Correction: Administrative Policy Formulation and the Public Interest

Conservation biologists are obliged to function in a ‘post-truth’ environment in which ‘alternative facts’ are used by those who oppose meaningful action to conserve the natural world. Objections to public advocacy by scientists are usually based on the inter-related assumptions that (1) advocacy calls into question the objectivity of scientific advice and its special place in policy formulation; (2) conservation biologists are no better qualified to advise on conservation topics than anyone else in the community; (3) advocacy leads to conservation science being politicised; and (4) the conflation of advocacy with individual self-promotion. These objections are shown to fall short in the face of two obvious conservation failures: (1) the manifest inability of current approaches to generate globally sustainable fisheries; and (2) the lack of success in convincing the wider public about anthropogenic climate change. Instead of refraining from public advocacy, conservation biologists should acknowledge their primary responsibility in a civil society as informed citizens possessing specialised knowledge and experience that most other citizens lack. They should aim to influence conservation policy and on-ground works through a multitude of channels: (1) traditionally, through peer-reviewed articles in the scientific literature; (2) through formal input into professional advisory panels to inform government; and (3) through public advocacy. The positions adopted with regard to contentious issues by practitioners in other branches of scientific enquiry can provide useful guidance as to how conservation biologists can contribute meaningfully to discourse in the public interest without compromising their professional standing.

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Public Policy as a Practice

10.1093/oso/9780199480654.003.0017 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

R. Sudarshan

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Public Interest ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Alasdair Macintyre ◽

The Public ◽

Internal Goods ◽

Opening Up

This chapter attempts to relate the pedagogy of public policy to the concept of practice articulated by Alasdair MacIntyre. It first discusses the challenges of establishing public policy as a discipline in India where it has been long assumed that only those employed in government need to acquire skills and knowledge essential for policy formulation, and also, by definition, all policies made by government must be in the public interest. This assumption is being challenged in recent times opening up the possibility of fashioning a pedagogy for public policy. In the quest for a philosophy of public policy as a practice an understanding of external and internal goods, the role of virtues, and limitations of economics, a dominant discipline in public policy schools, are examined. Finally, the importance of public policy practitioners and teachers connecting with the public whose interests and concerns provide the raison d'être for the discipline is underlined.

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