PLUTUS IAS

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION OPTIONAL

UNIT 10:Public Policy

TOPIC :Public policy models

DATE :21 /10 /2022

BY SHEKHAR CHOUDHARY

UPPSC 2015

UGC NET -PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION(JULY 2019 ALL INDIA RANK 4)

DROR’S NORMATIVE OPTIMUM
MODEL
 DROR’S NORMATIVE OPTIMUM MODEL

• DROR criticized  Lindblom's approach as he felt that partial change as a solution

to a problem is not possible as the inertia of the previous problem or the bigger

problem will still persist and eat up these small and insignificant changes.

• He suggested a combination of rational factors as well as extra-rational factors

linked with the decision and situation.

• He has argued that policy analysis must acknowledge that there is a realm of

world, which involves values and personal experiences.

• He suggested a qualitative approach through a feed back
mechanism.

• He was also in support of studying decision making as a subject of

social science and making it inter disciplinary where knowledge and
techniques from other social science subjects can be mixed and
applied to decision making to broaden its scope and achieve
maximum results.
• In place of Incremental and Rational models, Dror has offered an alternative. His model in seeks to
accept:

• Need for rationality;

• Need for introduction of management techniques for enhancing rationality of decision-making at lower
levels;

• Policy Sciences approach for dealing with complex problems requiring decisions at the higher levels;
and

• Need to take account of values and irrational elements in decision-making.

• Dror has called it ‘Normative Optimalism’, which combines core elements of the ‘Rational’ model (such
as the measurement of costs and benefits) with ‘extra-rational’ factors, which are excluded from the
‘pure rationality’ model.

• He has argued that the aim of analysis is to induce decision-makers to expand their frameworks to deal
better with a complex world
Thus, in place of a purely Rational model, Dror (1968) has offered a more complex model consisting of some 18
stages:
• Meta-policymaking Stage:
• i) Processing values;
• ii) Processing reality;
• iii) Processing problems;
• iv) Surveying, processing and
developing resources;
• v) Designing, evaluating and
redesigning the policymaking
system;
• vi) Allocating problems, values
and resources;
• vii) Determining policymaking
strategy.
II. POLICYMAKING STAGE:
viii) Sub-allocating resources;
ix) Establishing operational goals, with some order of priority;
x) Establishing a set of their significant values, with some order or
priority;
xi) Preparing a set of major alternative policies, including some ‘good
ones’;
xii) Preparing reliable predictions of the significant benefits and costs
of the various alternatives;
xiii) Comparing the predicted benefits and costs of the various
alternatives and identifying the ‘best’ ones;
xiv) Evaluating the benefits and costs of the ‘best alternatives’ and
deciding whether they are ‘good’ or not.
• III. POST-POLICYMAKING STAGE:
• xv) Motivating the execution of policy;
• xvi) Executing the policy;
• xvii) Evaluating policymaking after executing the policy;
• xviii) Communication and feedback channels interconnecting
all phases

• The 18- stages outlined must be seen as a cycle, which has its
rational and extra-rational aspects

• His model operates at two interacting phases.

• In Phase 1, ‘the processing of values’, decision-making would

involve ‘specifying and ordering values to be a general guide
for identifying problems and for policymaking’

• In Phase 2, the ‘rational sub-phase’, involves ‘gathering

information on feasibility and opportunity costs’, and at the
‘extra-rational sub-phase’, decision-making will involve
‘value judgement, tacit bargaining and coalition formation
skills’
 • A CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF DROR’S MODEL
• DROR HAS VIEWED POLICYMAKING AS A CONSCIOUS AWARENESS OF CHOICE BETWEEN TWO MAIN
ALTERNATIVES FOR STEERING SOCIETIES

• HE IS OF THE CONCERTED VIEW THAT A LONG-TERM STRATEGY TO IMPROVE PUBLIC

POLICYMAKING IS NECESSARY FOR HUMAN PROGRESS

• DROR COULD BE EQUATED WITH LASSWELL.

• WHEREAS, LASSWELL SAW POLICY SCIENCES AS HAVING A ‘ROLE IN ENLIGHTENMENT,

EMANCIPATION AND DEMOCRATISATION’,

• DROR SEEMS TO HAVE VERY LITTLE REGARD FOR THE PEOPLE IN POLICYMAKING

• ALTHOUGH AGREEING WITH LINDBLOM THAT POLICYMAKING WAS A COMPLEX EXERCISE, DROR
WAS OPPOSED TO LINDBLOM’S INCREMENTALISM POSITION AND ADVOCATED ALTERNATIVE
PARADIGM OF RATIONAL ANALYSIS
 POLICY CYCLE

• Policy -making is a continuing process.

• It does not come to an end once a policy is set out or approved.

• As James E. Anderson expresses it, "Policy is being made as it is being

administered and administered as it is being made".

• Thus the policy cycle or stagist approach continues to be the basis for both the
analysis of the policy process and of analysis for the policy process
 POLICY CYCLE
• W. Jenkins (Policy Analysis, 1978) sets out seven stages for the policy process,
such as, initiation, information, consideration, decision, implementation,
evaluation, and termination
• Hogwood and Gunn (Policy Analysis for the Real World, 1984) have identified
nine important stages in the policy process:
• Deciding to decide (agenda setting),
• Deciding how to decide (issue filtration),
• Issue definition, forecasting, setting objectives and priorities,
• Options analysis, policy implementation,
• Monitoring and control, evaluation and review and
• Policy maintenance, succession and termination
• The basis to the framework is information for policy analysis,
which is derived from system or Programme performance in
terms of interaction among:

• Inputs, which indicate needs and demands processes

concerning the provision of services for long-term care

• Outputs in terms of the use of services and costs of care

• Outcomes, which identify the end results of certain courses

of action
• Identifying the Underlying Problem

• Is there any problem

• Describing problem from mundane to abstract and conceptual

• Determining Alternatives for Policy Choice

• The next step is to determine alternative courses of action

• Government intervention can take any form

• As difficulties are identified and additional information

becomes available, refinement of alternative courses of action
will continue throughout the analysis

• Determining alternatives for policy choice generally offers a

chance for creative thought as hard work
Forecasting and Evaluating the Alternatives
• Policy analyst evaluates the consequences of each of the alternatives
• Policy analyst will turn to a relevant model for forecasting consequences
• Evaluation of the outcomes is of great importance as it reminds us to look
carefully at the cost-benefit analysis of a particular policy choice.
• Too often, policy choices + have been sabotaged by bureaucrats and
interested politicians
Making a Choice

• Last step in policy analysis

• Relates to making the preferred choice (course of action)
• It has been observed that countless policy studies have led nowhere
• Sometimes the fault is attributed to the public decision-makers who do not take
advantage of readily accessible data
• Too often, it is the producers of the analysis who are to blame
• Most policy analyses are gathering dust because they have not been properly
understood
• The analysis should be brought out in such a way that the essential points can
be easily grasped and communicated
• The choice among competing policy alternatives is complex, for the future is
always uncertain
Policy Implementation

• The success of public administration can be measured only in relation to the

implementation of policies
• Policy implementation is of critical importance to the success of government
• No policies can succeed if the implementation does not bear relationship to
the intentions of policy makers
• Implementation is a phase between a policy statement and operation
• Exercise involves developing and pursuing a strategy of organization and
management to ensure that the policy process is completed with the
minimum of delays, costs and problems
• Involves the creation of a policy delivery system in which specific mechanisms
are designed and pursued in the hope of reaching particular ends
Constraints in Policy Implementation

• Lack of sufficient autonomy and flexibility in carrying out their tasks should
• To ward off political pressures and adhere to the goals of a policy, the implemknters need adequate
powers
• Very often, the government itself modifies or abandons its policy in the face of strong opposition from
interest groups
• Bureaucracy does not have the necessary professional skills needed for the implementation of the policies
• Bureaucracy should be strengthened to enable it to become an effective instrument of policy
implementation
• Lack of resources, personnel, financial and technical,
• Inadequate staff, lack of expertise and skills, shortage of funds etc. frustrate proper policy implementation
• lack of response from the target groups
• Lack of people's participation often leads to upsets in implementation
• Setting of goals and objectives, allocation of resources, minimizing political influences and the choice of
implementation strategies influence the extent to which policy aims can be achieved
• Policy Monitoring • Monitoring helps in designing and
• It is an activity which occurs in the course implementing systems for the processes,
which provide just the sight amount of detail
of implementing a policy or Programme
for adequate control of policy execution

• The objective of policy monitoring is to • Aids in cost reduction, time saving and
ensure through the policy implementation effective resource utilisation
process that resource inputs are used as
efficiently as possible to yield intended
results
• Key issue in monitoring is to create an
information system that gives policy makers
and policy implementers the information
they need to make timely decisions and
• Significance of the monitoring of public policies that will keep policy Programme
performance as close as possible to the
policy lies in seeing that intended results
objectives of the policy
are achieved through the efficient use of
resources
• One of the serious problem in • Fourth, a pervasive obstacle to
monitoring relates to poor design of policy monitoring is ignorance about
the implementing system for the its role and methods
processes,

• Second, time is a constraint for

policy monitoring
• It is often observed that the
monitoring staff and key personnel
• Third, a common constraint for the associated with implementing
policy implementation manager is policies lack the requisite stills to
the shortage of corrective actions, monitor and control
which would be applied when the policy/Programme performance
Programme is found to be deviating
in some respect from projected
performance