U radu se razmatra važnost fazne heuristike za razvoj javnih politika kao akademske discipline. Pod faznom heuristikom podrazumijeva se shvaćanje koje ističe da proces stvaranja politika prolazi kroz niz sukcesivnih faza, poput postavljanja dnevnog reda, formulacije, legitimiranja, implementacije i vrednovanja javnih politika. Rad se zasniva na razmatranju 66 knjiga objavljenih u razdoblju od 1968. do 2023., podijeljenih u dvije temeljne skupine: naslove koji daju cjeloviti prikaz faznog modela i naslove koji su bez cjelovitog prikaza tog modela. Rezultati analize knjiga koje su ušle u uzorak pokazuju da većina naslova ne slijedi obrazac fazne heuristike, premda i dalje značajan broj naslova, pogotovo kada je riječ o udžbenicima, jasno slijedi fazni narativ u prikazu stvaranja javnih politika. U radu se daje kratki prikaz razvoja fazne naracije usporedno s razvojem javnih politika kao akademske discipline, a prikazuju se i temeljne kritike takvog pristupa. U posljednjem se dijelu rada tematizira moguća uloga fazne heuristike u budućem razvoju teorijskih pristupa javnim politikama. The paper discusses the importance of stages heuristics for the development of public policies as an academic discipline. The stages heuristic implies that the policy making process goes through a series of successive stages, such as agenda-setting, formulation, legitimation, implementation and evaluation of public policy. The paper is based on the consideration of 66 books published in the period from 1968 to 2023, divided into two basic groups: titles that provide a complete presentation of the stages model and titles that do not provide a complete presentation of that model. The results of the analysis of the books included in the sample show that the majority of titles do not follow the pattern of stages heuristic, although still a significant number of titles, especially when it comes to textbooks, clearly follow the phase narrative in the presentation of the process of public policy making. The paper gives a brief description of the development of the phase narrative in parallel with the development of public policies as an academic discipline, and also presents the fundamental criticisms of such an approach. The last part of the paper discusses the possible role of stages heuristics in the future development of theoretical approaches to the discipline of public policy.