‘Governments are frequently criticised for overkill or insufficiency in tackling policy problems. At the forefront of seeking to understand such lop-sided responses is Moshe Maor. In this volume he provides us with forensic, thought-provoking and impassioned analysis that is a “must read” for policy scholars, practitioners and students alike.’

- Allan McConnell, University of Sydney, Australia,

‘The product of a 10-year effort to understand why governments sometimes react disproportionately to the problems and crises they face, this book presents an original, multidisciplinary and yet coherent analytical framework for understanding policy under- and overreaction. One would hope it will be read widely, from Jerusalem to Washington, and from Moscow to Beijing.’

- Paul ‘t Hart, Utrecht University, the Netherlands,

‘Since his first foray into the field in his pathbreaking 2012 Journal of Public Policy essay on Policy Overreaction, Moshe Maor has systematically developed a research programme into what is now commonly referred to as “disproportionate” policy-making, or the all-too-common phenomenon of a mismatch between issue importance and government action. In this important book, he collects and revises a dozen of his previously published and unpublished essays on the subject, setting a landmark and baseline for future research. The essays cover a range of important topics in the field, from early work on over- and under-reaction to studies developing the concept and theory of disproportionality and applying it to problems such as climate change and national security, to more recent work detailing underlying contributing behaviour such as the roles of emotions and emotional entrepreneurs in driving disproportionate policy responses forward. Maor has done a major service to scholars and practitioners alike in bringing together in one place this important and significant body of research and thinking.’

- Michael Howlett, Simon Fraser University, Canada,