GOVT2614 Lecture 5: Discourses_ administrative rationalism and democracy
17 Jan 2019
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Discourses: administrative rationalism and democracy, mcconnell, a. (2010) policy success, policy failure and grey areas in-between. Policy protagonists are keen to claim that policy is successful while opponents are more likely to frame policies as failures. Taking political goals as a given and hence success resides in meeting targets and achieving outcomes. They tend to assume that successful policy is one which redresses power imbalances, reduces inequalities and involves stake- holders in formulating policy goals and evaluating results. However, the nature of what constitutes successful policy process can prove just as contested as policy improvement or public value. In essence, what governments do is identify problems, examine potential policy alternatives, consult or not as the case may be, and take decisions. All such activities involve weighing the pros and cons of different choices such as who, when and how to consult and weighing the opportunities and risks of different policy solutions before taking a decision.
