KAY 386: Public Policy

Lecture 4Parsons, 1995: 54-81.

Policy Analysis Definition

Improving the methods by which: Problems are identified & defined, Goals are specified, Alternatives evaluated, Options selected, & Performance measured.

Analysis of the Policy Process

A. Analysis of Policy1. Analysis of policy determination

How policy is made; why,when & for whom?

2. Analysis of policy content How policy developed, from which

frameworks

3. Policy monitoring & evaluation Policy goals & impacts

Analysis of the Policy Process

B. Analysis for Policy4. Information for policy

Detailed research & advice

5. Policy advocacy Research & arguments that affect

policy agenda

Stages for Analysis

1. Discovery of a satisfactory alternative

2. Acceptance & incorporation into a decision

3. Implementation The questions asked are:

Who, what, when & how?

Key Questions Whose knowledge is being used? Knowledge produced by

The bureaucracy Research institutes Think tanks

Who is using this knowledge? Whose interpretation/definition is

included & excluded?

Key Questions

What kind of knowledge it claims to be? Scientific & objective facts? Qualitative or quantitative? What kind of language is employed? Which values predominate?

Key Questions

When was a problem discovered? When was it made public knowledge? When did the mass media get

involved? When did it influence public opinion? When was it used/abused by policy-

makers?

Key Questions How is knowledge used in the policy

process? How is it produced? How is knowledge organized in

government? How do arguments win or lose? How is policy determined? How does it impact on publİc opinion? How do beliefs change?

Models, Maps & Metaphors

In order to simplify complexity1. Explanatory frameworks to show

how something happens2. Causal models3. Ideal-type frameworks: defining

characteristics of a phenomenon4. Normative frameworks

Models, Maps & Metaphors

They help organize our ideas & concepts

They embody what we know & carry us forward toward to what we do not know

The way that we see & interpret the policy world, depends on the kinds of models & frameworks that we use

Models, Maps & Metaphors Examples:

London Underground Map The Essence of Decision book by Graham Allison:

Three scenarios to evaluate the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

Organizational metaphors by Garreth Morgan: Models of organization

Organizations as machines, brains, cultures, political systems, instruments of domination

Markets, Hierarchies (Bureaucracies) & Networks Incentives and Prices/ Bureaucratic failure Rules, authority and hierarchy/ Market failure Norms, values and affiliations/ Failure of both

Theories & Models as Stories

Does it make sense? Is it consistent with available

evidence? How much does it explain? Does it convince us? Does it add to our understanding? Does it say anything different to any

other existing story?

Theories & Models as Stories

Disillusionment with positivism Kuhn’s view of paradigm shifts

All theories are paradigms Paradigm-normal science-revolution-

paradigm New paradigm: The enthusiasm

with markets and management

THE STAGIST MODEL IN PP

Advantages of the Stages

An artificial view of the policy-making

It reduces complexity to a more manageable form

Provides us with tidy, neat steps that follow each other

Criticisms of the stagist model It does not provide any causal

explanation of how policy moves from one stage to another

It can not be tested on an empirical basis

It is a top-down approach, and fails to take account of all the actors

It ignores multiple levels of government and interacting actors

Going beyond the stages

Mapping wider contexts of problems, social processes, values and institutions

Freeing oneself from managerialist, top-down, elitist approaches

Using a multidisciplinary, contextual focus