the nature of and need for policy studies

Public PolicyPHILIPPINE Making ProcessMasters in Public Governance. West Visayas State University

Public PolicyPHILIPPINE Making Process

The Nature of and Need for Policy StudiesPublic Policy and the Role of GovernmentThe Congressional Committee and

Philippine Policymaking: The Case of the Anti-Rape Law

Public PolicyPHILIPPINE Making Process

The Nature of and Need for Policy Studies

Mark Joenel F. Castillo


Essay by Romeo B. Ocampo

Objective:• To identify the basic elements of public policy studies;• To state why we should undertake a program of policy studies.



US Experiences, Ideas, and Issues Philippine Needs for Policy Studies



“US Experiences, Ideas, and Issues”

Policy StudiesTeaching, research, and related academic and professional activities directed at gaining and applying knowledge for the improvement of governmental policies.

The policy studies movement began some 25 years ago in the United States.

Academic and professional disciplines have individually or jointly participated in the movement, but none have done so more than Public Administration.

Policy Analysis has also grown as a professional and institutional activity at American government.

Common elements run through the academic programs at the graduate level.

Graduate Curricula consists…

Quantitative methodology including mathematical programming and modelling and descriptive and inferential statistics;

The political and institutional environment of policy formation and implementation;

Economic theory and analysis with emphasis on public-private sector relationships in the allocation of resources;

Behavioral and nonbehavioral decision making and implementation strategies and processes;

Program management, control and evaluation.

There are differences in emphasis of policy studies.

Policy Analysis activities have formed “clusters of functional interest”.

Public policy studies in the US have also developed problems of identity and uncertainty.

Research-Oriented

Positions Top Political and

Administrative Positions

Staff Positions

• The issues of the status of policy studies as a science;

• Their scope and focus as an academic discipline and practical field;

• Their levels and areas of inquiry;

• Basic outlooks, roles and attitudes that they assume or require with respect to practice.

The scientific status of policy studies has NOT been firmly established.

Amidst “pre-viewing”, others have picked up the banner.

Dror AmirProposed the development of policy sciences as “a new interdisciplinary field” aimed at accelerating the discovery and use of policy knowledge.

Brian Fay

The relation between social theory and political practice characterizes policy science as the political theory.

Thomas R. Dye

Defines policy analysis as “the description and explanation of the causes and consequences of government activity”.

Brian Fay

Identifies TWO meanings of Policy Science that seem to be more appropriate for Policy Analysis.

POLICY SCIENCE…

… that process of analysis by which the various consequences of particular courses of action are spelled out in terms of their monetary costs and benefits so that a decision maker may be well informed as to the possible outcomes of his alternatives.

… set of procedures which enables one to determine the technically best course of action to adopt in order to implement a decision or achieve a goal.

POLICY ANALYSIS…

… the systematic investigation of alternative policy options and the assembly and integration of the evidence for and against each option. It involves a problem-solving approach, the collection and interpretation of information, and some attempt to predict the consequences of alternative courses of action. The fundamental purpose of policy analysis is ‘to facilitate the reaching of sound policy decisions…’

VACILLATION

POLICY ANALYSIS IN PRACTICE…

…tends to be social science opportunistically applied to the issues of the day and to resemble the process of American policymaking in its preoccupation with “tireless tinkering” with data and programs.

policypolicy

policypolicy

policypolicy policy

policy

James E. Anderson

Public policy is the relationship of government to its environment.

POLICY is a rule for action, manifesting or clarifying specific organization goals, objectives, values, or ideals and often prescribing the obligatory or most desirable ways and means for their accomplishment.

- Nikolaidis, 1963

PROBLEMS of the New Discipline

PROBLEMS of the New Discipline

• More than loose conception;• The veritable source of confusion is the failure to define key terms;• The limited influence in practical affairs for other reasons;• The “analycentric bias”;• Bewilderment of policymakers

and overloading their capacity to absorb social knowledge;

PHILIPPINE Needs forPolicy Studies

PUBLIC POLICY

Policy Science

The Philippines has shared the interest and need for policy studies more actively manifested elsewhere.

TECHNOCRATS

RECOMMENDATIONSof the Author


Those concerned with the government would have to take policy as a distinct and central problem as an element essential to conduct

and impact of government.


There is a need to pay sufficient attention to the level and scope, as well as to the form and

substance of policy.


Policy objectives need to be explicitly stated, examined, and tested for generality and

internal and external consistency.


There is a need to predict and to evaluate the outputs and outcomes of policy, together with their important unintended and unanticipated (desirable and undesirable) consequences, as

against policy objectives and relevant conditions.

the nature of and need for policy studies

Education