Paper 3
Public policy analysis
Learning Goals
Specifically, students will:
1. Examine how policy is designed, implemented and evaluated to address public problems.
2. Examine policy communication and ethics.
3. Discuss and analyze the main themes for the week.
4. Summarize the key points from the course content/resources in paper assignment.
Bardach & Patashnik, Step 2
Assembling Evidence
Think before you collect
Value of evidence
Utility of research
Utility of the educated guess
Review the literature
Survey “best practices”
Use analogies
Start early
Touch base, gain credibility, broker consensus
Free the captive mind
Bardach & Patashnik, Step 3
Step 3: Construct the Alternatives
Beware of linguistic pitfall
Start comprehensive, end up focused
Entertain out-of-the-box solutions
Model the system in which the problem is located
Market models
Production models
Conformity models
Evolutionary models
Conceptualize and simplify the list of alternatives
Points on a continuum as alternatives
Contingent alternatives
Bardach & Patashnik, Step 4
Step 4: Select the Criteria
Commonly used evaluative criteria
Set a date
Efficiency –Cost-Effectiveness
Cost-benefit
Equality, equity, fairness, justice
Freedom, community, and other ideas
Process values – be careful of participation for values
Some evaluative criteria deserve more weight than others
The political process takes care of it
The analyst imposes a solution
The distribution of “rights” precludes some solutions and forwards other – a fortiori rights are constructed rather than found
Commonly use practical criteria
Legality
Political acceptability
Administrative robustness and improvability
Policy sustainability
Criteria as logical constructs
Linear programming
Specify metrics
Avoid confusing alternatives and criteria
Bardach & Patashnik, Step 5
Step 5: Project the Outcomes
Extend the logic of common sense
Choose a base case
Dare to make magnitude estimates
Trends might be the basis of projections
Break-even estimates can shrink uncertainty
Try sensitivity analysis
Confront the optimism problem
Scenario writing
Undesirable side effects
The ethical costs of optimism
The Emergent-features problem
Construct an outcomes matrix
But policy contexts differ
Bardach & Patashnik, Steps 6-7
Step 6: Confront the trade-offs
Focus on outcomes – not alternatives
Establish commensurability
Break-even analysis revisited
Frame trade-offs crisply
Trade-offs are about increments
The better and the worse
Step 7: Stop, focus, narrow, deepen, decide!
Apply the $20 bill test
Bardach & Patashnik, Step 8
Step 8: Tell your story
Apply the Grandma Bessie test
Gauge your audience
Consider what medium to use
Give your story a logical narrative flow
Some common pitfalls
Following the eightfold path too closely
Compulsive qualifying
Showing off all your work
Listening without explaining
Spinning a mystery yarn
Inflating the style
Forgetting the analysis doesn’t persuade—analysts do
Structure your report
Table format
Statistics
References and sources
Using memo format
Develop a press release
PowerPoint
Bardach & Patashnik, Assembling Evidence
Work through your problem with a series of questions that lead to evidence gathering
Develop a working definition of your problem that can be operationalized
Relevant sources include documents and people
How to do research – snowball sampling techniques in literature and interviews
Be careful of information that is secondhand – heresay
Get multiple sources to back up your problem statement and policy development – don’t just rely on the information from one source
Overview on how to get and conduct an interview
The politics of credibility
Know the stakeholders and give them the attention they deserve
Get experts on your side
Pay attention to the dissenters
Bardach & Patashnik – Smart (best) practices Research
Analyze Smart Practices
Observe the Practice
Describing Generic Vulnerabilities
But Will It Work Here
Back to the Eightfold Path
Heineman, et al. – Chapter 3
Culture impacts policy design and the instruments selected
American political culture
Liberty and equality
The politics of conscience
“The notions of liberty as grounded in obedience to moral law and of equality as referring to fundamental worth are still powerful forces in American life” (p. 59).
The politics of interest
“Equality does not support liberty” (p. 62)
Inequality is legitimized by the concept of work ethic
Tensions Between…
Politics of conscience
Liberty means the obedience of moral law and equality is the fundamental worth of human beings
Politics of interest
Equality does not equal liberty
Heineman, et al. – Chapter 4
Kantian/Deontological ethics
Duty based
Who was Kant?
Utilitarianism ethics
Based in self-interest
How are individual preferences converted into social preferences?
Casuistry/Aristotelian ethics
“Primary weight in moral judgment to the special circumstances of a situation involving moral choice” (p. 74)
Roy – Design thinking
Defining the problem
Empathizing and Observing
Thinking of multiple ideas
Prototyping
Testing for sustainability
Design for disability first – creating more inclusivity – creating innovation
Don’t be afraid to fail – this creates better results in the end
DTV – Flint Water Emergency
Main takeaways for me from this story:
Example of an emergency going to a crisis with bad management and then cover ups
The role of non-profits and charities in response when government does not respond
Lack of trust of government still exists even with a change of leadership and criminal charges
Rebuilding trust once it is lost is not impossible but extremely difficult
UNICEF – Impact Evaluation
Provides an overview evaluation – what is the impact of your program or policy?
Developing a research project based in qualitative and quantitative data
Sampling is extremely important
Validity
Reliability
Precision
Integrity
Timeliness
The ethics of evaluation
Presentation of data