POLS4011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Policy, Focus Group, Richard Denniss
14 Jun 2020
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Document Summary
Required: colebatch 2006, what work makes policy? , policy sciences, vol. Policy process sees the policy process as an exercise in informed problem-solving: a problem is identified, data is collected, the problem is analysed and advice is given to the policy-maker, who makes a decision which is then implemented. People describe to me policy processes constituted not by order and rationality but by uncertainty, interpretation, contested meaning, power, volatility, compressed views of time and space and partial information . practitioners are confronted with constant paradoxes". Policy analysts" located at various points along a continuum from detached scientific analysis at one end and partisan policy advocacy at the other. To demonstrate from a rational perspective that someone"s idea is just out to lunch", and elected politicians wanted analysis as a means of promoting a particular perspective that might otherwise be out-evidenced by organized professional staff". This strategic dimension of policy knowledge is also linked to the expanding range of policy workers.
