Public Policy Analysis MPA 404 Lecture 2

A brief Summary of what we learned in the previous class Definition of Public Policy Why it is difficult to come up with a concise definition of Public policy? Why study public policy? Discussion of some of the problems/challenges that Pakistan faces. World of opportunities for public policy analysts Some of the common themes in Public Policy. A brief History of the literature on Public Policy.

 Modern theory and working of the Public Policy is, however, traced to the 20 th century work of Henry Lasswell and the application of cost-benefit analysis from 1930 onwards.  Laswell was employed by the US government during WWII for propaganda purposes (a government policy). After the war, he realizes a disconnect between the world of research and real world policy applications.  In order to bridge the gap, he comes up with the idea of ‘Policy Sciences’. For him, policy sciences had the following characteristics: a) Problem Oriented b) Multi-disciplinary c) Methodologically sophisticated d) Theoretically sophisticated

Policy Evaluation, Policy Analysis and Policy Process Need to distinguish between the three.  Policy Process: How and why of Policymaking  Policy Analysis: Concerned with carrying out a policy and its empirics  Policy Evaluation: ex-post exercise. Tries to gauge the overall outcome, and any observed causal relationship.

Podcast: Why the US Mint forbade the production of presidential coins Listen to the complementing Audio clip.

Models of Public Policy Why is there need for a model? In simple words, we need a model to investigate and explain a particular phenomenon. That is true of every investigative science or art. Its humanity’s attempt to make the lives of its people better by a better understanding of the environment around it through models or modeling. Just like fields like Physics and Mathematics, there is a need for conceptualizing, observing, analyzing and discussing Public Policy. Models represent conceptual framework. Given that decision making in public policy is a complex process and that it affects the lives of millions of people, there is a need to understand the how’s, why’s, do’s and dont’s of public policy. Thus, it becomes important to conceptualize a public policy problem in order to arrive at better conclusions for the future.

For example, we know that the situation in Pakistan regarding education is pretty bad, and that there is a dire need to understand and improve it in terms of a good public policy. So let us first conceptualize the problem in order to understand its working? Start with what’s the problem, the present public policy, who are the participants in this sector (government, private sector, teachers, students, etc), who influences what, standards and procedures, etc. Once all these various variables are factored in, a researcher can come up with what he/she thinks is the way that the system works, is problems, outcomes and possibilities. These are all figured in to a conceptual framework, which is called a ‘model’. Now that we’ve gone through the basics of modeling, let us now turn to the question of importance of a model relating to public policy. Or why do we need a model for public policy.

It helps us to understand more clearly what a particular public policy is aimed at? What were its outcomes, how it was implemented, what were the reasons behind designing and implementing a particular public policy (was it really to help public or was there some personal gain to be had), has it contributed negatively or positively to the overall welfare of the country and its people, etc. It may very well be that a particular public policy was really well designed (like the Hydel Power production policy of yesteryears), but the problems arose due to implementation (administrative, financial, otherwise). The analysis of public policy helps to bifurcate the problem, and come to a conclusion as to why a specific policy could not be implemented? It helps us to separate the supply and demand side of the policies. Its easy to ignore one, put an emphasis on the other one and come out with the wrong conclusions. This will be seen later on in the paper on the power sector in Pakistan, whereby we’ll learn that there has been too much emphasis upon supply side (government) with little or no analysis of the demand side (consumer) problems.

Through analysis of a particular policy, one can come up with ‘fault lines’ even before the policy is being implemented. This is really important when one considers that a lot of resources go into implementing a policy, especially on mega scale. In this way, what public policy analysts could do is that they can help identify ‘fault lines’. For a country like Pakistan which is almost always starved for resources, it is critical that projects/policies are implemented after careful analysis so that little is wasted in terms of resources. It helps conceive new possibilities for research that one wouldn’t have thought before. For example, during research on Pakistan’s power sector i learned that solar power, the much touted energy source, is not that efficient (in terms of converting sun power to electricity and is very expensive).