POLICY ANALYSIS
SESSION 1
Public policy
Governments make Public policy =/= politics, polity
Studying public policy
o Why are certain decisions taken at certain times and not others?
o How do policy decisions add up into policy regimes or mixes? Are those decisions in contrast
incompatible or contradictory?
o Do decisions result in recognizable patterns, or can we merely discern (quasi)random
accumulations of multiple decisions in the past?
o What actors are involved in public policies, what do these policy actors do, why and what
difference do they make?
Public policy analysis
Analysis of policy
o Descriptive
o Theoretical
o Policy sciences
o Academic policy analysis
Analysis for policy
o Applied
o Prescriptive
o Applied policy analysis
Academic discipline
o Multi-disciplinary
o Multi-method
o Problem-oriented
o Mapping of contexts, alternatives and effects
o Daniel Lerner & Harold Lasswell: The Policy Sciences (1951)
▪ The "policy sciences" are defined as "the disciplines concerned with explaining the
policy making and policy executing process, and with locating data and providing
interpretations which are relevant to the policy problems of a given period" (p. 14)
▪ The term "policy“ is used "to designate the most important choices made either in
organized or private life" (p. 5)
Definitions of policy
Thomas Dye (1972):
o Public policy is “anything a government chooses to do or not to do.”
William Jenkins (1978):
o Public policy as “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 those
decisions should, in principle, be within the power of those actors to achieve.”
James Anderson (1975):
o “A purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or
matter of concern for the population.”
Actors and institutions
,Actors
Power to make policy >< role as policy adviser/analyst/worker (as stakeholder, as target group, capable/not
influence pm)
Elected politicians
Administrative officials
Political parties, and their study centers
Interest groups, NGOs
Research organisations, academic institutes, think tanks
Mass media
(Voters/Citizens/individuals…)
Policy cycle model
advantages:
Helps to reduce complexity
Mapping and clarifying the roles of actors,
institutions and ideas/interests
Disadvantages:
Policy is non-systematic, non-linear
Idiosyncratic problem solving
Stages compressed or skipped
Causes and effects unclear
Stages of the policy cycle
Lasswell 1965
o Intelligence: collecting + disseminating knowledge
o Promotion: supporting selected alternatives
o Prescription: decision for an alternative
o Invocation: decision of rules of selected alternative
o Application: implementation through the administration
, o Termination: ending the process
o Appraisal: evaluation according to the initial goals
Brewer 1974
o Invention/initiation
o Estimation
o Selection
o Implementation
o Evaluation
o Termination
▪ = reverse order as compared to Lasswell’s model
Studying the public policy process
SESSION 2: THEORETICAL APPROACHES OF PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS
Approaches of public policy analysis
Dimensions
o Unit of analysis
o Method/school of thought
Public choice:
What?
SESSION 1
Public policy
Governments make Public policy =/= politics, polity
Studying public policy
o Why are certain decisions taken at certain times and not others?
o How do policy decisions add up into policy regimes or mixes? Are those decisions in contrast
incompatible or contradictory?
o Do decisions result in recognizable patterns, or can we merely discern (quasi)random
accumulations of multiple decisions in the past?
o What actors are involved in public policies, what do these policy actors do, why and what
difference do they make?
Public policy analysis
Analysis of policy
o Descriptive
o Theoretical
o Policy sciences
o Academic policy analysis
Analysis for policy
o Applied
o Prescriptive
o Applied policy analysis
Academic discipline
o Multi-disciplinary
o Multi-method
o Problem-oriented
o Mapping of contexts, alternatives and effects
o Daniel Lerner & Harold Lasswell: The Policy Sciences (1951)
▪ The "policy sciences" are defined as "the disciplines concerned with explaining the
policy making and policy executing process, and with locating data and providing
interpretations which are relevant to the policy problems of a given period" (p. 14)
▪ The term "policy“ is used "to designate the most important choices made either in
organized or private life" (p. 5)
Definitions of policy
Thomas Dye (1972):
o Public policy is “anything a government chooses to do or not to do.”
William Jenkins (1978):
o Public policy as “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 those
decisions should, in principle, be within the power of those actors to achieve.”
James Anderson (1975):
o “A purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or
matter of concern for the population.”
Actors and institutions
,Actors
Power to make policy >< role as policy adviser/analyst/worker (as stakeholder, as target group, capable/not
influence pm)
Elected politicians
Administrative officials
Political parties, and their study centers
Interest groups, NGOs
Research organisations, academic institutes, think tanks
Mass media
(Voters/Citizens/individuals…)
Policy cycle model
advantages:
Helps to reduce complexity
Mapping and clarifying the roles of actors,
institutions and ideas/interests
Disadvantages:
Policy is non-systematic, non-linear
Idiosyncratic problem solving
Stages compressed or skipped
Causes and effects unclear
Stages of the policy cycle
Lasswell 1965
o Intelligence: collecting + disseminating knowledge
o Promotion: supporting selected alternatives
o Prescription: decision for an alternative
o Invocation: decision of rules of selected alternative
o Application: implementation through the administration
, o Termination: ending the process
o Appraisal: evaluation according to the initial goals
Brewer 1974
o Invention/initiation
o Estimation
o Selection
o Implementation
o Evaluation
o Termination
▪ = reverse order as compared to Lasswell’s model
Studying the public policy process
SESSION 2: THEORETICAL APPROACHES OF PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS
Approaches of public policy analysis
Dimensions
o Unit of analysis
o Method/school of thought
Public choice:
What?
