Policy Analysis

Policy Problems - Description

• Not easily solved

• 1. They are not well defined.

• 2. They are purely technical or purely political.
• 3. Their solutions cannot usually be proven to be correct before application.
• 4. No problem solution is ever guaranteed to achieve the intended result.
• 5. Problem solutions are complicated
• 6. The adequacy of the solution is often difficult to measure against notions
of the public good.
• 7. The fairness of solutions is impossible to measure objectively.
Factors to consider during Policy
Analysis
• Location
• Maximum security
• Effectiveness
• Quality
• Execution
• Supervision
• Etc.
• Stakeholders
Policy analysis basic
• there is a set of systematic procedures or policy analysis methods that can
be used to attack contemporary policy problems.
The Classical Rational Problem-Solving
process
Approaches
• Proactive approach
• Reactive approach

• Policy analysis and planning

• Problem Uniqueness
• “proper frame of mind” to do analysis
The following suggestions should help as you begin to
undertake policy analysis
• Learn to Focus Quickly on the Central Decision Criterion (or Criteria) of the
• Problem.
• Think about the Types of Policy Actions That Can Be Taken.

Direct Indirect
Monetary Provide Tax
Purchase Subsidize
Nonmonetary Prohibit Inform
Require Implore

• Avoid the Toolbox Approach to Analyzing Policy.

• Learn to Deal with Uncertainty.
• Say It with Numbers.
• Make the Analysis Simple and Transparent.
• Check the Facts.
• Learn to Advocate the Positions of Others.
• Give the Client Analysis, Not Decisions.
• Push the Boundaries of Analysis beyond the “Policy Envelope.”
• Be Aware that There Is No Such Thing as an Absolutely Correct, Rational,
• and Complete Analysis.
TYPES OF POLICY ANALYSIS
• Descriptive policy analysis refers to either the historical analysis of past
policies or the evaluation of a new policy as it is implemented. Descriptive
policy analysis has also been termed ex post, post hoc, or retrospective
policy analysis. This after-the-fact analysis can be further broken down into
two types:

• Retrospective and evaluative, with retrospective analysis referring to the

description and interpretation of past policies (What happened?) and
evaluative policy analysis referring to program evaluation (Were the
purposes of the policy met?).
• Policy analysis that focuses upon the possible outcomes of proposed policies
has been called ex ante, pre hoc, anticipatory, or prospective policy analysis.
This analysis prior to the implementation of policies can be subdivided into
predictive and prescriptive policy analysis

• Predictive policy analysis refers to the projection of future states resulting

from adopting particular alternatives.
A basic Policy analysis Process
What is Politics?
• A process by which societies help figure out how to organize and regulate
themselves; that is; how to govern themselves.
• Politics about problem solving

• Separation of power

• Federalism

• Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wislon

Explained how nations came to be, and how, in their minds, it was the best equipped
to preserve individuals rights and harness the creative power that ultimately made
the US one of the richest and most power countries in the world.
Key attributes of Public Policy
• Policy is made in response to some sort of problem that requires attention
• Policy is made on the “publics' behalf
• Policy is oriented toward a goal or desired state, such as the solution of a
problem
• Policy is ultimately made by governments, even if the ideas come from
outside government or through the interaction of government and
nongovernmental actors.
• Policy is interpreted and implemented by public and private actors who have
different interpretations of problems, solutions, and their won motivations
• Policy is what the government chooses to do or not to do.
What is Policy ?
• A statement by government of what it intends to do, such as a law
regulation, ruling, decision, order, or a combination of these.

• But many definitions

The Stages Model of the Policy Process
Consider before, during, and after
• Public interest
• Key actors
The Policy Environment
• https://www.comparativeagendas.net/

• Statistics from database

• Economic environment
• Political conditions
• Social conditions
• Technology conditions
• Approval from key actors
AGENDA SETTING- PROBLEM RECOGNITION AND ISSUE
SELECTION
• Policy-making presupposes the recognition of a policy problem.

• Problem recognition itself requires that a social problem has been defined as
such and that the necessity of state intervention has been expressed.

• The second step would be that the recognized problem is actually put on the
agenda for serious consideration of public action (agenda-setting).

• The agenda is nothing more than “the list of subjects or problems to which
governmental officials, and people outside the government closely associated
with those officials, are paying some serious attention at any given time”
Levels of Agenda
Factors in Agenda Setting
• Political Power In Agenda Setting
• Groups And Power In Agenda Setting
• Overcoming Power Deficits To Access The Agenda
• “Windows Of Opportunity”

• The Social Construction Of Problems And Issues

• Indicators, Focusing Events, And Agenda Change
• Measuring Agenda Status Of Issues
POLICY FORMULATION AND DECISION-MAKING

• During this stage of the policy cycle, expressed problems, proposals, and
demands are transformed into government programs. Policy formulation and
adoption includes the definition of objectives—

• what should be achieved with the policy—and the consideration of different

action alternatives.
• Some authors differentiate between formulation (of alternatives for action)
and the final adoption (the formal decision to take on the policy).

• Because policies will not always be formalized into separate programs and a
clear-cut separation between formulation and decision-making is very often
impossible, we treat them as sub stages in a single stage of the policy cycle.
POLICY FORMULATION
• Policy formulation clearly is a critical phase of the policy process. Certainly
designing the alternatives that decision makers will consider directly
influences the ultimate policy choice.
• This process also both expresses and allocates power among social, political,
and economic interests.

• Identifying these actors, and understanding their beliefs and motivations,

their judgments of feasibility, and their perceptions of the political context,
goes a long way toward explaining the public policies that take shape
IMPLEMENTATION
• The decision on a specific course of action and the adoption of a program
does not guarantee that the action on the ground will strictly follow policy
makers’ aims and objectives.

• The stage of execution or enforcement of a policy by the responsible

institutions and organizations that are often, but not always, part of the
public sector, is referred to as implementation.

• Policy implementation is broadly defined as “what happens between the

establishment of an apparent intention on the part of the government to do
something, or to stop doing something, and the ultimate impact in the world
of action”
Implementing Public Policy
• Translating policy into action
TOP-DOWN, BOTTOM-UP, AND HYBRID THEORIES OF
IMPLEMENTATION
• TOP-DOWN THEORIES
• Central government
• Implementation therefore implied the establishment of adequate
bureaucratic procedures to ensure that policies are executed as accurately as
possible.
BOTTOM-UP THEORIES
• The availability of discretion at the stage of policy delivery appeared as a
beneficial factor as local bureaucrats were seen to be much nearer to the
real problems than central policy makers.
• The behavior of public service workers (e.g., teachers, social workers, police
officers, doctors), which he called “street-level bureau crats.”
Hybrid theories
• The combinations of bottom-up and top-down
EVALUATION AND TERMINATION
• Policy-making is supposed to contribute to problem solving or at least to the
reduction of the problem load.

• During the evaluation stage of the policy cycle, these intended outcomes of
policies move into the center of attention. The plausible normative rationale
that, finally, policy-making should be appraised against intended objectives
and impacts forms the starting point of policy evaluation.

• But, evaluation is not only associated with the final stage in the policy cycle
that either ends with the termination of the policy or its redesign based on
modified problem perception and agenda-setting.
Continue..
• At the same time, evaluation research forms a separate sub discipline in the
policy sciences that focuses on the intended results and unintended
consequences of policies.
• Evaluation studies are not restricted to a particular stage in the policy cycle;
instead, the perspective is applied to the whole policy-making process and
from different perspectives in terms of timing
•Policy Cycle document