Lecture 9 Flashcards
A policy can be defined as ____
a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions selected by a government or an institution to achieve rational goals
How are the decisions of policies made? (3)
Based on certain basic principles or ideologies
To achieve stated or intended goals
Through the stated actions to achieve these goals
Who does policy analysis? (5)
Governments Opposite parties Independent organizations Independent researcher Independent citizens as stakeholders
Within public administration, policy analysis examines: (5)
Identification of the purpose of the policy
What is promised (goals that reflect values)
What is done
What are the consequences
How the powerholders deal with the negative consequences
What are the major models of policy-making / policy analysis? Briefly describe them (7)
Comprehensive approach
Uses social indicators to compare countries and examine their policy effects
Rational model
This model tries to understand all the alternatives, take into account all their consequences, and select the best.
Incremental approaches
new policies are only slightly different from old policies.
Mixed scanning model
-Bridge the gap between the rational and incremental models.
Values competition model (rein)
-That social and public policies are a choice between competing values
Social justice model (gil)
Recognizes that social policies benefits some and not others.
Focuses on transforming the values/structures/dynamics of a society’s particular way of life
The garbage can model
the chaotic reality of organizational decision making in an organized anarchy
Takes a crisis to happen for any real change to come about
Describe as “irrational behaviour.”
Example is government reacting to covid
The following statement is true of which policy-making model? : Countries are compared to each other based on poverty, the social equality of women, quality and availability of education, spending on health care as a percentage of GNP, criminal rates and correctional services and child welfare.
A: comprehensive approach
Which social policy model uses analyses of social indicators to provide a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of various national social policies?
Comprehensive approach
Why is the comprehensive approach called the comprehensive approach?
Because it begins with global objectives based on social values and then translates these values into comprehensive public policies, social institutions, social programs and social services
What are the drawbacks of the comprehensive approach? (2)
Different countries have different social contexts (different combination of demographic, historical, social, economic and political contexts and conditions.
Applying this approach does not guarantee the same outcomes for a different country (Switzerland compared to more diverse country)
What idea is the rational model based on?
Bounded rationality
What does bounded rationality assume?
When people make decisions, their rationality is limited by the available information, the tractability of the decision program, the cognitive limitations of their minds and the time available to make the decision.
What is the sequence of tasks for the rational model? (5)
Identify and clarify a social problem
Identify and rank goals with respect to the problem
Develop strategies that can remedy the problems or accomplish goals
Carefully examine all possible outcomes
Decide on which policy best achieves governmental / organizational goals
What are the limitations of the rational / comprehensive models?
In practice, the conditions needed to function are unlikely to be met
In order to function well, decision making with rational-comprehensive approach must satisfy two conditions to permit accurate predictions of the consequences associated with the available alternatives:
Agreement on objectives and
Sufficient knowledge base
Why does the rational model fail, as suggested by Lindblom (creator of the incremental approach)?
Because it is unreasonable to assume one can account for everything, which men simply do not possess, and therefore incomplete at the design level
What is the incremental model ?
Views policy making as “muddling through” by making incremental adjustments to already existing policies
Builds on policy from the current landscape, branching out step-by-step and by small degrees
Lindblom refers to the rational comprehensive approach as the _____ and the incremental approach as the _______
“root method” and “branch method.”
In the last 60s years, decision making and policy analysis have moved from ______ to ________.
“rational comprehension approach” “incrementalistic approach”.
Contemporary political theories recognize more of a:
Pluralist political framework
Benefits of the incremental approach? (3)
Most likely to be understood and accepted
Steps can be made quickly because they are only incremental
By proceeding through a succession of incremental changes, serious lasting mistakes can be avoided.
Weakness of incremental approach? (5)
Limitations of analysis to a few somewhat familiar policy alternatives
It is a sequence of trails, errors and revised trials
It explores only some, not all, of the important possible sequence of a considered alternative
Fragmentation of analytical work to many partisan participants in policy making, each attending to their piece of the overall problem domain.
Preoccupied with resolving local or immediate issues stemming from social policy and do not pay attention to the causes of the problem in the first place
What does the Mixed-scanning policy model try to do?
Bridge the gap between the rational and incremental models.
Mixed scanning model suggests that:
Substantive political and social issues need to be addressed by rational decision making: after that, adjustments need to be made to the policy to reflect unforeseen social realities and unintended consequences.
What are the limitations of the mixed scanning model?
Assumed that once a problem is identified, something will be done about it
Ignores power and how it’s distributed
Does not assign social workers responsibility to bring about change
Does not address the fact that social workers work in agencies that are given their mandates by those holding political power
