The World of the Policy Analyst: Rationality, Values & Politics (3rd edition)

217 Pages·2001·1.04 MB·English

by  Robert A. Heineman

The World of the Policy Analyst

The World of the Policy Analyst
Rationality, Values, and Politics
THIRD EDITION
RobertA. Heineman
Alfred University
William T. Bluhm
UniversityofRochester
Steven A. Peterson
Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg
Edward N. Kearny
Western KentuckyUniversity
Seven Bridges Press, LLC
135 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010-7101
Copyright © 2001 by Chatham House Publishers
of Seven Bridges Press, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Publisher:Ted Bolen
Managing Editor:Katharine Miller
Production Services: Sarah Evans
Cover Design:Stefan Killen Design
Cover Art: PhotoDisc, Inc.
Printing and Binding: Victor Graphics, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The world of the policy analyst : rationality, values, and politics /
Robert A. Heineman ... [et al.].— 3rd ed..
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-889119-35-0 (pbk.)
1. Policy sciences. I. Heineman, Robert A.
H97 .W68 2001
320’.6—dc211
00-012246
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface to the Third Edition vii
Introduction 1
1. The Emergence ofa Field 9
The HistoricalBackground, 9
From Technique to PolicyAnalysis, 13
The Analystin the PolicyProcess, 23
2. Rationalityand Decision Making 30
PolicyAnalysis: A ThumbnailSketch, 30
Ideologyand PolicyAnalysis, 33
How PolicyAnalysisIsUsed, 37
PolicyAnalysis: Techniques, Values, and Effects, 39
The PolicyProcess, 47
PolicyAnalysisand the PolicyProcess, 53
3. The CulturalSetting ofPolicyAnalysis 56
Libertyand Equality: The PoliticsofConscience and the
PoliticsofInterest, 57
Conscience and Interestin EthicalTheory, 58
The PoliticsofConscience Today, 59
The PoliticsofInterest, 62
Equalityand PublicPolicy, 65
Cleavage within the PoliticsofConscience, 69
Conclusion, 71
4. Ethicsand PublicPolicyAnalysis 72
Deontologyand Utilitarianism, 72
Casuistry, 74
Some Cases, 77
vi the world of the policy analyst
5. American Democracyand the Fragmentation
ofConsensus 84
The “New Class” and PostmaterialValues, 85
WhatHave You Done for Me Lately? 90
Realignment, Dealignment, or What? 94
The PartyOrganization: Resurrection or Requiem? 98
The PolicyProcess, 101
6. PolicyAnalysisand the PoliticalArena 105
An IncrementalPolicyProcess, 106
A Fragmented Congress: The More ThingsChange,
the More TheyStaythe Same, 109
The Presidency: The Problem ofFragmentation
in the “Leadership” Branch, 119
The CrisisofFragmented Government: The Lossof
FiscalDiscipline, 125
PolicyAnalysisand PoliticalUncertainty, 130
7. PolicyDevolution and PolicyAnalysis 132
A NationalPolicyFocus, 132
Increasing State Influence, 133
The 1994 Elections, 137
State PolicyInitiatives, 138
Private-Sector PolicyGroups, 139
ThinkTanksand PolicyAnalysis, 141
The PolicyAnalystin the Private Sector, 144
An Expanded PolicyArena: Prospectsand Concerns, 147
8. PolicyAnalysisin the JudicialProcess 149
The JudicialProcess, 149
Approachesto LegalReasoning, 151
SourcesofJudicialActivism, 152
ExamplesofJudicialActivism: Socialand
TechnologicalChange, 156
The LimitsofJudicialPower, 170
Conclusion 175
StructuralReform, 175
Anticipating the PolicyProcess, 177
Moving toward the PublicGood, 178
Notes 181
Index 199
Aboutthe Authors 207
Preface to the Third Edition
IT IS A PRIVILEGE for the authors to be able to offer a third edition of this text,
and we extend our gratitude to the readers who have supported our effort and
shared their thoughts with us. We believe that for the most part political events
since the last edition have substantiated our analysis of the policy process and
the analyst’s role therein. Continuing fragmentation and conflict within the
American system provide abundant evidence that negotiating the twists and
turns of the policy process remains challenging. We hope that this volume will
remain a useful guide for the working analyst and the student of American
politics.
Changes in the current edition have focused on updating the analyses of the
previous edition. Examples that were no longer timely or appropriate have been
deleted and new ones have been provided. Additionally, the discussions of such
topics as ethical issues raised by technological change, electoral trends, the bud-
getary process, and environmental policy have been made current.
We wish to thank our trusty secretary Karen Mix and able editor Sarah
Evans for their assistance. Last but by no means least, we must record our heart-
felt appreciation to the late Ed Artinian, who started us on this journey into the
policy process and who, as a trusted adviser, editor, and friend, accompanied us
much of the way.

Introduction
INRECENTYEARS, policy analysis, as both an academic pursuit and a vocation,
has grown in number of practitioners and in reputation. Major universities have
instituted curricula centered on policy analysis, and a large amount of literature
applying analytical techniques to social problems has been published. At all lev-
els of government and at every stage of the policy process, analytical studies of
problems and evaluations of programs have become commonplace. Yet despite
the development of sophisticated methods of inquiry, policy analysis has not had
a major substantive impact on policymakers. Policy analysts have remained dis-
tant from the power centers where policy decisions are made.
Concern about the limited influence of rational analysis in the policy
process has raised fundamental questions about the orientation and role of pol-
icy analysis. It now seems clear that to be politically influential, policy analysis
must be practiced as an integral part of its broader cultural context. It is not, and
cannot be, a separate “scientific” endeavor inherently entitled to the deference of
politicians and citizens. Its practitioners must understand that they are both in
and of a particular kind of political world and that to maximize their policy
effectiveness they must acknowledge the characteristics of that world—that its
decentralized, poorly coordinated political institutions enshrine and implement
the values of a paradoxical political culture. This book is about these institu-
tional and cultural contexts of policy analysis. We have tried to provide students
of the policymaking process and future decision makers (policy analysts, admin-
istrators, legislators, judges) with a perspective for grasping the manifold dimen-
sions of the world in which policy analysis takes place.
This work is not intended as a how-to-do-it book. Instead, it is a detailed
analysis of the situation of the policy analyst. Our intent is to help the analyst
become more sensitive to the salient factors that influence the way he or she con-
ceives and executes the task at hand. The goal of the book is therefore to illus-
trate the elements of scientific rationality in the enterprise of policy analysis, the
ways in which ultimate values and conceptions of moral right and wrong are
intertwined with this approach, and the influence of decentralized institutions
of political authority on attempts to implement rational moral purpose. The