Notes on: “What is policy analysis” and “Towards Professional Ethics”; Policy   

Analysis Concepts and Practice by David Weimer and Aidan Vining   CLASSICAL PLANNING 
  ● reaction to the apparent disorder and myopia resulting from private market 
behavior and pluralistic government  
POLICY ANALYSIS AND RELATED PROFESSIONS  ● general approach  
  1. specify goals and objectives that will lead to a better society  
Policy analysis  2. determine ways for achieving them  
● intended to inform some decision whether implicitly or explicitly  ● many planners have urged their profession to adopt a more active 
● requires that advise relate to public decision and that it be informed by social  interventionist role in public decision making  
values   ● more recent manifestation of planning:  
  ○ systems analysis → extend the techniques of operations research 
Policy analysts must have clients for their advice who can participate in public decision  beyond narrow applications; involves construction of quantitative 
making.   models that specify the links among the multitude of variables of 
  interest in social or economic systems  
Definition of policy analysis offered by Weimer and Vining: ​client-oriented advice relevant  ○ by identifying the many possible interactions, the systems analyst 
to public decisions and informed by social values   hopes to avoid myopia of incremental political decision making 
● definition emphasizes importance of social values in policy analysis    
● social values can come into play even when advice seems purely predictive   POLICY ADMINISTRATION 
● by looking at the consequences of policies beyond those that affect the client,  ● goal of old policy administration → efficient management of programs 
the analyst is implicitly placing a value on the welfare of others   mandated by the political process  
● good policy analysis takes a comprehensive view of consequences and social  ● Unlike policy analysts who concern themselves with questions of organizational 
values   design and administrative feasibility, policy administration focuses exclusively 
  on doing well what has been chosen  
ACADEMIC RESEARCH  ● policy administration has gradually come to include policy analysis among its 
● major objective is the development of theories that contribute to a better  professional activities. This is because:  
understanding of society   ○ large bureaus and vague legislative mandates associated with an 
● client for the research is the truth   expanded public role in society require administrators to choose 
● pace of work depends largely on the subject at hand rather than an externally  among alternative policies 
imposed deadline  ○ absence of clean separation between politics and administration 
● development of social science knowledge forms a base for more narrowly  ○ new public administration goal → seek to influence the adoption as 
specified research of greater potential relevance   well as implementation of policies  
  ■ abandoned the separation of politics and administration 
POLICY RESEARCH   ■ newest formation is public management --> deals with 
● research directed at informing public policy issues, which often employ  choice of organizational forms and decision appropriately 
methods of the social science discipline  informed by policy analysis  
● while academic research looks for relationships among broad range of   
variables describing behavior, policy research focuses on relationship between  JOURNALISM  
variables that reflect social problems and other variables that can be  ● introduces policy problems to the public agenda than providing systematic 
manipulated by public policy   comparisons of alternative solutions  
● desired product → more or less verified hypothesis of the form: if the  ● policy analysts and journalists share some goals and constraints:  
government does X, then Y will result  1. tight deadlines → advice would be useless if it is delivered to clients 
● There is a fine line between policy research and policy analysis   after they have had to vote, issue regulations, or make decisions  
○ Policy researchers are:   2. provide information useful for assessing technical, political, and 
■ less closely tied to public decision makers   administrative feasibility of policy alternatives  
■ view themselves as members of an academic discipline  3. communication is a primary concern → they must put stories that will 
■ place primary importance on having the respect of other  catch and keep the interest of their readers  
and their work published    
REPRISE  ● in extreme cases, consulting firms may serve as body shops for government 
Similarity of policy analysis in related professions:   offices importance of the relationship between client and analyst is extremely 
1. policy research → employs social science theory and empirical methods to  apparent to consultants  
predict the consequences of alternative policies   ● consultants are paid to produce analysis that the clients perceive as useful  
2. journalism → requires skills in information gathering and communication    
3. public administration and analysts → may become advice givers to various 
political actors    ANALYST FUNCTIONS 
   
Analysts have 4 major functions:  
1. Desk officer  
● coordinating policy relevant to specific program areas and serving as 
a contact for the line agencies  
2. perform a policy development function 
● special initiatives which include personnel from other departments 
● initiatives often result in policy option papers or specific legislative 
proposal  
3. perform a policy research and oversight function  
4. firefighting  
● can be anything from a request from the president's office to review 
the statement of administration accomplishments on welfare reform 
to preparing an instant briefing for congressional staff  
 

BASIC PREPARATION FOR POLICY ANALYSIS 

 
Policy analysis is as much an art and a craft as a science  
● analyst must apply basic skills within the reasonably consistent and realistic 
perspective on the role of government in society  
 
  An analyst must be prepared in the following areas:  
  1. know how to gather, organize, and communicate information in situations in 
POLICY ANALYSIS AS A PROFESSION  which deadlines are strict and access to relevant people is limited  
2. need a perspective for putting perceived social problems in context  
  3. need technical skills to enable them to predict better and to assess more 
Until the 1980s, few of those actually doing policy analysis would have identified  confidently the consequences of alternative policies  
themselves as members of policy analysis professions  4. have an understanding of political and organizational behavior in order to 
● Many who do policy analysis held positions such as: economist, planners,  predict the feasibility of adoption and the successful implementation of policies  
program evaluators, budget analysts, etc.   ● understand the worldview of the clients and opponent's  
   
The way analysts practice their craft is greatly influenced by the nature of their 
relationships with their clients and by the roles played by the clients in the political  TOWARD PROFESSIONAL ETHIC 
process.    
  Analysts must expect their clients to be players in the game of politics 
What do public agencies do if their own personnel cannot produce the desired or   
mandated analysis?   ANALYTICAL ROLES  
● if they have funds available, agencies can purchase analysis from consultants   ● Policy analysis forces us to confront conflicts among competing values  
 ● rather than focus on values from the unique perspectives of particular policy  ● the authors added another concept which is disloyalty  
issues, we consider values relevant to the general question of how analysts  ○ disloyal → when it undercuts the political position or policy 
should conduct themselves as professional givers of advise   preferences of the client  
● 3 values must be considered:   ○ this is an abandonment from Hirschman's use of loyalty  
1. analytical integrity    
2. responsibility to client  
3. adherence to one's personal conception of the good society  
● to understand these 3 values, we can look into the three conceptions of the 
appropriate role of the analyst  
○ each role gives priority to one of the 3 values, relegating the remaining 
2 to secondary status  

 
 
 
 
 
NOTE: These have been discussed at Ma’am Mendoza’s module already.  
 
 
 
Rather than select one of the fundamental values as dominant and sacrifice the other 
 
two as circumstances demand, the analyst should attempt to keep all 3 under 
 
consideration.  
 
 
 
What are the possible courses of action for analysts when demands by their clients 
 
come in conflict with their sense of analytical integrity?  
 
● We can answer this by considering the concepts of voice and exit developed 
 
by Albert Hirschman  
 
○ voice → working to change the organization from within  
 
○ exit→ leaving the organization for another 
Notes on: “Politics and Policy Analysis” by Peter May    
  The following discussion addresses insights concerning political feasibility that are 
derived from selected literature. 
DEFINITION OF POLITICAL FEASIBILITY   ● Some topics -policy typologies and agenda setting - are the mainstream of the 
  political science policy literature of the past decade. 
PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS  ● The remaining topics - interest-group theory and legislative analysis - are well 
Judgments about the "probabilities that within a given time, defined policy alternatives  developed literatures in political science that seem especially relevant to 
will receive sufficient political push and support to be approved and implemented.”  political feasibility. 
   
  POLITICAL TYPOLOGY  
  The best known political science literature dealing with public policy is the various efforts 
  to classify public policies, beginning with Theodore J. Lowi's distinctions among 
IDENTIFICATION OF CONSTRAINTS AND POSSIBILITIES   distributive, redistributive, and regulatory policy.  
Developing a sense of what political constraints to recognize and of when and how far  ● Typology is influential in describing policy activity 
to stretch those constraints.   ● Typologies are of little value in predicting the political feasibility  
● Simply pointing out the probability of success is insufficient, since such  ○ Difficult to decide for any specific policy and typology how that policy 
probabilities are dependent upon the political strategy that is used to enact and  should be classified  
implement a policy  ○ Policies are often multidimensional, containing a mix of types  
● Strategy for gaining acceptance of a policy proposal and gauging the likely  ○ Alternative policy proposals often do not differ in the broad terms of a 
success of the strategy  distributive versus a redistributive program, but in the particulars of 
  distribution or redistribution  
POLITICAL PRICES, OPPORTUNITY COSTS, AND CONSEQUENCES   ● Yet, the literature could be helpful in thinking about constraints and 
Political price to be paid for a course of action.  opportunities when fashioning political strategies. 
● Securing approval or implementing a policy proposal involves a "price" in the  ○ the literature underscores the importance of identification of the 
form of policy or other concessions that diminish the policy advocate's store of  perceptions of policy by policy makers or relevant interest groups as 
political capital  a key to understanding the sources of resistance or support for policy 
  proposals 
POLITICAL FEASIBILITY AND POLICY FORMULATION  ○ important both in understanding the political sensitivity of a policy 
Political scientists underscore the importance of considering “political rationality”   proposal and in fashioning a political strategy for gaining acceptance 
● The calculus of political rationality requires explicit attention to political feasibility  of a proposal  
as an element of policy formulation  ○ useful to gauge how sensitive the overall characterization of a policy is 
● Every policy proposal must be judged not only on its merits but also in terms of  to what appear to be relatively minor changes in the content of that 
its implications for the politics of governing (can it pass the Congress? will state  policy  
and local governments accept it?)   
  AGENDA SETTING 
The agenda setting literature deals broadly with the way in which issues reach official 
POLITICAL FEASIBILITY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE   agendas and how policy proposals influence the agendas. 
  
  Agenda setting is relevant to political feasibility assessments in two ways:  
In the political science literature, there is pessimism for efforts to develop overarching  1. It gauges whether or not relevant officials will pay attention to a policy proposal 
theories of public policy or for testing existing theories. However, policy makers’ needs  or problem 
are not as complex as those of political scientists interested in developing theories about  ● Political strategists should be concerned with identifying their 
policy formulation.   windows of opportunity, gauging the size of the policy windows, and 
● Policy makers seek informed advice concerning political feasibility; political  identifying means to expand the windows. 
scientists seek precise theories  ○ Policy window → opportunities for particular proposals only 
● Policy makers can and often must settle for little more than informed  occur given the "right" circumstances 
speculation; the political scientist cannot, or at least should not.   2. Relevant to proposals already on the official agenda 
 ● the way in which issues or proposals reach the agenda can affect the  The roll-call literature and related models of legislative voting do not at present provide 
prospects for future enactment or implementation  predictions of probabilities of enactment for policy proposals.  
● For example, policy proposals that are initiated within government   
circles may backfire during implementation if the reactions of relevant 
interest groups are not anticipated.   TOWARD FEASIBILITY ESTIMATE  
   
INTEREST-GROUP THEORY   It is fruitless to attempt to develop a predictive model that forecasts the political 
The agenda-setting literature is a subset of the interest group literature, which views  feasibility of policy proposals. 
policy making as balancing demands of interest groups, as opposed to responding to   
powerful individuals' public opinion, or policy makers' self-interests.  The development of political feasibility calculations or political strategies may be 
● probability of successful enactment and implementation of a policy proposal  constrained both by time and by access to political intelligence. Under such constraints, 
can be gauged by assessing the positions and strength of relevant interest  those charged with diagnosing political feasibility might benefit from methodological 
groups  advice that guides an "armchair" analysis of political feasibility, perhaps relying upon a 
The real work of estimating political feasibility comes in identifying relevant interest  few phone calls or use of other secondary sources of information.   
groups and in making judgments about issue position, power, and salience for the    
various groups. Knowledge of these aspects of feasibility, along with knowledge of  The notion of political maps helps to tie together notions developed with the literature 
coalitions provides a basis for developing a political strategy aimed at particular groups  discussed in this article.  
or for assessing political constraints and opportunities. One might highlight three points:   1. Perceptual maps → efforts to portray how particular policy features are 
1. The importance of differentiating interest groups and actors according to their  perceived by relevant interest groups or policy makers 
issue positions, power, and salience  ● Knowing how policies are perceived provides a basis for designing 
2. The interest group's power will vary among decision-making arenas and thus  political strategies aimed at altering perceptual maps by symbol 
separate calculations are required for each relevant arena.  manipulation such as relabeling policy features, redressing 
3. The interest group's salience and issue position will vary according to which  misperceptions, or altering policy content. 
aspect of an issue is under consideration  ● To gain such an understanding, one needs to construct a map 
  showing perceptions of a policy or key features and perceptions of 
LEGISLATIVE ANALYSIS   the impact of the proposed policy. 
Within the diverse legislative-analysis literature, the most relevant topics would appear to  2. Position maps → entail efforts to portray the positions (support or resistance) 
be roll-call analyses and committee decision making.   and influence of relevant interest groups or policy makers  
   
The theories of legislative voting that have been derived and tested through analyses of  Notes on: “Putting Analysis to Work” by Stokey 
roll-call votes might provide a key to predicting congressional policy enactment were it   
not for two problems. 
1. Roll-call analyses have focused upon ex post facto predictions of individual  SEQUENCE FOR THINKING POLICY PROBLEMS   
congressmen's decisions. 
● In other words, does a given theory provide an accurate prediction of   
how congressmen actually voted?  ESTABLISHING THE CONTEXT  
● Political feasibility, on the other hand, is defined in terms of  1. What is the problem that must be dealt with?  
prospective predictions at aggregate levels. In other words, how  ● Determine whether and why there is a problem 
much support will there be for a given policy proposal?  2. Having identified the problem, what objectives are to be pursued to confront it?  
2. Some of the key independent variables employed in roll-call analyses must  ● We have to identify precisely what we are trying to accomplish  
themselves be forecast if prospective predictions are to be made.   
  LAYING OUT THE ALTERNATIVES 
On the other hand, different congressional committees have their own personalities, so  1. What are the alternative courses of action?  
to speak, and that the decision making within committees varies somewhat by issue.   ● There are numerous forms of government intervention. Which type is 
● any effort to model probabilities of successful committee clearance would  most appropriate for the problem and objectives?  
require committee specific and issue-domain specific models  2. Can the alternative courses of action be designed so as to take advantage of 
  additional information as it becomes available?  
 ● Will it provide the decision maker to change his or her course of 
action as he learns more about the real world?  
● Good policy analysis is an iterative process. Rarely does it proceed in 
a straightforward fashion from the definition of the problem to the 
selection of preferred action. It moves forward and backwards as 
one’s understanding of the problem deepens.  
 
PREDICTING CONSEQUENCES  
1. What are the consequences of each alternative action?  
2. What techniques are relevant for predicting consequences?  
● Occasionally, mere reflection will do. But, sometimes, unaided 
intuition may go astray.  
● The analyst might turn to a model  
○ This must reflect how the world really works  
3. If outcomes are uncertain, what is the estimated likelihood of each?  
● The policy maker may wish to make a decision tree and estimate the 
probability of each outcome  
 
VALUING THE OUTCOMES 
How should we measure success in pursuing each objective?  
● Determine the ends of public choice or the standard to which policy choices 
should be evaluated  
 
MAKING A DECISION 
What is the preferred course of action?