Policy Making In the Public Interest Chapter 5 Comparative Analysis to Address Multiple Alternatives

Comparative Analysis Designed to choose best alternative when several alternative approaches exist. Not for issues with only one approach, doing something or not doing something, is under consideration. Use sustainability analysis for single alternatives. Consider the scale of the problem. One city or county may not be the proper scale. It could be regional or multi-city

Defining Policy Issue Is the issue interlocked with other issues? Is it being addressed by other organizations? How do they define the problem? Should be a broad question or statement from which it is easy to conceptualize several alternative approaches. Do not include biases towards an alternative in problem statement. Example: “to implement a housing program to reduce homeless population”. Housing is only one alternative out of several. Problem is reducing homelessness

Defining Policy Issue Quantify policy issue e.g. reducing violent crime by 25% Set a target time frame (date) for accomplishment. Do not include biases towards an alternative in problem statement. Example: “to implement a housing program to reduce homeless population”. Housing is only one alternative out of several. Problem is reducing homlessness

Defining Policy Issue Problem must be consider through appropriate scale. Appropriate scale could be multi-city, county wide, regional. Work for consensus for problem definition. Not everyone will identify the policy issue alike. There will likely be competing interests and viewpoints. Example city sees parking as traffic flow problem. Downtown merchants see it as access to their business. Insure all terms are fully understood. Ideal is consensus policy issue be designed.

Identifying Alternatives Several questions in designing alternatives. What has been attempted previously? What approach has been used? Do alternatives reflect interests, values, needs of the community Ideally alternatives should be mutually exclusive. Should have 3-5 alternatives to analyze. Current operational approach should be an alternative analyzed Stakeholders must be involved in identification of alternatives

Identifying Criteria Criteria allow analyst to discriminate objectively amont the alternatives Criteria are standards important to issue that assist alayst to choose best alternative. Typical Criteria Effectiveness Cost Equity Societal values Liberty/Freedom Environmental impact Administrative-technical feasibility Political-Stakeholder acceptability Each policy issue will have unique community based criteria applicable to the issue

Weighting Criteria Not all criteria is of same importance to policy issue. Weighting is subjective but involving stakeholders iscritical for acceptance of ranking. Use whole numbers in ranking typically 1-10 with 10 being the most important. Each policy issue will have unique community based criteria applicable to the issue

Schematic with weighting for criteria Weighting Criteria Schematic with weighting for criteria Criteria Weight Equity 10 Political acceptability 8 Stakeholder acceptability 6 Efficiency 5 cost

Analyzing Criteria with Alternatives Use comparative matrix to analyze alternatives with criteria. Final evaluation of alternatives is through numerical score. Comparative analysis takes time and involves many people-stakeholders, citizens, staff. In return for time local government acquires citizen investment and increased community acceptance of policy outcome. This leads to citizens viewing themselves as partners with government and not just “customers”

Number beside each criterion reflects weight of criterion   Number beside each criterion reflects weight of criterion Using 1-5 how each criterion satisfies objectives of policy Number in ( ) is score for each criterion times weighting   Criteria A Alternatives B C D Cost to Citizen (10) 1 (10) 5 (50) 4 (40) Community Acceptability (8) 3 (24) 2 (16) 4 (32) Equity (5) 1 (5) 3 (15) 4 (20) Neighborhood Appearance (7) 5 (35) 1 (7) 4 (28) 2 (14) Administrative feasibility (3) 4 (12) 1(3) 3(9) 2 (6) Total 86 91 129 104