POLS4011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Policy Sciences, Policy, Social Network
14 Jun 2020
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Week 2 notes - expertise and the technocratic state. The history and origins of evidence-based policy making; early frameworks and current debates. Public policy has a distinct purpose: resolving conflict over scarce resources, regulating behaviour, motivating collective action, protecting rights, and directing benefits towards the public interest (theodoulou 1995, 1-9) Fukuyma talked about the scope of the state, where we are often concerned with the scope of the state being very wide. overbearing state or minimal state -less but better- strengths based debate. Max weber"s work on rational forms of organisation contains ideas in the capcity of the state to acquire and store information that can be drawn upon for policy use. And its an idea that economic ideas for some rather than political ideas should shape policy outcomes. Harold less also argued for a distinct value orientation called policy sciences in which the goal of policy science is not just about policy but maximising democractic values.
