This plenary panel examined the origins and evolution of the field of policy studies, both from the perspective of policy analysis and the policymaking process. The assessment of policy analysis focuses on the long-standing but often evasive effort to supply policy decision-makers with usable knowledge. Toward this end, the discussion examined the relationship of quantitative and qualitative approaches, including the role of interpretation. With respect to policymaking, the panelists explored the efforts to develop an explanatory theory of the policy process, including the funnel of causality, the stages model, the punctuated equilibrium approach, the multiples streams framework, institutional rational choice approach and the theory of advocacy coalition framework, in an effort to sort out both what has been accomplished and the nature of challenges that remain. Especially important, in this regard, is the degree to which these theories succeed in explaining policy change.