Week 6 – Public Policy &

Wicked Problems
MG214 – Principles of Public Sector Management
The University of the South Pacific
By Christian Girard
 Plan

LOGISTICS/COURSE MANAGEMENT
 MST will be held on Thursday, May 5th from 1:00-3:00pm FIJI TIME.
 Face-to-face students at Laucala: Kshatriya Hall (lower hall)
 Blended mode students at regional campuses: please contact your campus to know the
local time and venue. If your campus is closed because of COVID, further instructions will
be given.
 Lautoka = Room 1A
 NB: Special Zoom session on MST sample questions on MON May 2nd at 6pm Fiji time.

CONTENT
 Public policy
 Wicked problems
Power, Public Policy & Public Administration

Sir Humphrey: Make sure he (the

Minister) spends more time where
he can't get under our feet and
can't do any damage.

Bernard: But where?

Sir Humphrey: Well, the House of
Commons for instance.
Why Learn About Public Policy?

 Public administration & public management = how the affairs of the government
are run, from implementation (and design) of policy + management of public
enterprises (government businesses)
 Public policy affects roles and responsibilities and how affairs are conducted
(what are the goals and what means/instruments/strategies are used to achieve
these & fulfill government’s functions)
 Public administrators, in particular, are often involved in the design of policies
(laying out how to translate the grand vision/goal into practice)
 Public policy research/school/approach focuses on trying to provide information
to make better decisions/policies & select better courses of action
 Therefore, it is important to understand what is public policy, how the approach is
supposed to help make better decisions and what are the pros and cons
What is Public Policy?

 “Definitions range from ‘declarations of intent, a programme of goals, and general

rules covering future behaviour to important government decisions, a selected line
or course of action, the consequences of action or inaction, and even all
government action’ (Lynn, 1987:28 in Hughes, 2018:109)

 “The function of policy research is to facilitate public policy processes through

providing accurate and useful decision-related information” (Hughes, 2018:19)

 The application of science and statistics to government (deLeon, 1988 in Hughes,

2018:110)

 Public policy is the output of government (Lynn, 1987 in Hughes, 2018:110)

Field of Public Policy
(Quade, 1982:5 in Hughes, 2018:110)

 “A form of applied research carried out to acquire a deeper

understanding of socio-technical issues and to bring about better
solutions. Attempting to bring modern science and technology to
bear on society’s problems, policy analysis searches for feasible
courses of action, generating information and marshalling evidence
of the benefits and other consequences that would follow their
adoption and implementation, in order to help the policy-maker
choose the most advantageous action.”

 Putt and Singer (1989:16 in Hughes, 2018:112): “Policy analysis is seen

as ‘facilitating policy decisions, not displacing them’”
Program Logic Model or Logframe
(Rosenbloom et al., 2014:365)

Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes

 Inputs: Raw materials of a program or service.

 Activities: Workload of the program.
 Outputs: Things that the program has done.
 Outcomes: “The events, occurrences, or changes in conditions, behaviors,
or attitudes that indicate progress toward achievement of the mission and
objectives of the program.” (Hatry, 1999 in Rosenbloom et al., 2014:365)
Analyzing Public Policy
(Rosenbloom et al., 2014:364-366)

 The formulation of public policy involves establishing the objectives to be attained and at
least sketchily outlining the general means to be used in seeking to achieve these
objectives
 The formulation of public policy is often highly politicized and may involve hotly contested
elections, votes in the legislature, and extensive lobbying activities.
 The outgrowth of policy formulation is the policy output – that is, an official statement of
governmental intent, delineation of powers and methods, and allocation of resources
 Policy outputs can involve tangible and/or symbolic activity. Statutes, congressional
resolutions, presidential proclamations, and the allocation of staff and funds are policy
outputs.
 It is widely accepted that public administrators also make policy outputs, such as rules and
strategic plans. The creation of policy outputs by administrative agencies violates a major
tenet of the traditional managerial approach – that administration be separate from
politics. The new public management (NPM) also focuses on “how government should
work, not what it should do.”
Policy output vs. policy impact/outcome
(Rosenbloom et al., 2014:364-366)

 Policy outputs are central to politics and administration. They are

statements of the goals of the polity and are prerequisites to the
attainment of these goals through administrative action.

 Policy outputs vs. policy impact/outcomes:

 Policy outputs do not tell us much about performance or the achievement of
stated objectives.
 Policy outcomes, by contrast, are concerned with performance: What effect is
the policy output having on the intended target? Is the objective being
achieved? If not, why not? If so, is achievement related to administration? At
what cost? With what side effects?
Policy Process
(Anderson, 1984 in Hughes, 2018:114)

Problem
identification
Formulation Adoption
and agenda
formation

Implementation Evaluation
Schools/Approaches
(Hughes, 2018:116-122)

 Policy analysis is a ‘social and political activity’ and ‘more art than
science’ (Bardach, 2009 in Hughes, 2018:114)
 Economic public policy: maximizing utility, cost-benefit analysis and
deductive approach
 Political public policy: policy-making is a political process, process-
focused rather than technique-oriented approach, information (e.g.
statistics) as an advocacy tool while looking at the best option
among alternatives (NB: but there is no ultimate and absolute ‘best
answer’)
 Evidence-based policy: collection of information/data and act
according to it (NB: evaluation takes time and policies often rest on
assumptions about the future that cannot be tested)
 Cost-benefit analysis

 Economic public policy and planning:

Techniques to evaluate plans and get the ‘right
answer’ – the most common being ‘cost-benefit
analysis’.

 Evaluating alternatives and options: systematic

analysis of the likely consequences of
implementing any alternative in complex
decision-making situations

 “Quantification of factors relevant to policy (such

as traffic flows) was the hallmark of ‘being
scientific’” (Taylor, 1998:69)
Net Present Value (NPV) vs. Benefit-Cost Ratio
(BCR) (Source: UNFCCC LEG-NAP Workshop, 2014)
Issues with Cost-benefit analysis
(Taylor, 1998)

 Some problems with operationalising cost-benefit evaluations:

 How individual costs and benefits may be identified and measured accurately;
 How to weigh items reasonably which are not readily quantifiable in monetary
terms;
 What sense it makes to aggregate, or sum, entirely different kinds of costs and
benefits.

 The use of cost-benefit analysis reduces planning to a technical

problem of plan evaluation in maximising human welfare, excluding
the idea that what is preferable is a matter of values.
 The Reflective Practitioner
Donald Schön (1983)

 “Reflective Practice is the capacity to reflect

on action so as to engage in a process of
continuous learning. It is one of the defining
characteristics of learning practice.” – The
Reflective Practitioner (Donald Schön,1983)

 “ (…) paying critical attention to the

practical values and theories which inform
everyday actions, by examining learning
practice reflectively and reflexively.” –
Reflective Practice, Writing and Professional
Development (Gillie Bolton, 2010)
What costs should be counted and how?
Can all costs be measured/ evaluated?
Three Gorges Dam
in China

Deep-sea mining in the

Pacific
Utilitarianism vs. distributive justice
(Taylor, 1998:80)

 Bentham and Lichfield: “maximising

welfare over a population as a whole
does not consider how the costs and
benefits arising from an action should
be distributed amongst a population.”

 “Many might hold that a proposal

which distributes costs and benefits
more equally, or which even imposes
greater burdens on the better-off,
would be ethically preferable, even if it
scores less than a proposal which
‘maximises’ a population’s welfare.”
Template

TEXT
Template

TEXT
“Technical neutrality”

 “Against this background, it is significant that the systems and rational process
theorists of the 1960s showed little awareness that the methods of plan evaluation
they recommended were based on particular, and debatable, ethical positions
and principles. (…) It is therefore not surprising that cost-benefit analysis, and other
methods of plan evaluation, came to be seen and conveyed to planners as
techniques for evaluating alternative plans rather than, as they should be, sources
of information for, and thus aids to, plan evaluation.” (Taylor, 1998:81)

 NB: The very method of cost-benefit analysis involves assumptions about the
nature of problems.

 This type of tools and analysis are informative and important, but choosing the
preferable option still remains a matter of value(s).
An ‘uncontentious’ and ‘value-free’ process or
a political process?

 “Planners have been accused of presenting political issues as if they were matters
of fact or in some way ‘value-free’ (Darke, 1985) and believing that formal
rationality will automatically lead to appropriate policy content (Camhis, 1979).”
(Allmendinger, 2009:210)
 “The question is not whether planning will reflect politics but whose politics it will
reflect. What values and whose values will planners seek to implement?... Plans are
in reality political programs. In the broadest sense they represent political
philosophies, ways of implementing differing conceptions of the good life. No
longer can the planner take refuge in the neutrality of the objectivity of the
personally uninvolved scientist.” (Long, 1959 in Taylor, 1998:83)
 Ernest R. Alexander (1986): “Whose goals, which goals, goals when?”
 Herbert Simon: “If you allow me to determine the constraints, I don’t care who
selects the optimisation criterion.”
In practice, planners and policy-makers face:
(Forester, 1989:50 in Allmendinger, 2009:212)

• Ambiguous and poorly defined problems;

• Incomplete information about alternatives;
• Incomplete information about the baseline, the background
of the ‘problem’;
• Incomplete information about the range and content of
values, preferences and interests;
• Limited time, limited skills and limited resources.

“In addition to theoretical and practical limits there are also structural limits to rationality.
Power in society is not diffuse and the ability to invest and act are unequally distributed.”
(Allmendinger, 2009:212) – “(…) organizations not only produce instrumental results, they also
reproduce social and political relations through mechanisms such as information control, the
use of networks or the framing’ of problems.” (Allmendinger, 2009:213)
The ‘Policy Analysis’ tradition in planning

 Policy analysis tradition of planning thought (Friedmann, 1987):

 Decision-making as the means to identify the best possible course of
action through scientific theories and mathematical techniques;
 Individualism and supremacy of the market in the allocation of resources;
 ‘Technocrats’ serving the existing centers of power.

 “Bounded rationality” (Herbert Simon) – constraints such as

resources, information and time available for making decisions.

 NB: Lindblom (1959) and the science of “muddling-through”

“Wicked” Problems
(Source: AICP, 2011)

A problem for which each attempt to

create a solution changes the
understanding of the problem.

Wicked problems cannot be

solved in linear fashion, because
the problem definition evolves as
new possible solutions are
considered/implemented.
“Wicked Problems”
Rittel and Webber (1973)

1. There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem

2. Wicked problems have no stopping rule
3. Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, but good-or-bad
4. There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem
5. Every solution to a wicked problem is a "one-shot operation"; because there is no opportunity to learn by trial-
and-error, every attempt counts significantly
6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is
there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan
7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique
8. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem
9. The existence of a discrepancy representing a wicked problem can be explained in numerous ways. The choice
of explanation determines the nature of the problem's resolution
10. The planner has no right to be wrong
NB: Wicked problems are complex, interconnected and interdependent.
Public Management’s Shortcomings in Dealing
with Wicked Problems (Head and Alford, 2015:719-722)

 Tackling wicked problems is challenging because of:

1. Complexity
2. Management structures and processes & bureaucracy

 TPA focused on input monitoring and process compliance, limiting

opportunities for policies/solutions (and for adapting to situations, e.g. line-
item budgeting) and creating professional ‘silos’ (early recruitment &
expertise specialization and absence of cooperation)

 NPM internal/intraorganizational focus (managerialism/corporate

management) & external/contractual focus (purchaser-provider splits,
outsourcing, and privatization)
Managerialism
(Head and Alford, 2015:719-722)

 Managerialism: ‘managing for results’, controlled through setting and

monitoring performance outcomes
 Pursuit of results through mechanisms such as management by objectives,
performance measurement and performance pay (Hodge, 2000:6)

 At its core: rational-technical approach to decision-making, adopting

corporate strategy methods from the private sector + logframe

 Underlying assumptions: The model assumes that each public organization

has settled goals, a supportive political environment, and control over the
resources and capabilities necessary to deliver on the goals—none of
which necessarily apply in the presence of wicked problems
Structures and Processes
(Head and Alford, 2015:719-722)

 Structures and processes through which decisions & policies are implemented: corporate
management framework tends to isolate from each other those programs that may
actually have subterranean connections in respect of certain wicked problems

 This fragmentation is intensified by ‘contractualism’:

1. Contract-based service-delivery models shift the focus back along the “program logic” chain
from outcomes to outputs;
2. ‘Policy-delivery’ separation or ‘purchaser-provider’ split;
3. Competition vs. cooperation.

 Individual employment contracts and performance-based remuneration of staff, especially

of managers, also reinforce this tendency, enjoining employees to give priority to their silo’s
concerns.
Limitations of Policy Analysis
(Hughes, 2018:123-128)

 Over-emphasis on decisions (vs. implementation)

 Quantitative methods (cost-benefit & limitations)

 Rational model (neutrality vs. normative activity/dimension)

 Policy success and policy failure (values & wicked problems)

 A separate public policy discipline? (…from public administration)

Politics and Administration Dichotomy
(James Gaston – YouTube Video)

Principles/foundations of politics and administration dichotomy

Interdependence between elected politicians and public

administrators & how both their role in the policy process and
the influences they are subjected to in doing so

Efficiency vs. … democracy! (cf. Friedman vs. Chomsky)

Template

TEXT
“If you put the federal
government in charge of
the Sahara Desert, in five
years there'd be a shortage
of sand.” – Milton Friedman
NPM and Neoliberalism

Critics of new public management argue that it offers “a

technocratic veneer to a political agenda” of restructuring the
state, reducing public services and attacking public sector
workers. – cf. Neoliberalism!
 Shields, John and B. Mitchell Evans.1998. Shrinking the State: Globalization and Public Administration ‘Reform’.
Halifax: Fernwood.

Through privatization, technical efficiency becomes a means of

de-politicizing complex issues that currently are, and rightly
should be, resolved within public and political forums.
 (Dixon and Kouzmin, 1994:58)
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. Explain the changes that have taken place in the public sector;
2. Analyse critically the traditional and the NPM models and how
applicable they are to the Pacific;
3. Assess the role and functions of governments in the Pacific;
4. Apply knowledge pertinent to public sector management issues in
the Pacific;
5. Develop further presentation and research skills.
Review Slides: Structure of any complete
answer/point within an answer

1. Identify/mention: What are you referring to? (Present relevant

point(s) and be specific)

2. Explain/define: What does this mean/involve/refer to/imply/is

about?

3. Analyze/support/link: Why are you saying what you are saying?

How is this the case here? What supports it/shows it/is an
example of it? How is it linked to the course material?
Public administration and Public Management

 What is the course about, main/guiding questions & shift between TPA
to NPM

 What is public administration and public management (incl.

governance & public value)

 Public policy and relation with politics and elected officials

 Interdisciplinary (and political!) nature

Role/Functions and Instruments of Government

 Public vs. private sector

 Should government be run like a business?
 Reforms and why do they happen(ed)
 Globalization and challenges (incl. ‘political paradox’) & how they are linked to local-
regional-national challenges with the example of PICTs
 Changing views on the role and size of the government (political right vs. left)
 Basic functions of government
 Instruments of government (provision, production, subsidy, regulation)
 Market failures & public policy: rationale for intervention + examples of issues and how they
can be tackled (public goods, merit and demerit goods; externalities; lack of competition,
natural monopoly and government-created monopolies; imperfect information, incl.
adverse selection and moral hazard)
 Government failures (rent-seeking behavior & unintended consequences)
TPA

 Main characteristics and principles + main influences (Weber, Wilson, Taylor)

 Weber: bureaucracy, its foundations, six principles, and position of the
official
 Wilson: Politics/administration dichotomy (NB: also see YouTube video)
 Taylor: scientific management
 Mayo: human relations & response to scientific management
 POSDCORB: steps to achieve organizational outcomes
 Critique and caveats

 NB: Main characteristic of TPA = bureaucracy vs. NPM = use of markets

(Hughes, 2012) & private sector practices (cf.: managerialism)
NPM

 Functions of general management

 Context and foundations of NPM
 Public choice theory, principal-agent theory, and transaction cost
theory and their implications for public sector management
 Distinctive characteristics and principles + key mechanisms
 How did it translate into public sector reforms/what did they typically
involve
 Critique of managerialism
 Links with the broader debate about the role of state, how to achieve
development, and the rise of neoliberalism over modernization theory
Public Policy and Wicked Problems

 What is public policy & links with public administration and public management
 Program logic model or logframe
 Policy process
 Schools/approaches: economic, political, and evidence-based public policy
 Cost-benefit analysis
 Utilitarianism vs. distributive justice
 Technical neutrality (uncontentious and value-free) vs. value-laden and political
process
 Limitations: Bounded rationality and muddling-through
 Wicked problems & public management’s shortcomings in tackling them
Good luck!