• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
• 
• 

5. Public Problems and Policy Alternatives

Study

Policy analysis takes place within a political context that can lead to a proliferation of competing diagnoses and recommendations, often to misleading and inaccurate portrayals of the issues. The skillful analyst learns how to deal with such situations, in part through a healthy dose of skepticism, but without a loss of idealism or the willingness to think creatively about how best to design public policy. While policy analysis is no panacea for foolish or costly decisions, it can provide useful information to the public and policymakers. Chapter 5 offers an overview of how to analyze public problems to gain an understanding of their causes and measure their magnitude and effects on society. It shows how policymakers construct public policy alternatives that may help resolve the problems. Emphasis is placed on the need to develop operational, or quantitative, measures for problems; how to think clearly about the causes of problems and how to set goals for their resolution; and how to find pertinent information through use of library-based and online sources. The chapter also surveys the various ways that governments can address public problems (from regulation to public education and research), the use of public policy typologies, and the policy design perspective. The text later focuses on how to think creatively about policy action through such methods as literature reviews, surveys, interviews with policy activists and policymakers, consideration of analogies or parallel situations, and brainstorming.