Public Policy Analysis

MPA 404

Lecture 2

A brief Summary of what we learned in the previous class

Definition of Public Policy
Why it is difficult to come up with a concise definition of Public
policy?
Why study public policy? Discussion of some of the
problems/challenges that Pakistan faces.
World of opportunities for public policy analysts
Some of the common themes in Public Policy.
A brief History of the literature on Public Policy.

 Modern theory and working of the Public Policy is, however, traced
to the 20th century work of Henry Lasswell and the application of
cost-benefit analysis from 1930 onwards.
Laswell was employed by the US government during WWII for
propaganda purposes (a government policy). After the war, he
realizes a disconnect between the world of research and real world
policy applications.
In order to bridge the gap, he comes up with the idea of Policy
Sciences. For him, policy sciences had the following characteristics:
a) Problem Oriented
b) Multi-disciplinary
c) Methodologically sophisticated
d) Theoretically sophisticated

Policy Evaluation, Policy Analysis and Policy Process

Need to distinguish between the three.
Policy Process: How and why of Policymaking
Policy Analysis: Concerned with carrying out a policy and its
empirics
Policy Evaluation: ex-post exercise. Tries to gauge the overall
outcome, and any observed causal relationship.

Podcast: Why the US Mint forbade the production of

presidential coins
Listen to the complementing Audio clip.

Models of Public Policy

Why is there need for a model?
In simple words, we need a model to investigate and explain a
particular phenomenon. That is true of every investigative science or
art. Its humanitys attempt to make the lives of its people better by a
better understanding of the environment around it through models or
modeling.
Just like fields like Physics and Mathematics, there is a need for
conceptualizing, observing, analyzing and discussing Public Policy.
Models represent conceptual framework. Given that decision making
in public policy is a complex process and that it affects the lives of
millions of people, there is a need to understand the hows, whys,
dos and donts of public policy.
Thus, it becomes important to conceptualize a public policy problem
in order to arrive at better conclusions for the future.

 For example, we know that the situation in Pakistan regarding

education is pretty bad, and that there is a dire need to understand
and improve it in terms of a good public policy.
So let us first conceptualize the problem in order to understand its
working? Start with whats the problem, the present public policy,
who are the participants in this sector (government, private sector,
teachers, students, etc), who influences what, standards and
procedures, etc.
Once all these various variables are factored in, a researcher can
come up with what he/she thinks is the way that the system works,
is problems, outcomes and possibilities. These are all figured in to a
conceptual framework, which is called a model.
Now that weve gone through the basics of modeling, let us now turn
to the question of importance of a model relating to public policy. Or
why do we need a model for public policy.

 It helps us to understand more clearly what a particular public policy

is aimed at? What were its outcomes, how it was implemented, what
were the reasons behind designing and implementing a particular
public policy (was it really to help public or was there some personal
gain to be had), has it contributed negatively or positively to the
overall welfare of the country and its people, etc.
It may very well be that a particular public policy was really well
designed (like the Hydel Power production policy of yesteryears),
but the problems arose due to implementation (administrative,
financial, otherwise). The analysis of public policy helps to bifurcate
the problem, and come to a conclusion as to why a specific policy
could not be implemented?
It helps us to separate the supply and demand side of the policies.
Its easy to ignore one, put an emphasis on the other one and come
out with the wrong conclusions. This will be seen later on in the
paper on the power sector in Pakistan, whereby well learn that
there has been too much emphasis upon supply side (government)
with little or no analysis of the demand side (consumer) problems.

 Through analysis of a particular policy, one can come up with fault

lines even before the policy is being implemented. This is really
important when one considers that a lot of resources go into
implementing a policy, especially on mega scale. In this way, what
public policy analysts could do is that they can help identify fault
lines. For a country like Pakistan which is almost always starved for
resources, it is critical that projects/policies are implemented after
careful analysis so that little is wasted in terms of resources.
It helps conceive new possibilities for research that one wouldnt
have thought before. For example, during research on Pakistans
power sector i learned that solar power, the much touted energy
source, is not that efficient (in terms of converting sun power to
electricity and is very expensive).