecondary Education and the New Workforce" (Esther M. Rodriguez and Sandra S. Ruppert); (25) "State Leadership in Higher Education" (Edward R. Hines); (26) "Effective Coordination of Higher Education: What Is It? Why Is It So Difficult To Achieve?" (James R. Mingle); (27) State-level Centralization and Policy Innovation in U.S. Postsecondary Education" (James C. Hearn and Carolyn P. Griswold); (28) "Choosing Quality" (Frank Newman); (29) "Public Universities and State Governments: Is the Tension Benign?" (Robert O. Berdahl); (30) "State Coordination and Planning in an Age of Entrepreneurship" (James R. Mingle and Rhonda Martin Epper); (31) "Meeting the Demand for Higher Education without Breaking the Bank: A Framework for the Design of State Higher Education Policies for an Era of Increasing Demand" (William Zumeta); (32) "Native American Colleges" (Paul Boyer); (33) "Distance Education and Public Policy" (Nancy Zeller); (34) "From Vision to Reality" (Western Governors' Association); (35) "The Effect of State Policy on Undergraduate Education: State Policy and College Learning" (Dennis P. Jones and Peter T. Ewell); (36) "Research Universities in a New Era: From the 1980s to the 1990s" (Roger L. Geiger); and (37) "International Perspectives on Trends and Issues in Higher Education Policy" (Leo Goedegebuure, Frans Kaiser, Peter Maassen, Lynn Meek, Frans van Vught, and Egbert de Weert). (Contains 46 tables, 25 figures, and 299 references.) (SLD)