POLICY ANALYSIS

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POLICY ANALYSIS

• Session 1 Introduction

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Course Objectives

• By the end of the course participants must be
  able to
• Appreciate the variety of relationships that
  exist between policy analysis and political
  decision-making and different forms that
  knowledge utilisation take
• Demonstrate knowledge of the international and
  domestic discourse on knowledge utilisation in
  policy decision-making. Such demonstration will
  take place through debate, critical writing and
  practical application.
• Understand the general conceptual foundations of
  public policy analysis approaches and techniques
  and be familiar with some of the biggest debates
  in the subject literature regarding such
  approaches and techniques. Demonstration will
  take place through debate, critical writing and
  commenting on practical examples/ cases.
• Identify, discuss, apply and critique policy
  analysis approaches, methods and techniques that
  are used in a range of practical settings and
  documents.

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Course objectives (cont.)

• Use policy analysis tools and techniques to
  analyse policy problems generate and assess
  alternative solutions to a policy problem
  recommend an appropriate design for a policy
  anticipate a range of challenges ordinarily faced
  by developing countries when implementing policy.
• Produce a short policy document/ issue paper on a
  given topic and communicate the content thereof
  in an appropriate form to a stipulated audience.
• Competently communicate (in writing and verbally)
  the products of policy analytical processes.
• Show sensitivity for and accommodate competing
  norms and values in different stages of the
  policy process in a constructive manner.

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Understand the overall objectives and structure
  of the course
• Define policy analysis
• Critically discuss the most important markers
  along the development path of the discipline
• Have a basic knowledge of pursuing a career as
  policy analyst

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Personal reflection

• Taking into consideration the reading you have
  done in preparation for the session, prepare a 10
  minute introduction on (a) your perceptions and
  opinions on policy analysis as a discipline and a
  potential career (b) share with us your own
  history in terms of doing policy analysis. How
  would you characterise your own approaches and
  use of toolbox in the broader scheme of policy
  analysis?

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Discussion Themes

• Group 1 Policy analysis a discipline and
  professional field in decline
• Group 2 Policy analysis a discipline and
  profession that reinvents itself in order to
  underpin democratic behaviour

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The Policy Cycle
Policy analysis
Agenda setting
Meta-policy
Policy formulation
Monitoring and Evaluation
Decision-making
Consultation on implementation
Implementation
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Different approaches to policy

• Rationality
• Muddling through garbage can
• Institutionalism
• Constructivist approaches
• Networks and coalitions
• Post modern discursive and argumentative
  approaches

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DEFINING POLICY ANALYSIS

• Policy analysis is a process of
  multidisciplinary inquiry designed to create,
  critically assess and communicate information
  that is useful in understanding and improving
  policies
• (Dunn, 2004, p. 2)

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• The methodology of policy analysis may be seen
  as a process of inquiry designed to discover
  solutions to practical problems
• (Dunn, 2004, p.2)

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Defining Policy Analysis

• that kind of systematic, disciplined,
  analytical, scholarly, creative study whose
  primary motivation is to produce well-supported
  recommendations for action dealing with concrete
  political problems Kent
• an applied discipline which uses multiple
  methods of inquiry and arguments to produce and
  transform policy-relevant information that may be
  utilized in political settings to resolve public
  problems

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Defining Policy Analysis

• 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 societys problems, policy analysis
  search 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 - Dennis Quade

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Definitions of Public Policy
Author
Definition
Dye (1972)
What governments do or not do
Eyestone 1971)
Relationship of government to its environment
Long series of more or less related activities
and their consequences
Rose (1969)
Proposed course of action within a given
environment providing obstacles or opportunities
that the policy is proposed to utilise or
overcome in an effort to reach a goal or
objective
Friedrich (1963)
Set of interrelated decisions concerning the
selection of goals and the means of achieving them
Jenkins (1978)
Purposeful course of action in dealing with a
problem or matter of concern
Anderson (1984)
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A Working Definition of Public Policy
A proposed course of action by a government to
meet a need or seize an opportunity expressed as
preferred outcomes linked to actual effects
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Key characteristics

• Problem-centred ? pragmatic
• Methods based on scientific methods but DO NOT
  claim solutions/ recommendations proven in a
  positivistic sense
• NOT value free nor entirely objective ?
  therefore, it is normative
• Include healthy part art, craft and persuasion
  over and above technique
• Multi-disciplinary

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INTEGRATED POLICY ANALYSIS PROCESS
POLICY PERFORMANCE
Forecasting
Evaluation
Problem Structuring
Problem Structuring
Problem Structuring
EXPECTED POLICY OUTCOMES
OBSERVED POLICY OUTCOMES
POLICY PROBLEMS
Problem Structuring
Monitoring
Recommen- dation
PREFERRED POLICIES
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Policy analytical process
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Critical Steps in Policy Analysis
Step 1 Verify, Define, Detail Problem Step
2 Establish Evaluation Criteria Step
3 Identify Alternative Policies Step
4 Evaluate Alternative Policies Step
5 Display Distinguish Alternative
Policies Step 6 Implement Preferred
Alternative Step 7 Monitor the Implemented
Policy Step 8 Evaluate Policy Results
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The policy hierarchy
International treaties global policy
System-wide macro policies
Sectoral/ line policies
Administrative policies
Organisational operational policies
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Research Policy-making continuum
Use and direct influence
Independence
Pure/ academic research
Policy Advocacy
Policy Advice
Policy Research
Policy analysis
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Role of the analyst
Objective technician (research/analysis)
Political actor (advocacy)
Counsellor/ facilitator
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The ideal policy analyst skills profile

• 6 broad areas
• Knowledge
• Organisational
• Technical/operational
• Intellectual
• Relational
• Personal

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Policy Analysis

• Session 3 Evidence and values

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Facts and Values

• 'Politics is the system we have for attaching
  values to facts.' Carol Weiss
• Values facilitates AND complicates policy process
  
• Do we know clients values
• Conflicting values
• Whose values counts
• BUT value systems simplifies world views.

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Defining values

• the beliefs, ethics, standards, and more specific
  norms --which affect policy making processes at
  all levels (individual, group, organizational,
  and societal), --through guiding and constraining
  the behaviour and actions of participants in
  policy making, --by influencing their perceptions
  of both desirable end-states (terminal values)
  and of acceptable means (instrumental values) for
  achieving those end-states.

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Defining value systems

• A value-system involves
• an interconnected pattern or structure of values,
• occurring at any level (individual, group,
  organizational or societal),
• with values ideally being ranked in hierarchical
  order of significance or, more realistically,
  with rough weighting of some values as being more
  important than others
• such a system normally being relatively stable or
  slow to change, and
• having the capacity to influence both general
  policy-making behaviour and specific choices or
  decisions.

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Goals/alternative Matrices
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Distinguishing evidence from other concepts

• Data are facts about the world/ society. Include
  statistics but go well beyond statistics, too.
• Information is data that has "meaning - helps
  to construct meaning from creating logical or
  empirical categories.
• Evidence is information that affects the existing
  beliefs of decision-makers and others about the
  issue at hand.

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Design evidence gathering with 3 purposes in mind

• To assess the nature and extent of the problem(s)
  at hand
• To assess the particular features of the concrete
  policy situation you are studying
• To assess policies/ interventions that have been
  thought to have worked effectively/ or dismally
  failed in apparently similar situations