Introduction to Theories of
Public Policy
Decision Making Activities
Outline
The Policy Process Model
 Six Decision Making Models
 Decision Making in the Real World

The Policy Process
Process
 Activity
 Participants

Problem Identification

Activity
Publicizing societal problems
 Expressing demands for government action
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Participants
Mass media
 Interest groups
 Citizen initiatives
 Public Opinion

Agenda Setting

Activity
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Deciding what issues will be decided
Deciding what problems will be addressed by
government
Participants

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Mass media
Elites
Parties
Candidates for elective office
Policy Formulation

Activity

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Developing policy proposals to resolve issues
and ameliorate problems
Participants
White House staff
 Congressional committees
 Interest groups
 Think tanks

Policy Legitimation

Activity

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Selecting a proposal
Developing political support for it
Enacting it into law
Deciding on its constitutionality
Participants

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President
Congress
Courts
Policy Implementation

Activity
Organizing departments and agencies
 Providing payments or services
 Levying taxes


Participants
President and White House staff
 Executive departments and agencies

Policy Evaluation

Activity

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Reporting outputs of government programs
Evaluating impacts of policies on target and nontarget
groups
Proposing changes and reforms
Participants

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Executive departments and agencies
Congressional oversight committees
Mass media
Think tanks
Decision Making Models
Cost-Benefit Analysis
 Multiobjectives Models
 Decision Analysis
 Systems Analysis
 Operations Research
 Nominal Group Techniques

Cost Benefit Analysis

In an era of scarcity, interest in weighing
cost against benefits rises
Measurement of costs and benefits
 The distributional impacts
 The discount factor, and
 The decision rules

Multiobjectives Models

Recognition that there are multiple
objectives in the policy and administrative
processes

Need to calculate the relative importance or
weight of various objectives
Decision Analysis

Recognition that a decision is not viewed as
isolated because today’s decision depends
on the ones we shall make tomorrow
Systems Analysis

This approach forces us to look at problems
as systems; assemblies of interdependent
components; 4 basic steps:
Problem formulation
 Modeling
 Analysis and optimization
 Implementation

Operations Research

Here the scope of decision making is
narrower:

Concerned with problems that can be
represented by mathematical models to be
optimized

Concerned with relatively small problems
Nominal Group Techniques

Advantages—


bring together broader perspectives for defining
the problem, more knowledge and information,
easier to implement (buy-in)
Disadvantages—

time consuming, expensive, lead to
compromise solutions or reduction of valuable
dissenting opinions (groupthink), no clear focus
for responsibility if things go wrong
Nominal Group Techniques

When to use a group—

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problem is uncertain, complex, or has the potential
for conflict;
requires interagency or intergroup cooperation;
problem and its solution have important personal
and organizational consequences;
significant, but not immediate deadline pressures,
widespread acceptance and commitment are critical
to successful implementation
Decision Making in the Real
World
Decision Making in Times of Crisis
 Biases in Decision Making

Decision Making in Times of
Crisis

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Demonstrated that decision making is a very
human affair involving far more than objective
analysis
Important decisions often made by groups, not
individuals
Not an entirely rational process
Some participants more rational than others
Real limitations to applying a rigorous approach to
every facet of a problem
Biases in Decision Making
Bounded rationality—people have limits or
boundaries on how rational they can be
 Satisficing—decision makers choose the
first solution alternative that satisfies
minimal decision criteria

Biases in Decision Making
Seeing only one dimension of uncertainty,
 Giving too much weight to readily available
or recent information
 Being overconfident
 Ignoring the laws of randomness
 Being reluctant to audit and improve
decision making
