Nonincremental Policy Making: Notes Toward an Alternative Paradigm

1975 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1354-1370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Schulman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Manned Space ◽  
Divisible Goods

Much of the literature of policy analysis and public administration is dominated by incremental and “divisible goods” paradigms. Policy is assumed to be a process of marginal and adjustive decision making in which benefits are dispensed piecemeal—proportionate to prevailing distributions of power or publicized need. This essay asserts the existence of a class of nonincremental, indivisible policy pursuits for which the analytical weaponry of political science is largely inappropriate. Such policies display a distinctive set of political and administrative characteristics. These characteristics are explained and examined in connection with manned space exploration policy. An assessment is offered of the challenges posed by nonincremental policy to contemporary outlooks in political science.

A Note on “Public Policy”

1973 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Vaison
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Studies ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
Government Body

Normally in political studies the term public policy is construed to encompass the societally binding directives issued by a society's legitimate government. We usually consider government, and only government, as being able to “authoritatively allocate values.” This common conception pervades the literature on government policy-making, so much so that it is hardly questioned by students and practitioners of political science. As this note attempts to demonstrate, some re-thinking seems to be in order. For purposes of analysis in the social sciences, this conceptualization of public policy tends to obscure important realities of modern corporate society and to restrict unnecessarily the study of policy-making. Public policy is held to be public simply and solely because it originates from a duly legitimated government, which in turn is held to have the authority (within specified limits) of formulating and implementing such policy. Public policy is public then, our usual thinking goes, because it is made by a body defined somewhat arbitrarily as “public”: a government or some branch of government. All other policy-making is seen as private; it is not public (and hence to lie essentially beyond the scope of the disciplines of poliitcal science and public administration) because it is duly arrived at by non-governmental bodies. Thus policy analysts lead us to believe that public policy is made only when a government body acts to consider some subject of concern, and that other organizations are not relevant to the study of public policy.

Untangling the Concept of Adversarial Legalism

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 473-487
Author(s):  
Jeb Barnes ◽  
Thomas F. Burke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law And Society ◽  
Everyday Practice

The concept of adversarial legalism has been widely used by scholars of law, public administration, public policy, political science, sociology, and Law and Society, but the varying ways in which the concept has been employed raise concerns that it has become stretched to the point of incoherence. We argue that adversarial legalism entails both a style, an everyday practice of dispute resolution and policy making with distinct attributes, and a structure of governance that can be compared to other structures of authority. Untangling these aspects of adversarial legalism allows us to make sense of its different uses and identify future avenues of inquiry. Despite its wide application, adversarial legalism is in fact underutilized, especially in studies aimed at understanding consequences of judicialization, legalization, and juridification in the United States and abroad.

The Competence of Political Science: “Progress in Political Research” RevisitedPresidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1999

2000 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Holden
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Mullins Effect ◽  
Political Research ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Science Association

Political science is two realms, the intellectual and the organizational, and the task is to consider how the organizational realm might be adapted to the highest improvement of the intellectual realm. Political science has a certain competence (domain) in the study of politics as the organization of power. It also seeks to expand competence as capability. Charles Merriam provides a point of departure Merriam's most successful idea has been that of enhancing competence through improvements in “the field of method.” Competence, however, now demands methodological flexibility, so as to probe more into theexerciseof power. Four fields are strategic: public administration, political interests, urbanization, and the interpenetration of politics and economics. Competence also leads into unorthodox subjects, such as force and foolish, irrational, and pathological decision making (or “the Oxenstierna-Mullins Effect”). Finally, competence demands (and is enhanced by) the reach of political science into serious practical problems of human affairs.

Policy Analysis: An Examination of Recent Textbooks

1983 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Douglas M. Fox
Keyword(s):  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Course Of Action

Policy analysis is one of the most frequently used buzz terms in public administration and political science. A recent spate of textbooks indicates that a substantial segment of the MPA curriculum is devoted to the study of policy analysis. In this essay, we will examine the concept and practice of policy analysis as defined by its various proponents.How do the authors whose work we scrutinize define the term? For Duncan MacRae and James Wilde, “policy analysis is the use of reason and evidence to choose the best policy among a number of alternatives.” This definition closely resembles that of Edith Stokey and Richard Zeckhauser, who are concerned with “The advantages and disadvantages of each course of action.”

scholarly journals Integrating Pathways

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna M. Mertens
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Transformative Research

Transformative research is rooted in the axiological assumption that priority be given to the furtherance of human rights and the pursuit of social justice (Mertens, 2009; 2010; Mertens, Holmes, & Harris, 2009). This belief provides a basis for subsequent decision making about methodology. Planning for utilization of findings to influence health and social policy is essential during the initial stages of research design, as well as throughout the course of the study in order to improve the probability that data are gathered and disseminated in a way that they can be used to achieve the goals of social change and social justice. Transformative researchers can use policy analysis and advocacy as avenues to social change. This paper focuses on the value of putting research side-by-side with policy making to integrate their pathways in the pursuit of social justice.

Policy Analysis in Turkey

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Organizations ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Complex Decision Making ◽  
Complex Decision

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the state of policy analysis in Turkey. Policy analysis in Turkey, both as an academic inquiry and as a systematic practice in public and other policy-oriented organizations had been quite limited up until the 1990s. The book first examines the evolution of policy analysis in Turkish academia and public organizations followed by an in-depth review of the dominant modes of policy analysis performed by governmental and non-governmental actors. Throughout the chapters a special emphasis is given to structural constraints inhibiting the adoption of policy analytic approaches as well as the facilitating actors and forces such as international organizations. Overall, we challenge the caricatured image of policy making in Turkey as a uniform, strictly top-down hierarchical process that is solely shaped by politics and reveal the more complex decision-making mechanisms that vary significantly among policy-making actors.

scholarly journals Key Factors for Successful Implementation of Energy Efficiency Policy Instruments: A Theoretical Study and the Case of Latvia

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinis Aboltins ◽  
Dagnija Blumberga
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Energy Efficiency Policy ◽  
Correct Sequence ◽  
Barriers To Energy Efficiency

Abstract The success of energy efficiency policy depends on a number of factors, however, simultaneous application of more than just one policy instrument, coordination of multiple different policy instruments and a correct sequence of application of policy instruments are identified in research as three key factors related directly to policy making. Energy efficiency policy instruments are about the most appropriate ways of overcoming barriers to energy efficiency. The study adopts a policy analysis approach from social sciences to illustrate the relevance of a correct policy-making process in making energy efficiency policy effective. Analysis of interaction between the modules of decision-making matrix looks at the genesis of the faulty choice of energy efficiency policies. Studies of energy efficiency policy instruments indicate that implementation of a single separate policy instrument will most likely fail to achieve the expected results of overcoming barriers to energy efficiency and simultaneous implementation or combination of several policy instruments is preferable. If more than just one separate policy instrument aiming at improving energy efficiency is employed, then coordination in between two or more policy instruments as well as correct sequence of implementation of policy instruments is essential for achieving success. Lack of or insufficient attention to a full cycle of policy analysis leads to absence of one or more of the three key factors. Decision-making about energy efficiency policy instruments becomes faulty and is based on or influenced by ad hoc decisions and random circumstances, like, for example, availability or unavailability of EU financing. Such an approach contributes to maintaining or amplifying existing or creating new barriers to energy efficiency and leads to a new cycle of faulty decisions unless a proper process of policy analysis is applied in preparing and making decisions.

scholarly journals Republic of Belarus

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (209) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Board Members ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
Analysis System

The NBRB has made substantial progress in improving its forecasting and policy analysis system (FPAS) and integrating it into monetary policy decision-making. The FPAS, and the model-based forecasts and policy analysis, is now well integrated into the policy-making process. Staff are well trained and have become experienced in using the tools developed for policy analysis and forecasting. The forecasting and decision-making process is well structured and has helped increase the two-way interaction between staff and the NBRB board—additional and less formal interaction between staff and board members in between the formal meetings may help enhance the process further.

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