Intro to Public Policy and Administration

Recommending Policy Actions

Objectives:
A. Review the nature and role of recommendation and role recommendation in
policy analysis
B. Learn recommendation and Multiple Advocacy the characteristics of an
advocative claim with pro and cons
C. Compare and contrast simple and complex model choice

 The procedure of recommendation involves the transformation of information about policy

futures into information about policy actions requires prior information about the future
consequences of acting on different alternatives.
 It answers the question “what should be done?” – Which answer requires a normative
approach rather than empirical or merely evaluative, since the question is one of a right
action.
Advocative claims
Are called for when analysts face a choice between two or more alternatives. In some
situations, the choice is between a new course of action and the status quo.

Characteristics of Advocative Claims

1. Actionable
2. Prospective
3. Value Laden
4. Ethically complex

Multiple advocacy
It is an approach to the systematic comparison and critical assessment of a number of
potential solutions, not a way to defend single positions at any costs. It tacitly employs a
process of triangulation which forms the methodological core of critical Multiplism – it is alike
to problem structuring as problem solving.
The process of making plausible policy recommendations often requires that we move
backward to problem structuring before we move forward to a solution.
Over-advocacy trap
It is a trap that often results in recommending the wrong solution because of the wrong
formulation of problem.
It occurs when:
 The client and the analyst agree too readily on the nature of the problem and
responses to it.
 Disagreements among policy advocates incorporated in an analysis do not cover the
full range of policy alternatives
 The analyst ignores advocates of unpopular policy alternatives
 The analyst fails to communicate ideas requiring that the client face up to a difficult
or unpopular decision.
 The analyst is dependent on a single source of information.
 The client is dependent on a single analyst
 Assumptions of a policy are evaluated only by advocates of that policy
 The client dismisses the results of analysis simply because they are perceived as
negative or counterintuitive.
 The client or the analyst uncritically accepts consensus findings without probing
the basis for the consensus and how it was achieved.

Simple Model of Choice

A=alternative A1 = O1
O=Outcome A2 = O2
Factual Premise
O1 > O2 --------------- Value Premise
Therefore, A1 is preferred.
Choice process Components:
1. Definition of a problem requiring action
2. The comparison of consequences of two or more alternatives to resolve the problem,
3. The prescription of the alternative that will result to a preferred outcome.
Advantage
It points out that factual and value premises in all choice situation
Disadvantage
It obscures the complexity of choice.