RATIONAL

COMPREHENSIVE MODEL
OF POLICY MAKING

PA 211
2nd Semester 2007-2008
POLICY ANALYSIS

The process of researching or

analyzing public problems to give
policy makers specific information
about the range of available policy
options and the advantages and
disadvantages of various approaches
 Five Major Steps for Rational
Comprehensive Model of Policy Making

Problem Identification
Setting objectives and criteria
Developing policy alternatives
Analyzing and identifying expected
impact of the various alternatives
Ranking alternatives according to
established criteria and choosing the
best policy alternative
PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Why has the problem surfaced?
Who is affected?
How does this problem relate to similar
problems?
What policy options have already been
tried?
What is the range of policies that would be
feasible, both economically and politically?
What resources are available to support
the analysis?
Sample Problem Identification

How can we provide adequate shelter

to barangays who will be relocated by
an entry of a new industry in the
municipality?
How do we reduce the incidence of
malnutrition of children 0-5 years old
by half in 10 years?
Procedure
Sometimes, a policy problem is only
vaguely understood at the outset
Part of the analyst’s job is to develop a
policy issue paper formulating the problem
Gather information at the library, lay out
history of the problem, discover
approaches used in other jurisdictions and
technical developments in the field
 SETTING OBJECTIVES
AND CRITERIA
Problems in selecting criteria:
• Criteria may differ among different
levels of the organization (criteria
used at one level must be consistent
with those at another level)
• Criteria depends on individual
perspective stakeholders have
different criteria which compete for
prominence)
 DEVELOPING POLICY
ALTERNATIVES
The most creative phase of policy analysis
Analyst must move beyond easy solutions
and develop innovative approaches to
public problems
Different alternatives are derived from
different assumptions about the problem,
To develop a complete range of
alternatives, the analyst must assume the
perspectives of many different
stakeholders
To develop far-ranging alternatives, policy
analyst must consider the relationship
between the particular problem and other
similar issues (shelter for homeless is tied
to issue of health care, etc.)
Various interrelated concerns can be
generated if analyst takes into account
views of different stakeholders
Q:Not “how can my org solve this
problem?” but “how can this problem be
solved?”
ANALYZING VARIOUS POLICIES

Having generated a number of realistic

policy alternatives, the analyst must assess
the likely impact each alternative will have
Note: analyst can only make intuitive
judgments based on own experience and
the experience of others.
One can gather specific data and analyze it
by means of quantitative techniques
Occasionally, actual experiments with
several policy options may be
possible with an experimental design
similar to that used in natural
sciences
Policy experimentation may be done
by piloting. Success may tailor
programs to local needs.
RANKING AND CHOICE

Final step in the analytic process

Rank alternatives using established
criteria for evaluation in terms of
impacts
Lay out expected results of each
alternative in terms of various criteria
and could use more sophisticated
quantitative techniques
Example of quantitative techniques

Cost-effectiveness approach
(permits analysts to compare and
advocate policies by quantifying the
total costs and effects (Dunn,1981)
This is useful when the relative merits
of competing proposals are being
debated
Example of quantitative techniques

Cost- benefit Analysis

involves identifying and quantifying both
negative impacts (costs) and positive
impacts (benefits) of a proposal, then
subtracting one from the other to arrive at a
measure of net benefit
Seeks to establish both the monetary costs
and total monetary benefits of a proposal