Does Policy Analysis Matter?

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Key Indicator ◽  
Professional Class ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
Regulatory Bodies

How well can democratic decision making incorporate the knowledge and expertise generated by public policy analysts? This book examines the historical development of policy analysis (a new professional class of advisors that began developing during the 1950s in the United States), as well as its use in legislative and regulatory bodies and in the federal executive branch. The chapters show that policy-analytic expertise effectively improves governmental services only when it complements democratic decision making. When successful, policy analysis fosters valuable new ideas, better use of evidence, and greater transparency in decision processes. The book concludes by assessing the development and impact of the policy-analytic profession and suggests that the growth in the voluntary employment of analysts not only by governments of all types as well as private sector and nonprofit agencies is a key indicator of the profession's effectiveness and value.

Public Policy Making and Public Policy Analysis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee S. Friedman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Public Policy Analysis ◽  
Professional Class ◽  
The Many

This chapter reviews the development and growth of the policy-analytic profession. Historically, government decision makers have often called upon those with expertise to assist them in reaching their decisions. This chapter, however, concerns a new professional class of advisors that began developing during the 1950s in the United States. This new profession assists policy makers in understanding better their alternatives and relevant considerations for choosing among them. From here, the chapter offers some perspective on the research to date that has attempted to assess the effects of the profession—a perspective that emphasizes some important differences across the many types of governmental settings that utilize policy analysis, and the methodological difficulties that assessment efforts confront.

scholarly journals Comparison of the Influence of the Chinese Lobby and the Israeli Lobby in the United States

2015 ◽  
pp. 84-98
Author(s):  
D. B. Grafov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Political System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
National Interests ◽  
China Lobby

The article is about how pro-Israel and pro-China interest groups try to lobby on the ground of Capitol, White House and executive branch. The study of the lobbying results is based on «General theory of action» T. Parsons. It is concluded that for lobbying interests the main point will be the representation of the interests in the political and public spaces and the creating of advocacy and lobbying infrastructure. The ability of the Israeli lobby to achieve the goal can be explained, firstly, by political inclusion in the decision-making process, and, secondly, by almost axiomatic representation Israel interests through the national interests of the United States. The Israeli lobby can be considered as the religious lobby. It can use the possibilities of Jewish religious organizations in grass root action. Also this gives the opportunity to avoid the requirements of the LDA. From the point of view of the theory of Talcott Parsons, the success of the Israeli lobby is the cause of the action of a large number of actors that may form in large groups. Another advantage of the Israeli lobby is the ability of its members to get relevant information about the current situation in different spheres of political life in the U.S. The objective of the present study was to reveal the ways in which China lobby succeeds. The influence of China lobby on decision-making process in the United States can be explained through strong economic ties between American corporations and the Chinese market. When lobbying China uses numerous Chinese Diaspora in many States, as well as trying to interest of the former high-ranking American officials, granting them special privileges for doing business in China. In comparison to the Israeli lobby, the Chinese lobby has weaknesses. Chinese interest groups are not included in the political system of the USA and this is the disadvantage of the Chinese way of lobbying. Unlike Israel lobby Chinese one is external. The interests of the chinese pressure groups do not coincide with American national interests. Their actors are not rooted in the American political system.

scholarly journals Review of perchlorate occurrence in large public drinking water systems in the United States of America

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 681-694
Author(s):  
Steven J. Luis ◽  
Elizabeth A. Miesner ◽  
Clarissa L. Enslin ◽  
Keith Heidecorn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Contaminant Monitoring ◽  
Public Drinking Water ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
Public Drinking

Abstract When deciding whether or not to regulate a chemical, regulatory bodies often evaluate the degree to which the public may be exposed by evaluating the chemical's occurrence in food and drinking water. As part of its decision-making process, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) evaluated the occurrence of perchlorate in public drinking water by sampling public water systems (PWSs) as part of the first implementation of the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 1) between 2001 and 2005. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the current representativeness of the UCMR 1 dataset. To achieve this objective, publicly available sources were searched to obtain updated perchlorate data for the majority of large PWSs with perchlorate detections under UCMR 1. Comparison of the updated and UCMR 1 perchlorate datasets shows that the UCMR 1 dataset is no longer representative because the extent and degree of occurrence has decreased since implementation of UCMR 1. Given this finding, it seems appropriate for regulatory bodies engaged in decision-making processes over several years to periodically re-evaluate the conditions that prompted the regulatory effort, thereby ensuring that rules and regulations address actual conditions of concern.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Hird
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Progressive Era ◽  
Systems Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Objective Functions ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Political Origins

Policy analysis traverses and aims to bridge the space between truth and power. Indeed, policy analysts are trained to be in a position to ‘speak truth to power.’ With its political origins in the United States during the progressive era, the operational origins of policy analysis occurred in the 1950s when both truth and power were more clearly defined and when those in power presumably were interested in truth. Policy analysis emerged from systems analysis, which was applied successfully to clearly delineated problems with unambiguous objective functions....

Review Essay on Charles F. Manski's Public Policy in an Uncertain World: Analysis and Decisions

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 799-804
Author(s):  
John Geweke
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
Economics Profession ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Policy Setting

Public policy setting often involves quantitative choices with quantitative outcomes. Yet unqualified statements about the precise consequences of alternative choices characterize much of the policy analysis bearing on these decisions. Public Policy in an Uncertain World: Analysis and Decisions by Charles F. Manski characterizes and richly illustrates the nature of this unwarranted certitude. It details specific constructive alternatives on which the economics profession has achieved varying degrees of consensus. Those in our profession charged with the education of future policy analysts should consider using it and how to round out its presentation of decision making from their own perspective. (JEL D02, D04, D80, E61)

scholarly journals Who gets a lung transplant? Assessing the psychosocial decision-making process for transplant listing

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber N Lewandowski ◽  
Jared Lyon Skillings
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Moral Distress ◽  
Solid Organ Transplantation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Waiting List ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Solid Organ ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Donor Organs

In the United States, there is a significant shortage of available donor organs. This requires transplant professionals to hold simultaneous, yet divergent roles as (1) advocates for patients who are in need of a lifesaving transplant, and (2) responsible stewards in the allocation of scarce donor organs. In order to balance these roles, most transplant teams utilize a committee based decision-making process to select suitable candidates for the transplant waiting list. These committees use medical and psychosocial criteria to guide their decision to list a patient. Transplant regulatory bodies have established medical standards for identifying appropriate medical candidates for transplantation. However, transplant regulatory bodies have not developed policies to standardize psychosocial criteria for listing patients. This affords transplant centers the autonomy to develop their own psychosocial criteria for determining which patients will be placed on the transplant waiting list. This lack of a standardized policy has resulted in inconsistent psychosocial practices amongst transplant centers nationwide. Since there has been no formal review of the inconsistency in psychosocial policy and practice, this paper seeks to explore the non-standardized psychosocial approach to organ transplant listing. The authors review factors that are relevant to the standardization of the psychosocial decision-making process, including shared decision-making, clinician judgment, bias in decision-making and moral distress in transplant staff. We conclude with a discussion about the impact of these issues on psychosocial practices in solid organ transplantation. 

Institutional Actors in Foreign Policy Analysis

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph G. Carter ◽  
James M. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
The Government ◽  
Institutional Actors

Institutions have long been an important focus of foreign policy analysis. This is due to the fact that foreign policy is made and implemented by individuals acting within structured institutions of the state, and their foreign policy behavior is affected by the nature of those institutional structures and the roles they generate. At the heart of any institutional approach is the intersection of agency and structure. Institutions tend to influence actors more than actors influence them, and their impact is independent of the regime type or the decision making actors. Decision makers both react to and impact the external setting of decision making and the setting internal to the state in which decision making occurs. That internal setting includes social structures and the roles they generate for decision making actors to play. There are three types of decision units: structures featuring a predominant leader, a small group, or a coalition of multiple autonomous groups. The leader most commonly associated with foreign policy making is the head of the government. Other institutional roles include the head of state and military leaders. However, even when a predominant leader exists, most foreign policy decisions are shaped by small groups. There are five types of small groups: leader–staff groups, leader–autonomous groups, leader–delegate groups, autonomous groups, and delegate groups. Decision units marked by multiple autonomous units include other executive and non-executive branch actors as well. These actors include ministries, legislatures, and courts and councils.

The United States and the Iranian Nuclear Programme

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Hurst
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nixon Administration ◽  
Comprehensive Plan ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nuclear Issue ◽  
The Relationship

The United States, Iran and the Bomb provides the first comprehensive analysis of the US-Iranian nuclear relationship from its origins through to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. Starting with the Nixon administration in the 1970s, it analyses the policies of successive US administrations toward the Iranian nuclear programme. Emphasizing the centrality of domestic politics to decision-making on both sides, it offers both an explanation of the evolution of the relationship and a critique of successive US administrations' efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear programme, with neither coercive measures nor inducements effectively applied. The book further argues that factional politics inside Iran played a crucial role in Iranian nuclear decision-making and that American policy tended to reinforce the position of Iranian hardliners and undermine that of those who were prepared to compromise on the nuclear issue. In the final chapter it demonstrates how President Obama's alterations to American strategy, accompanied by shifts in Iranian domestic politics, finally brought about the signing of the JCPOA in 2015.

Why Is Safe Science Good Science?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Kao ◽  
Che-I Kao ◽  
Russell Furr
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Good Science ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Safety Requirements ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Obvious Benefit ◽  
New Ideas

In science, safety can seem unfashionable. Satisfying safety requirements can slow the pace of research, make it cumbersome, or cost significant amounts of money. The logic of rules can seem unclear. Compliance can feel like a negative incentive. So besides the obvious benefit that safety keeps one safe, why do some scientists preach "safe science is good science"? Understanding the principles that underlie this maxim might help to create a strong positive incentive to incorporate safety into the pursuit of groundbreaking science.<div><br></div><div>This essay explains how safety can enhance the quality of an experiment and promote innovation in one's research. Being safe induces a researcher to have <b>greater control</b> over an experiment, which reduces the <b>uncertainty</b> that characterizes the experiment. Less uncertainty increases both <b>safety</b> and the <b>quality</b> of the experiment, the latter including <b>statistical quality</b> (reproducibility, sensitivity, etc.) and <b>countless other properties</b> (yield, purity, cost, etc.). Like prototyping in design thinking and working under the constraint of creative limitation in the arts, <b>considering safety issues</b> is a hands-on activity that involves <b>decision-making</b>. Making decisions leads to new ideas, which spawns <b>innovation</b>.</div>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document