Policy Analysis Redux

Policy alternatives:

• Where do they come from?

• Which should you include?

• How much detail?

• Must they be mutually exclusive?

Where do they come from?• Status Quo or improved version

• Alternatives already on the “on the table”

• “Smart practices” from other places (use Mintrom’s comparative institutional analysis)

• Tinkered policies by moving your client’s levers or “instruments” (Peter May)

• Off-the-shelf Generic tools (e.g., Bardach, Mintrom, Weimer and Vining generic policies)

• Creative new ideas Creative new ideas

Which options should you include?

• Only those that are feasible for your client!

• The Status Quo (yes, it is feasible!)

• A wide variety that use different instruments

• Any that have significant political support

• Only the BEST of each genre

• No “straw” options or any your client can’t implement

• Some that haven’t a chance, but will “soften up” opinions for later adoption.

How much detail?

• Enough to distinguish between options

• Enough to address concerns, but the least needed to provide the vision

• How much detail do you need to understand the impacts? [What are key elements?]

• How much time do you have to do analysis?

Do they need to be mutually exclusive?

• Yes. You must evaluate the package, not add the expected outcomes of two separate options together.

• If any synergies are possible between actions, then yes.

• Do you need a sequential nested decision process to clarify choices?

Why start with generic tools?

• Generic tools are logical solutions to generic problems (market failures, government failures, institutional challenges

• Generic tools have well known strengths and weaknesses that we can anticipate and work to off-set

• Generic tools have track records that we can use to predict costs and impacts

• Generic tools are the foundation for “tinkering” and “adapting”

Comparative Institutional analysis provides an interesting method for unpacking a package (Mintrom) :

• Define your policy problem

• Identify the places (“cases”) dealing with problem

• Unpack these by identifying the elements: combinations of policy tools, laws, institutional infrastructure, and practices across your “cases” (comparison locations)

• Evaluate the relationship of elements to outcomes

• Consider evaluating NEW alternatives by repackaging elements that seem to be most effective.

Bardach: Things governments do • Taxes• Regulation• Subsidies and Grants• Service Provision• Information• Structure Private Rights• Affect Economic Activity • Provide Education and Consultation• Financing and Contracting• Bureaucratic and Political Reforms

Behn: Things managers do: http://www.businessofgovernment.org/report/performance-leadership-11-better-practices-can-ratchet-performance

Osbourne: Reinventing Your Government

• The Core Strategy. Creating clarity of purpose.

• The Consequences Strategy. Creating consequences for performance.

• The Customer Strategy. Making organizations accountable to their customers.

• The Control Strategy. Pushing control down from the top and out from the center.

• The Culture Strategy. Changing employees' habits, hearts and minds.

http://www.govexec.com/archdoc/rrg96/0996rrg7.htm

Nonprofit tools:• Advocacy

• Direct service

• Grant-making

• Education/training

• Collaboration/convening

• Information provision

• Public marketing/social media use

Weimer and Vining (p. 260):

Weimer and Vining (p. 211):

Weimer and Vining (p. 220):

Weimer and Vining (p. 235)

Weimer and Vining (p. 248)

Weimer and Vining (p. 254)

Policy alternatives:

The analyst’s job is to hunt down or invent the best possible strategies to deal with the problem and predict their impacts.