3. OVERVIEW
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▷ Public policy analysis is a rational, systematic approach to making
policy choices in the public sector.
▷ It is a process that generates information on the consequences that
would follow the adoption of various policies.
▷ It uses a variety of tools to develop this information and to present it to
the parties involved in the policymaking process in a manner that helps
them come to a decision.
4. DEFINITION
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▷ A set of interrelated decisions taken by a political actor or group of
actors concerning the selection of goals and the means of achieving
them within a specified situation where these decisions, in principle ,
be within the power of these actors to achieve.
▷ A good analysis or even a good decision, DOES NOT GUARANTEE that
the optimal solution will be selected or implemented.
5. APPROACHES
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▷ There are three approaches to policy analysis:
○ Empirical
○ Valuative
○ Normative (value-critical)
Approach Primary Question Type ofInformation
Empirical Does it and will it exists? (facts) Descriptiveand predictive
Valuative Of what worth is it? (values) Valuative
Normative (value-critical) What should be done? (action) Prescriptive
7. POLITICAL SYSTEMSTHEORY
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▷ Public policy may be viewed as a political systems response to
demands arising from its environment.
▷ The political system, comprises of those identifiable and interrelated
institutions and activities (what we usually think of as governmental
institutions and political processes) that make authoritative allocations
of values (decisions) that are binding on society. (Easton)
8. EASTON’s SYSTEMS THEORY
Adapted from Birkland, Thomas, A. (2005): Introduction to the Public Process. ME Sharpe, New York, P.202.
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9. GROUP THEORY
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▷ Public policy is the product of the group struggle.
▷ Group theory rests on the contention that interaction and struggle
among groups are the central facts of political life.
▷ A group is a collection of individuals that may, on the basis of shared
attitudes or interests, make claims upon other groups in society.
▷ It becomes a political interest group "when it makes a claim through or
upon any of the institutions of government."
▷ The individual is significant in politics only as a participant in or a
representative of groups. It is through groups that individuals seek to
secure their political preferences.
10. GROUP THEORY
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▷ A central concept in group theory is that of access.
▷ To have influence and to be able to help shape governmental decisions,
a group must have access, or the opportunity to express its viewpoints
to decision-makers.
▷ Obviously, if a group is unable to communicate with decision-makers or
if no one in government listens, its chances of affecting policy making
are slim.
▷ Access may result from the group's being organized, from its having
status, good leadership, or resources such as money for campaign
contributions.
11. GROUP THEORY - SHORTCOMINGS
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▷ In the nature of things, some groups will have more access than others.
▷ Public policy at any given time will reflect the interests of those who
are dominant. As groups gain and lose power and influence, public
policy will be altered in favor of the interests of those gaining influence
against the interests of those losing it.
▷ Another shortcoming of group theory is that in actuality many people
(e.g., the poor and disadvantaged) and interests (such diffuse interests
as natural beauty and social justice) are either not represented or only
poorly represented in the group struggle.
12. ELITE THEORY
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▷ This model shows that the top of political and economic hierarchies set
the institutional agenda (top-bottom style).
▷ Elites include political officials, corporate representatives, interest
groups, and other influential people and institutions.
▷ Agenda setting is viewed as follows:
○ Elites on their own randomly select issues they specialize in, or observe
hierarchies like congressional committee structure.
○ Society’s elites may select issues that serve their own interests and ignore
the publicinterest.
○ The elitist model has the following key assumptions:
■ There exist a dominant class (elites) that monopolize political power, and;
■ Ordinary citizens (the masses) have relatively little power over matters
that are of concern to elites
13. INSTITUTIONAL THEORY
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▷ Policy is a product, authoritatively determined, implemented and
evaluated by the government institutions:
○ Congress, presidency, and other elective officials
○ The bureaucracies both local and national
▷ In this model, a policy does not become a public policy until it is
legitimized by government entity concerned. Government policies
provide legal powers that demand obligations from and command
loyalty of the citizens.
▷ The Constitution serves as the highest kind of policy to which all other
policies mustsubscribe.
▷ Laws passed by Congress, executive orders and judicial decisions come
second in terms of relevance and priority.
14. RATIONAL CHOICETHEORY
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▷ The rational-choice theory, which is sometimes called social-choice,
public-choice, or formal theory, originated with economists and
involves applying the principles of micro-economic theory to the
analysis and explanation of political behavior (or non-market
decision-making). It has now gained many adherents among political
scientists.
▷ One of its basic axioms is that political actors, like economic actors, act
rationally in pursuing their own self-interest.
▷ "This should be no surprise," says Buchanan, "because governments are
made up of individuals, and individuals operate from self-interest when
they are engaged in a system of exchange, whether this is in the market
economy or in politics.“
15. RATIONAL CHOICETHEORY
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▷ Individuals who are engaged in decision-making exchanges or
transactions, such as voting, also have preferences that vary from
person toperson.
▷ Being rational, individuals are able to comprehend and rank their
preferences from most to least desired. In making decisions (whether
economic or political), they are guided by these preferences and will
seek to maximize the benefits they gain.
16. RATIONAL CHOICETHEORY
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▷ Second basic axiom of rational-choice theory involves methodological
individualism.
▷ The individual decision-maker is the primary unit of analysis and
theory.
▷ The individual's preferences or values are assumed to be more
important than other values—collective, organizational, or social.
▷ Conversely, rational-choice theorists argue that the actions of
organizations and groups can be satisfactorily explained in terms of the
behavior of a model individual.
17. RATIONAL CHOICETHEORY
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▷ For example, a rational-choice explanation of why Congress delegates
discretionary power to administrative agencies begins with the
assumption that the preference of members of Congress is to get
reelected.
▷ To this end, legislators delegate power to agencies, knowing that in
exercising that power the agencies will create problems for their
constituents.
▷ Legislators will then be called on by their constituents to assist them
with their bureaucratic problems and, in return for assistance, the
grateful constituents will vote to reelect the legislators.
▷ The pursuit of self-interest by the members of Congress thus explains
the delegation of power and the growth of bureaucracy.
19. IDENTIFY the PROBLEM
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▷ This step sets the boundaries for what follows. It involves
○ Identifying the questions or issues involved,
○ Fixing the context within which the issues are to be analysed and the
policies will have to function,
○ Clarifying constraints on possible courses of action,
○ Identifying the people who will be affected by the policy decision,
○ Discovering the major operative factors, and
○ Deciding on the initial approach
20. IDENTIFY the OBJECTIVESof
NEW POLICY
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▷ Loosely speaking, a policy is a set of actions taken to solve a problem.
▷ The policy maker has certain objectives that, if met, would ‘solve’the
problem.
▷ Inthis step, the policy objectives are determined.
▷ Most public policy problems involve multiple objectives, some of which
conflict with others.
21. DECIDE on CRITERIA
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▷ Decide on criteria (measures of performance and cost) with which to
evaluate alternativepolicies.
▷ Determining the degree to which a policy meets an objective involves
measurement. This step involves identifying consequences of a policy
that can be estimated (quantitatively or qualitatively) and that are
directly related to the objectives.
▷ It also involves identifying the costs (negative benefits) that would be
produced by a policy and how they are to be estimated.
22. SELECT the ALTERNATIVE
POLICIES to be EVALUATED
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▷ This step specifies the policies whose consequences are to be
estimated. It is important to include as many as any can stand a chance
ofbeing worthwhile.
▷ If a policy is not included in this step, it will never be examined, so there
is no way of knowing how good it may be.
▷ The current policy should be included as the ‘base case’ in order to
determine how much of an improvement can be expected from the
other alternatives.
23. ANALYSE EACH ALTERNATIVE
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▷ This means determining the consequences that are likely to follow if
the alternative is actually implemented, where the consequences are
measured in terms of the criteria chosen in Step 3.
▷ This step usually involves using a model or models of the system. This
step is usually performed for each of several possible future worlds
(scenarios).
24. COMPARE the ALTERNATIVES
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▷ Compare the alternatives in terms of projected costs and effects. This
step involves examining the estimated costs and effects for each of the
scenarios, making tradeoffs among them and choosing a preferred
alternative (which is robust against the possible futures).
▷ If none of the alternatives examined so far is good enough to be
implemented (or if new aspects of the problem have been found, or the
analysis has led to new alternatives), return to Step 4.
25. IMPLEMENT the CHOSENONE
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▷ This step involves obtaining acceptance of the new procedures (both
within and outside the government), training people to use them and
performing other tasks to put the policy into effect.
26. MONITOR & EVALUATE RESULTS
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▷ This step is necessary to make sure that the policy is actually
accomplishing its intended objectives.
▷ If it is not, the policy may have to be modified or a new study
performed.
28. THREE ELEMENTS of POLICY
SYSTEM
Source: Adapted from Thomas R. Dye, Understanding Public Policy 3rd ed.
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29. FORMS of POLICYANALYSIS
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▷ Prospective policy analysis
▷ Retrospective policy analysis
▷ Integrated policyanalysis
30. PROSPECTIVE POLICY ANALYSIS
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▷ Involves the production and transformation of information before
policy actions are initiated and implemented.
▷ Tends to characterize the operating styles of economists, systems
analysts, and operations researchers.
▷ Synthesizes information to draw policy alternatives and preferences.
32. RETROSPECTIVE POLICY
ANALYSIS
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▷ Confined to the production and transformation of information after
policy actions have been taken.
▷ Operating styles of three major groups of analysts:
○ Discipline oriented analysts
○ Problem oriented analysts
○ Application oriented analysts
33. INTEGRATED POLICY
ANALYSIS
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▷ Builds on the strengths of both prospective & retrospective analysis –
multidisciplinary in full sense.
▷ Multidisciplinary framework, concerns with the production &
transformation of information both before and after policies policy
actions have been taken.
▷ Provides methodology for policy analysis (rules & procedures).
35. OVERVIEW
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▷ Policy change is a dependent variable in terms of analysing different
ways in which researchers and theorists ‘grasp’ or define it as the
object ofanalysis.
▷ The very concept of ‘change’ refers to an empirical observation of
difference in form, quality or state in time of a specific entity.
▷ Generally speaking, policy change occurs with the change of the
intrinsic properties of a policy.
▷ However, due to the complexity of the concept of public policy the
object of analysis needs to be clearly defined.
36. POLICY REFORM
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▷ This is ‘the fundamental, intended, and enforced change of the policy
paradigm and/or organisational structure of a policy sector’.
▷ Reform can be characterised as:
○ Fundamental: ‘it implies a deviation from the existing structure or
paradigm with the changed organisational structure, its paradigm or both’
– a change in priorities.
○ Intended: it has to involve a policy decision maker that intentionally strives
for change and is capable of changing a policy’s direction or the
organisational structure of a policy sector.
○ Enforcement / adoption of the proposed policy reform, the criterion of
which is the success of the reform proposal in all the stages of the
policymaking cycle, except its implementation.
▷ Very generally, policy change means the replacement of one or more
existing policies with one or more other policies.
37. CLASSIFICATION
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▷ Peters and Hogwood (1985: 239–240) further classify policy change
into:
○ Policy innovations (for example the government faces the problem or
sector that is new to it),
○ Policy succession (the replacement of an existing policy with another one,
which, however, does not include radical change, but the continuation of
the existingpolicy),
○ Policy maintenance (adaptation of the policy to maintain its orientation
and functioning)and
○ Policy termination (abolishment of all policy related activities and public
financing)
38. CLASSIFICATION
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▷ Capano and Howlett (2009a) examine policy change from the aspect of
development and classify them in four theoretical groups of change:
○ Cyclical (change occurs, but returns to the status quo)
○ Dialectical (changeoccurs through a process of negation and synthesis)
○ Linear (changeoccurs in evolutionary fashion without any clear endpoint)
○ Teleological (change occurs in the direction of a final identifiable goal)
39. FACTORS influencing CHANGE
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▷ According to Giessen’s (2011) classification factors of change are:
○ Advocacy coalitions, values, beliefs and policy learning
○ Ideas, narrations,frames
○ Individuals: policy entrepreneurs and issue experts
○ Policy networks, subsystems and their bureaucracy
○ External shocks and crises
○ Policy internationalisation and diffusion
○ Political parties
○ Institutions
○ Veto points
