PPA 691 – Seminar in Public Policy Analysis

1. PPA 691 – Seminar in Public Policy Analysis Lecture 1b – Introduction to the Public Policy Process

2. Policy Analysis in the Policy-Making Process • Policy analysis is the activity of creating knowledge of and in the policy-making process. • In creating knowledge of policy-making processes policy analysts investigate the causes, consequences, and performance of public policies and programs. • Such knowledge remains incomplete, however, unless it is made available to policymakers and the public they are obligated to serve.

3. The Process of Policy Inquiry • This course provides a methodology for policy analysis. • Methodology is a system of standards, rules and procedures for creating, critically assessing, and communicating policy-relevant knowledge. • Problem solving is a key element of the methodology of policy analysis • Policy analysis is also a methodology for formulating problems as a part of a search for solutions.

4. The Methodology of Policy Analysis • The methodology of policy analysis draws from and integrates elements of multiple disciplines • Political science • Sociology • Psychology • Economics • Philosophy

5. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • Policy analysis is partly descriptive, seeking knowledge about causes and consequences of public policies. • But, policy analysis is also normative, creating and critiquing knowledge claims about the value of public policies for past, present,and future generations.

6. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • Policy-relevant knowledge involves choosing among competing values such as health, wealth, security, peace, justice, equality, and freedom. • To choose among competing values is not a technical judgment, but a moral judgment. Thus, policy analysis is a form of applied ethics. • Policy analysis also seeks to create knowledge that improves the efficiency of choices among alternative policies.

7. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • The methodology of policy analysis aims at creating, critically assessing, and communicating policy-relevant knowledge.

8. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • Knowledge in this context refers to plausibly true beliefs, as distinguished from beliefs that are certainly true, or even true with a particular statistical probability • Statistical evidence performs only a supplementary or reinforcing role.

9. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • In short, policy analysis has developed a core of moderately coherent underlying theories, a variety of methods that enjoy reasonably broad assent among practitioners, a tradition of criticism directed at political, ideological, and ethical issues raised by policy analysis, and systematic as well as anecdotal evidence of having improved the capacities of clients to solve problems.

10. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • A key feature of research and analysis on social problems over the past 40 or more years is the growing recognition of complexity. • The methodological core of policy analysis can be broadly characterized as a form of critical multiplism.

11. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • For critical multiplism, inductive plausibility, not certainty, is the defining characteristic of knowledge and a major standard of success in policy inquiry. • The analyst does not enumerate supporting or confirming cases but identifies, evaluates, and eliminates competing explanations.

12. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • The other major standard is policy relevance. • Knowledge that assists in formulating and solving problems, as these problems are experienced by policymakers and citizens on whom the policies have an impact, including the disenfranchised.

13. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • General guidelines for policy inquiry under critical multiplism. • Multiple operationalism. • The use of multiple measures of policy constructs. • Multimethod research. • The use of multiple methods to observe policy processes and outcomes. • Multiple analytic synthesis. • The synthesis and critical assessment of available analyses of similar policies and programs. • Multivariate analysis. • The inclusion of multiple variables in policy models.

14. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • General guidelines for policy inquiry under critical multiplism (contd.) • Multiple stakeholder analysis. • The investigation of interpretive frameworks and perspectives of multiple policy stakeholders. • Multiple perspective analysis. • The incorporation into policy analysis of multiple perspectives – ethical, political, organizational, economic, social, cultural, psychological, and technical. • Multimedia communications. • The use by policy analysts of multiple communications media is essential for ensuring that knowledge is policy relevant.

15. The Methodology of Policy Analysis (contd.) • Given typical time and financial constraints, it is usually impossible to observe all of these guidelines. • In addition, depending on the stage of the policy process being analyzed, several guidelines may not be relevant. • Multiple methods makes analysts less likely to commit errors resulting from limited perspectives.

16. Policy-Relevant Information • The methodology of policy analysis designed to answer five questions: • What is the nature of the problem? • Policy problems. • What present and past policies have been established to address the problem, and what are their outcomes? • Policy outcomes. • How valuable are these outcomes in solving the problem? • Policy performance.

17. Policy-Relevant Information • The methodology of policy analysis designed to answer five questions: • What policy alternatives are available to address the problem, and what are their likely future outcomes? • Policy futures. • What alternatives should be acted on to solve the problems? • Policy actions.

18. Five types of policy relevant information.

19. Policy-Analytic Procedures • Methodology of policy analysis incorporates standards, rules, and procedures. • The standards and rules govern the selection of procedures and the interpretation of results. • The five procedures common to all human problem solving: • Definition • Prediction • Prescription • Description • Evaluation

20. Policy-Analytic Procedures • Five procedures as applied to policy analysis: • Problem structuring (definition) • Yields information about the conditions giving rise to a policy problem. • Forecasting (prediction) • Supplies information about future consequences of acting on policy alternatives, including doing nothing. • Recommendation (prescription) • Provides information about the relative value or worth of these future consequences in solving or alleviating the problem.

21. Policy-Analytic Procedures • Monitoring (description) • Yields information about the present or past consequences of acting on policy alternatives. • Evaluation (evaluation) • Provides information about the value or worth of these consequences in solving or alleviating the problem.

22. Policy-Analytic Procedures • The five procedures serve as the means of organizing particular methods and techniques of analysis. • Methods are general procedures for producing and transforming policy relevant information. • Each of the methods is supported by several techniques. • The complete framework for problem-centered policy analysis combines policy-relevant information transformed by policy analytic procedures.

23. Five policy-analytic procedures

24. Problem-centered policy analysis

25. Phases of the policy-making process

26. Policy analytic procedures and phases of policy-making

27. Problem Structuring • Problem structuring can supply policy-relevant knowledge that challenges the assumptions underlying the definition of problems reaching the policy-making process through agenda-setting. • Problem structuring can assist in discovering hidden assumptions, diagnosing causes, mapping possible objectives, synthesizing conflicting views, and designing new policy options.

28. Forecasting • Forecasting can provide policy-relevant knowledge about future states of affairs which are likely to occur as a consequence of adopting alternatives, including doing nothing, that are under consideration at the phase of policy formulation. • Forecasting can examine plausible, potential, and normatively valued futures, estimate the consequences of existing and proposed policies, specify probable future constraints on the achievement of objectives, and estimate the political feasibility (support and opposition) of different options.

29. Recommendation • Recommendation yields policy-relevant knowledge about the benefits and costs of alternatives the future consequences of which have been estimated through forecasting, thus aiding policymakers in the policy adoption phase. • Recommendation helps estimate levels of risk and uncertainty, identify externalities and spillovers, specify criteria for making choices, and assign administrative responsibility for implementing policies.

30. Monitoring • Monitoring provides policy-relevant knowledge about the consequences of previously adopted policies, thus assisting policy-makers in the policy implementation phase. • Monitoring helps assess the degree of compliance, discover unintended consequences of policies and programs, identify implementational obstacles and constraints, and locate sources of responsibility for departures from policies.

31. Evaluation • Evaluation yields policy-relevant knowledge about discrepancies between expected and actual policy performance, thus assisting policymakers in the policy assessment phase of the policy-making process. Evaluation not only results in conclusions about the extent to which problems have been alleviated; it also may contribute to the clarification and critique of values driving a policy, aid in the adjustment or reformulation of policies, and establish a basis for restructuring problems.