The Art of Judgment: A Study of Policy Making

301 Pages·1995·16.21 MB·English

by  Geoffrey Vickers

THE ART OF
JUDGMENT
fl fl fl
Advances
m i l l in Public
III II Administration
Sponsored by
the Public Administration Theory Network
and Lewis and Clark College
Advances in Public Administration is a series of books designed both to
encourage and to contribute to the vital processes of rethinking public
administration and reconceptualizing various aspects of the field in an
insightful manner that goes well beyond traditional approaches.
Coordinating Editor
Henry D. Kass, Lewis and Clark College
Associate Editors
Guy B. Adams, University of Missouri, Columbia
Camilla Stivers, Evergreen State College
Editorial Board
Mary Bailey, University of Cincinnati
Bayard L. Catron, George Washington University
Terry L. Cooper, University of Southern California
Barry R. Hammond, Slippery Rock University
Royce Hanson, University of Texas, Dallas
David Kirkwood Hart, Brigham Young University
April Hejka-Ekins, California State University, Stanislaus
Ralph P. Hummel, University of Oklahoma
Jong S. Jun, California State University, Hayward
Lawrence Kirkhart, Kirkhart and Kirkhart Associates
Nicholas Lovrich, Washington State University
Frank Marini, University of Akron
Douglas F. Morgan, Lewis and Clark College
Richard Stillman, III, University of Colorado, Denver
Larry D. Terry, Cleveland State University
Curtis Ventriss, University of Vermont
Gary L. Wamsley, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Dvora Yanow, California State University, Hayward
SIR GEOFFREY VICKERS
Centenary Edition
THE ART OF
JUDGMENT
A Study of
Pol icy Making
iÎP m Advances in Public Administration
Sponsored by the Public Administration Theory Network
and supported by Lewis and Clark College
/g\ SAGE Publications
(VI
International Educational and Professional Publisher
Thousand Oaks London New Delhi
Copyright © 1995 by Sage Publications, Inc.
First Published 1965 by Chapman & Hall
This edition published 1995
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized
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Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vickers, Geoffrey, Sir, 1894-1982
The art of judgment: A study of policy making / Sir Geoffrey
Vickers.—Centenary ed.
p. cm.—(Advances in public administration)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8039-7362-4 (cloth: alk. paper).—ISBN 0-8039-7363-2 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Decision-making. 2. Public administration. 3. Executives.
I. Title. II. Series.
HD 38.2.V53 1995
350.007'25—dc20 95-17018
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
95 96 97 98 99 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Sage Production Editor: Diana Axelsen
Sage Typesetter: Danielle Dillahunt
Contents
Series Editor’s Introduction ix
Henry D. Kass
Foreword to the Centenary Edition
of The Art of Judgment xiii
Guy B. Adams, Bayard L Catron,
and Scott D. N. Cook
Exercise in the Creation of Form:
The Life of Sir Geoffrey Vickers 1
Margaret Blunden
Foreword to the 1983 Edition 21
Kenneth E. Boulding
Poem 23
Preface to the Original Edition 25
Introduction to the Original Edition 27
PART I: POLICY MAKING AS A MENTAL SKILL
1. The Regulation of Institutions 39
2. Appreciation 50
3. Three Case Studies in Appreciation 64
4. The Appreciative System 82
5. Prediction 91
6. Innovation 103
7. Valuation 115
8. The Limits of the Regulable 125
PART II: POLICY MAKING AS
AN INSTITUTIONAL PROCESS
9. Institutions as Dynamic Systems 135
10. Political Choice and Market Choice 143
11. Growth 157
12. Accountability 168
13. Internal Criteria of Success 180
PART III: POLICY MAKING IN
THE CONTEXT OF THE DECISION SITUATION
14. The Decision Situation 197
15. Decision as Learning 206
17. The Budgetary Decision 220
18. Allocative and Integrative Decisions 233
19. The Decision Under Protest 243
PART IV: POLICY MAKING WITHIN THE
HUMAN-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM
20. The Human-Ecological System 253
References 263
Books and Articles by Sir Geoffrey Vickers 267
Index 271
About the Editors 283
Series Editor’s Introduction
THE RATIONALE for this series lies in the ongoing need to
reexamine and enrich thinking in the field of public admin­
istration. It can be argued that few fields need efforts of this sort
more urgently. Twenty years ago, Vincent Ostrom declared that an
“intellectual crisis” existed in public administration. Significantly,
that crisis has continued unabated into the 1990s. Meanwhile, the
public's faith in the administrative state has declined precipi­
tously, and, in the words of Herbert Kaufman, bureaucrat bashing
has become “pandemic.”
Intellectually, this crisis lies in the discrepancy between the
field's 19th-century roots and the postmodern realities we must
face at the turn of the 20th century. Despite 20 years of intellectual
foment by academics, most practitioners still adhere to a model of
public administration shaped in a world that no longer exists. The
Progressive era that gave birth to modern American public admini­
stration was an age that believed in universal technical/rational
solutions to political, social, and even moral problems. It was a
time in which strong Western nation-states and their empires
were commonly viewed as the anointed agents of progress and
civilization. Most of all, it was a period in which government was
beginning to be seen as part of the answer, rather than part of the
problem.
Virtually none of these views holds in the contemporary world,
yet public administration and its literature have been indelibly
marked by these roots. As a result, it remains grounded in the
classic model of the centralized nation-state at a time when a global
economy is a reality, Western empires disintegrate, and a new
feudalism based upon warring ethnic and racial communities
seems emergent. Its literature still takes a largely technical/rational
view of the world, though the practice of public administration
increasingly requires decidedly nontechnical ethical and political
decisions. Even more troubling, although a thorough réévaluation
of first principles and assumptions is in order, the literature, like
the field itself, too often retreats into bureaucratic defensiveness
or formulaic “solutions” to problems.
It can be argued, then, that public administration badly needs
new literature that reexamines its basic premises. There is little
question that the materials for this reexamination are present.
Certainly they exist in disciplines such as history, philosophy, the
humanities, and the social sciences. They range backward and
forward in time. Some present a vision of existence in a disordered,
fragmented, but exciting postmodern world. Some reach backward
to apply traditional philosophic thought to current issues. Others
suggest radically new ways to view human thought and action.
Still others depict an environmentally centered world in which
people are no longer masters but stewards of the world in which
they live.
Because public administration often is referred to as an inter­
disciplinary study, it seems reasonable to expect it to break out of
its traditional paradigm and use this body of knowledge to advan­
tage. Two factors seem to prevent this, however. First, to the degree
public administration has drawn on other disciplines, it has cho­
sen to rely upon those that fit most easily into its universalistic and
rational tradition. Thus, modern economics, analytic philosophy,