1PP

Book Review Michael Shires, Editor

Karen J. Baehler

International Public Policy Analysis by George M. Guess and Thomas Husted, New York: Routledge, 2017, 318 pp., $195, hardback, $64.95, paper.

Although the market for how-to-do-policy-analysis textbooks looks crowded at first glance, there is room for fresh perspectives such as that offered by George M. Guess and Thomas Husted’s International Public Policy Analysis. In addition to incorporating budget analysis and financial management methods into the standard methodology toolbox, Guess and Husted offer a distinctive interpretation of policy analysis as being fundamentally about smart policy transfer, with a particular focus on the knowledge and skills needed to draw appropriate lessons from international experience and apply them effectively to new contexts. The book fuses familiar components (a strong public choice focus on incentives and economic methods) with less familiar insights from the worlds of comparative policy analysis and public finance to produce a new approach that is innovative without being revolutionary.

THE GENRE: A BRIEF OVERVIEW

Guess and Husted’s contribution is best understood against the backdrop of existing offerings. Among the many excellent policy analysis textbooks currently available, two main types can be identified, each with its own ideals of practice. One type depicts policy analysis as a problem-solving exercise that proceeds according to a rough set of heuristics or iterative steps (Bardach & Patashnik, 2016; Dunn, 2008; MacRae & Whittington, 1997; Patton, Sawicki, & Clark, 2012). The other type depicts policy analysis as a subset of economic analysis that uses market and government failure principles to identify problems and design solutions (Gupta, 2010; Weimer & Vining, 2011; Wheelan, 2010). The two approaches are not mutually exclusive, and all books contain at least bits of both. Mintrom (2011) offers the most complete hybrid of the two.

At the heart of many of these texts is a framework that operations researchers call multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), otherwise known as the “outcomes matrix,” thanks to Eugene Bardach. Outlining the shell of the outcomes matrix (i.e., selecting the criteria for analysis and devising the options) is more art than science, but the steps associated with completing the matrix—making projections and weighing options—naturally lend themselves to techniques of social science research, including descriptive statistics, regression modeling, probability-based de- cision trees, cost-benefit analysis, and experimental and non-experimental methods of program evaluation. Most current texts include extensive coverage of various

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 36, No. 2, 484–488 (2017) C© 2017 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pam DOI:10.1002/pam.21977

Book Review / 485

subsets of these methods, either in their own chapters or as parts of chapters on particular steps within the problem-solving process.1 Wheelan and Gupta offer the most comprehensive introductions to the standard methods.

Taken together, these elements—the steps, the outcomes matrix, the market and government failure principles, the generic policy tools keyed to the failure categories, and the economic and statistical research methods—cover much of what is found in MPP curricula and constitute the canon of academic policy analysis in the United States. It is therefore not surprising that even the newer policy analysis texts have tended to mix and match these components.

In practice, however, policy analysis rarely begins with market or government failure analysis, and as Bardach sharply observes, most analysts never attempt to project outcomes. The Congressional Budget Office has shown a fondness for the outcomes matrix, and it is seen here and there in other policy analysis prod- ucts, but completing a full, evidence-based matrix requires a level of comprehen- siveness that most “clients” do not want. Policy analysis as practiced in many government, non-profit, and private settings in the United States more closely resembles piecework than systematic problem-solving, and often involves back- of-the-envelope calculations (BOTEC) that would not meet most statisticians’ or economists’ standards of rigor. That being said, a few of the canonical research methods are entrenched in pockets of practice. For example, cost-benefit analysis is widely used in vetting regulations and approving project proposals while program evaluation has become its own industry, but neither exerts large-scale influence on policymaking.

Policy analysis textbooks typically offer various patches to address these gaps between theory and practice. Examples include Dunn’s excellent section on policy analysis as argumentation and Mintrom’s innovative chapters on managing pol- icy analysis projects and communicating results. Insightful applications of institu- tional analysis, including collective-action dilemmas, appear in Mintrom, Weimer and Vining, and Wheelan. All texts seem to offer either vignettes or cases that dis- play featured techniques in action. MacRae and Whittington’s chapter-by-chapter modules on HIV/AIDS policy tie the book’s methods together in an unusually co- herent way and add up to a sophisticated example of integrated policy analysis in action. Weimer and Vining’s Canadian salmon case functions similarly. Wheelan’s excellent mini-cases appear under the label “Policy in the Real World” in every chapter. Gupta’s appear in shaded boxes, each titled “A Case in Point.” Mintrom, Patton et al., and Weimer and Vining also include chapters on implementation, and Bardach and Patashnik offer advice about working with clients and building political support. Overlays such as these help readers see how the books’ techni- cal material might be relevant to the messy bureaucratic and partisan politics of policymaking.

What the available books do not do is shift the policy-analysis paradigm. Although reasonable people will disagree about whether and how far the paradigm needs to shift, it seems clear that any significant adjustments will require more than patches and overlays. As a field, policy analysis tends to respond to the challenge of increasing “real-world” impact by calling for better marketing of its current product line and better translation services to help citizens, advocates, and policymakers use the results of regression models, cost-benefit analyses, and RCTs. The working

1 Eugene Bardach alone has resisted the temptation to include tutorials on micro-economics and statis- tics. That restraint has allowed his long-running, classic text to (1) focus more effectively on the functions that technical methods are meant to perform within the larger purposes of policy craft, and (2) emphasize the importance of simpler, heuristic methods (such as break-even analysis) when data are unavailable and time and attention are limited.

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management DOI: 10.1002/pam Published on behalf of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

486 / Book Review

theory assumes high levels of latent demand among practitioners for the types of research currently being produced.2 But that assumption deserves more systematic testing, and if it turns out to be exaggerated, then genuine alternatives to today’s academic policy-analysis orthodoxy may be needed.

One such alternative—Erik Devereux’s (2016) Methods of Policy Analysis: Creat- ing, Deploying, and Assessing Theories of Change—is currently in beta-testing and available for review online. The Devereux book, if widely adopted, has the potential to shift the paradigm of policy analysis solidly in the direction of heuristic, BOTEC- oriented methods that the average MPP student can fully master and learn to apply within the confines of a one- or two-year degree. I was especially delighted to see this book spotlighting the appropriate use of logic models.3 In addition to expand- ing the policy analysis toolkit in meaningful ways, Devereux’s highly readable and user-friendly e-textbook complements more conventional methods, many of which can be used to inform, supplement, and test the results obtained from BOTECs. The book provides multiple examples of how more and less formal methods can work together to produce results that are highly relevant and sufficiently (but not perfectly) precise.

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON THE GENRE

Guess and Husted’s International Public Policy Analysis offers a different alternative to the status quo. Rather than structuring their presentation around either tech- niques and methods (Mintrom calls them “analytical strategies”) or steps along a problem-solving path, as all other books do, Guess and Husted take a sectoral and functional approach to the field. The first and last chapters of the book elaborate on the authors’ distinctive definition of policy analysis as an exercise in comparative lesson-drawing and evidence-based policy transfer informed by mature understand- ing of cultural and institutional (especially legal and financial) settings. The middle chapters demonstrate that approach in the context of six functional policy sec- tors that collectively represent the majority of all government spending around the world: macroeconomic and fiscal policy, urban infrastructure, health care, the fi- nancial sector, education, and energy and the environment. Those chapters provide insights into the wide variation in policy approaches taken in different cities and at the national and sub-national levels, including interesting points of convergence and divergence within and among groups of countries characterized by civil law ver- sus common law traditions, varying cultural traits, and different levels of economic and social development. Examples of clear lessons related to quantitative easing (macroeconomic policy), fiscal austerity (fiscal policy), conditional cash transfers (social assistance policy), and rapid bus transit (urban infrastructure policy), among others, should convince students of the value of international comparisons for in- forming policy choice and design, especially at the level of operational programs. At the same time, the authors acknowledge the many gaps in comparative under- standing of policy impacts and call for more comparative evaluation to fill those gaps.

The beauty of the sectoral, functional approach is that it shows students what an inter-disciplinary approach to policy analysis looks like in practice. Each sector- specific chapter highlights a different cluster of analytical methods (including some fairly ordinary, but influential in-house methods, such as a bank’s balance sheet),

2 APPAM’s two most recent Fall conference themes embody this perspective: “The Golden Age of Evidence-Based Policy” (2015) and “The Role of Research in Making Government More Effective” (2016). 3 Scott and Baehler (2010) similarly place logic models (linked to system maps) at the center of good practice in policy analysis, but their book targets a New Zealand and Australian audience.

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management DOI: 10.1002/pam Published on behalf of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

Book Review / 487

and demonstrates how those methods help to answer the distinctive types of policy questions generated within that functional policy area. For example, Chapter Two introduces readers to the various types of budget formats encountered in a standard MPP course in public budgeting and expenditures. Students and other readers will benefit from Chapter Two’s discussion of how these and other budgeting tools can help answer both big-picture questions (e.g., does the functional composition of a jurisdiction’s expenditures suit its strategic priorities?) and smaller-bore questions (e.g., where best to make program cuts?).

Similarly, Chapter Three provides detailed instruction in capital improvement planning (CIP) processes for urban transport infrastructure while also highlighting the importance of public participation in transit planning. Chapter Six explains and demonstrates measures of horizontal and vertical equity in the context of education inputs. None of these methods are commonly found in other policy-analysis texts. By including them, Guess and Husted have expanded the field’s menu of methods in useful directions while also giving students a clearer picture of where specific meth- ods fit within a policy sector’s knowledge base. Methods often play different roles in different sectors, and also at different levels of policymaking (e.g., operational vs. strategic), but most textbooks say little about issues of sector and scale.

Throughout the sectoral chapters, the authors highlight the value of linking a public-choice lens with the tools of financial analysis to understand the complex webs of incentives that determine outcomes. Most unusually, the book does this with a keen awareness that public-choice theory’s universal assumptions about human behavior compete with subtler understandings of how local culture and social norms shape human responses to policy design and operation. A central insight here is that more opportunities for effective international transfer exist at the level of program operations and implementation details (where institutional differences play smaller roles) than they do at the level of strategic policy system reforms.

Chapter Four exemplifies the importance of multi-scalar, context-savvy analysis. It sets the discussion of health care policy in a broader context of poverty alleviation and principles of design for financing and delivering social assistance programs generally. Within that setting, it also canvasses various regimes for health care financing and provision around the world and discusses their relative effectiveness in addressing diverse manifestations of health care market failures. Chapter Six examines the strengths and weaknesses of various countries’ approaches to fiscal decentralization for education, including the relative effectiveness of different vari- ants of intergovernmental grants-in-aid in different cross-scale settings.

International Public Policy Analysis also gives the canonical methods their due. Market failures figure prominently throughout the book, and especially in Chapter Seven’s discussion of externalities associated with energy use. Cost-benefit analysis makes a cameo appearance in Chapter Three and plays a major role in Chapter Seven; the authors provide a survey of its methods in the latter. The outcomes matrix features in Chapter Three. Evaluation techniques are discussed throughout the book. The sustained contextualization of methods found in these chapters goes beyond the practice-oriented vignettes featured in most books.

Thinking ahead to the second edition of International Public Policy Analysis, this reviewer would like to see a crisper presentation of the book’s central framework. In place of the current, somewhat unwieldy combination of input-output modeling, political economy variables, and comparative analytical techniques (Figure 1.4), perhaps a simpler formulation is possible. Someone who read only the sectoral chapters (two through seven) might conclude that the book’s framework boils down to a culturally and institutionally aware version of public-choice theory (incentives, incentives, incentives) applied to the challenges of international policy transfer, and especially the challenges of financing policy reforms. That abbreviated description

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management DOI: 10.1002/pam Published on behalf of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

488 / Book Review

captures much of what is original about Guess and Husted’s approach to policy analysis and what sets the book apart from others in the genre.

If the authors prefer not to reformulate their framework, then the middle chap- ters could be reorganized to signal the framework’s application to each policy sector more clearly. As currently written, all chapters have an introduction, a conclusion, and a section at the end (often relatively brief) describing how the book’s overall framework applies. Apart from those shared elements, each chapter follows its own idiosyncratic sequencing, similar to that seen in some loosely connected edited vol- umes. Even the numbering of sections is not consistent across chapters—some use roman numerals and others do not. The usefulness of the book as a text would improve considerably with the addition of a common set of chapter headings based on the analytical framework. Applying those headings uniformly to all of the sector- based chapters would help readers better understand which of the concepts, themes, and methods in a given chapter fit the technical analysis component of the frame- work versus the political economy component versus the comparative methods component.

The book also needs a final round of editing to catch typos and grammatical errors and to smooth the writing in places. In its current form, the book is a tough read. Breaking up paragraphs and inserting more sub-headings would help.

International Public Policy Analysis deserves a wide audience among English- speaking students in graduate programs around the world. The book will be a par- ticularly welcome addition to U.S. classrooms, where, in this reviewer’s experience, appreciation for the value of international lesson-drawing is often less developed than it could be. Guess and Husted have brought social science and policy craft together effectively in this valuable addition to the existing textbook offerings, and the reorganized second edition is sure to be even better.

KAREN J. BAEHLER is a Scholar in Residence with the School of Public Af- fairs, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016 (e-mail: [email protected]).

REFERENCES

Bardach, E., & Patashnik, E. M. (2016). A practical guide for policy analysis: The eight-fold path to more effective problem solving (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press.

Devereux, E. A. (2016). Methods of policy analysis: Creating, deploying, and assessing theories of change. Washington, DC: Devereux Analytical Consulting.

Dunn, W. N. (2008). Public policy analysis (5th ed.). New York: Routledge.

Gupta, D. K. (2010). Analyzing public policy: Concepts, tools, and techniques (2nd ed.). Thou- sand Oaks, CA: CQ Press.

MacRae Jr., D., & Whittington, D. (1997). Expert advice for policy choice: Analysis and dis- course. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Mintrom, M. (2011). Contemporary policy analysis. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Patton, C., Sawicki, D., & Clark, J. (2012). Basic methods of policy analysis and planning (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.

Scott, C., & Baehler, K. (2010). Adding value to policy analysis and advice. Sydney: UNSW Press.

Weimer, D. L., & Vining, A. R. (2011). Policy analysis: Concepts and practice (5th ed.). New York: Routledge.

Wheelan, C. (2010). Introduction to public policy. New York: WW Norton and Co.

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management DOI: 10.1002/pam Published on behalf of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

Copyright of Journal of Policy Analysis & Management is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.