KAY 386: Public Policy Lecture 4 Parsons, 1995:

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 Policy 1. 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 Policy 4. 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 complexity 1. Explanatory frameworks to show how something happens 2. Causal models 3. Ideal-type frameworks: defining characteristics of a phenomenon 4. 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