Topic 9 Policy Process Study: Policy Formulation and Making

1
Topic 9Policy Process StudyPolicy Formulation
and Making
PEDU 6209 Policy Study in Education
2
Perspectives and Processes in Policy Studies
3
Theories of the Policy-making Process

• The first generation of policy-making process
  theories
• Scientific-rational model
• Incrementalist model
• Garbage can model
• The second generation of policy-making process
  theories
• Comprehensive rational model
• The stages heuristic model
• New Institutionalism model
• The multiple stream model
• The discourse model

4
Comprehensive Rationalist Perspective in Policy
Making Theory

• Comprehensive rational framework The
  ideal-typical framework
• Problem analysis
• Pathology control approach
• Desirability striving approach
• Comprehensive information gathering
• Solution analysis
• Best solution approach
• Satisfice and good enough resolution approach

5
Comprehensive Rationalist Perspective in Policy
Making Theory

• Harold Lasswells intelligence system for policy
  making
• Intelligence The stage of intelligence
  collection, which consists of
• Information of the status quo of the phenomenon
  to be intervene
• Information of causal relations among vital
  constituents in operation within the policy
  phenomenon
• Information of the feasibility of candidate
  solutions
• Cost-benefit analysis of candidate solutions

6
(Weimer Vining, 1992)

• PROBLEM ANALYSIS
• Understanding the problem
• Choosing and explaining relevant goals and
  constraints.
• Choosing a solution method.

SOLUTION ANALYSIS 4. Choosing evaluation
criteria 5. Specifying policy alternatives 6.
Evaluating predicting impacts of alternatives
and valuing them in terms of criteria 7.
Recommending actions.
(a) Receiving the problem assessing the
symptoms. (b) Framing the problem
analyzing market and government
failures. (c) Modeling the problem
identifying policy variables.
COMMUNICATION Conveying useful Advice to clients
INFORMATION GATHERING Identifying and organizing
relevant data, theories and facts using facts as
evidence about future consequences of current and
alternative policies.
Figure 8.1 A summary of Steps in the
Rationalist Mode
7
Comprehensive Rationalist Perspective in Policy
Making Theory

• Harold Lasswells intelligence system for policy
  making
• Promotion The stage of considering the pros and
  cons of candidate solutions
• Prescription The stage of making decision on the
  prescription of the course of action to be taken
• Invocation The stage of laying down the rules
  and regulations based upon which the policy
  prescriptions can be invoked
• Application The stage of carrying out the course
  of action stipulated in the policy by the
  designated authority.
• Termination The stage of bringing the course of
  action to a close as designed
• Appraisal The stage of evaluating the
  effectiveness or/even efficiency of the policy
  measures.

8
Political Perspective in Policy Making Theory

• Criticism on comprehensive rational framework by
  incrementalism and the introduction of political
  rationality into the policy process study
• Conceptual difference between political
  rationality and means-end rationality
• Means-end rationality refers to agency that a
  person acts in a conscious and knowledgeable way
  in which the attainment of his goal can be
  maximized in the real world. (Dahl Lindblom,
  1992, p.57)
• Political rationality refers to the agency that
  the person will make conscious and knowledgeable
  consideration of the political reality and its
  entailed constraints and opportunities, within
  which the maximization of the means-to-an-end /
  satisfice project is carried out.

9
Political Perspective in Policy Making Theory

• Pluralism The simple institutional model
• The general political system model Pluralism as
  a theory of policy making or politics in general
  is generated from the political system model. In
  political system model, political process is
  characterized as input-process-output-feedback
  model.
• Pluralistic model characterizes the policy making
  with the following attributes
• Plurality of interest groups each with equal
  capacities in inputting political demands into
  the polity
• The polity processes the plurality of political
  demands in impartial and indiscriminant manner
• Plurality of administrative output to meet with
  plurality of political demands

10
Political Perspective in Policy Making Theory

• Advocacy coalition model
• This model further specifies that the
  networking among policy actors in policy making
  process by put forth the concept of advocacy
  coalition. It indicates that policy actors will
  form coalition in order to advocate a particular
  policy choice. These coalitions will subsequently
  constitute a stabilizing parameter or
  institutional inertia within a policy area.

11
Political Perspective in Policy Making Theory

• The state theory
• State theorists criticize pluralism and
  political system of treating the state as a
  blackbox or an impartial arbitrator of political
  demands. In replacement, they put forth different
  thesis on the natures and features of the modern
  state
• The instrumental-state perspective
• The corporatist-state perspective
• The derivative-state perspective
• Competition-state perspective

12
Simon and Marchs Contribution to the
Newinstitutionalism

• The contribution of Herbert Simon Herbert A.
  Simon, the Nobel laureate in Economics 1978, in
  his now-classic Administrative Behavior
  (1997/1945) has made to important distinctions,
• Distinction between economic man and
  administrative man Simon underlined that " The
  model of economic man was far more completely and
  formally developed than the model of the
  satisficing administrator. limited rationality
  was defined largely as a residual categoryas a
  departure from rationality." (P. 118)

13
Simon and Marchs Contribution to the
Newinstitutionalism
Nobel laureate In Economics 1978
(1916-2001)
14
Simon and Marchs Contribution to the
Newinstitutionalism

• The contribution of Herbert Simon
• Distinction between the maximization principle
  (best solution) and satisfice principle
  (good-enough solution) "Whereas economic man
  supposedly maximizesselects the best alternative
  from among all those available to himhis cousin,
  the administrator, satisficeslooks for course of
  action that is satisfactory or "good enough".
  (P.119)

15
Simon and Marchs Contribution to the
Newinstitutionalism

• James Marchs conception of logic of
  appropriateness James G. March, who once
  coauthored with Simon in another now-classic,
  Organizations (1958/1993) and has since then
  become one of the representative figures in
  new-institutionalism, underlines that

16
Simon and Marchs Contribution to the
Newinstitutionalism

• James Marchs logic of appropriateness
• Policy making process is not simply a rational
  calculation of means-end and/or cost-benefit
  analyses but should be conceived predominantly as
  institutional processes hence they are by
  definition influenced if not determined by the
  features, structures and cultures of the
  institutions, in which the policy making
  processes are supposed to undergo.

17
Simon and Marchs Contribution to the
Newinstitutionalism

• Accordingly, he makes the distinction between the
  logics of consequence and that of
  appropriateness.
• Logic of consequence The idea is that a
  reasoning decision maker will consider
  alternatives in terms of their consequences for
  preferences. In other words, it assumes that
  decision processes are consequential and
  preference-based. They are consequential in the
  sense that action depends on anticipation of the
  future effects of current actions. Alternatives
  are interpreted in terms of their expected
  consequences. They are preference-based in the
  sense that consequences are evaluated in terms of
  personal preferences. Alternatives are compared
  in terms of the extent to which their expected
  consequences are thought to serve the preferences
  of the decision make. (March, 1994, P. 2)

18
Simon and Marchs Contribution to the
Newinstitutionalism

• James Marchs logic of appropriateness
• Logic of appropriateness When individuals and
  organizations fulfill identifies, they follow
  rules or procedures that they see as appropriate
  to the situation in which they find themselves.
  Neither preferences as they are normally
  conceived nor expectations of future consequences
  enter directly into the calculus. (March, 1994,
  p. 57)

19
Simon and Marchs Contribution to the
Newinstitutionalism

• James Marchs logic of appropriateness
• Accordingly, decision makers are no longer based
  on the choices solely on consequences of actions
  and the extent that their preferences are
  satisfied by the consequences of actions. Instead
  they would base their choices on the follows
  (p.58)
• 1. The question of recognition What kind of
  situation is this?
• 2. The question of identity What kind of person
  am I? Or what kind of organization is this?
• 3. The question of rules What does a person
  such as I, or an organization such as this, do in
  a situation as this? (March, 1994, P. 58)

20
Simon and Marchs Contribution to the
Newinstitutionalism

• Taking together, Simon and Marchs conceptions on
  decision making process, policy making processes
  are no longer conceived as simple rational,
  consequential and preference-based calculations
  taking places in some socio-cultural vacuum.
  Policy-making processes must be studied against
  the institutional contexts and situations in
  which they are embedded. Decision makers, who
  recognized in these institutional contexts, are
  embodied with particular identities. And deriving
  from these institutional contexts and identities
  are rules that these decision makers would find
  themselves obliged to follow.

21
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Elinor Ostrom, one of the co-winners of the 2009
  Nobel Prize in economic science, has developed
  the IAD framework to analyze how an aggregate of
  rational decision makers come to reciprocal
  decision of mutual benefits. (Ostrom, 1990 1999
  2005)

22
Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012)
23
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Elinor Ostrom, one of the co-winners of the 2009
  Nobel Prize in economic science, has developed
  the IAD framework to analyze how an aggregate of
  rational decision makers come to reciprocal
  decision of mutual benefits. (Ostrom, 1990 1999
  2005) The framework is made up of three tiers of
  conceptual units, namely (1) the action arena,
  (2) the exogenous variables, and (3) the
  interaction patterns and their outcomes. This
  framework can be represented as follows.

24
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism
(Source Ostrom, 2005, P. 13)
25
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• The action arena The core conceptual unit of the
  IAD framework is what Ostrom called the action
  arena. The action arena of made up of two units,
  namely the actors and action situation

26
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Action situation The structure of an action
  situation includes
• the set of participants,
• the specific positions to be filled by
  participants
• the set of allowable actions and their linkage to
  outcomes,
• the potential outcomes that are linked to
  individual sequence of actions,
• the level of control each participant has over
  choice,
• the information available to participants about
  the structure of the action situation, and
• the cost and benefits?which serve as incentive
  and deterrents?assigned to actions and outcomes.
  (Ostrom, 1999, P. 43)

Roles
Roles expectation
Roles performance
Social Control
27
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Action situation
• In addition, an action situation can further be
  characterized as recursive or non-recursive. This
  conceptual unit can be represented as follows.
  (Source P. 33)

28
Recursive Situation
Non-recursive Situation
29
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• The actors Actors in the action arena can either
  be a single individuals or a group functioning
  as a corporate actor. (Ostrom, 1999, P. 44) This
  actors are assumed to possess
• meanings and values imputed to the situations
• resources, information, and beliefs
• information-processing capacities and
• decision-making strategies brought to the
  situation.
• With these possessions, Ostrom suggested that
  actors can further be characterized into for
  examples as Homo economicus, Fallible
  learner, opportunist, etc

30
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• The exogenous Variables The second tier of
  conceptual unit consists of three exogenous
  variables, each of which will asset its effect on
  the dependent variable, i.e. action arena. These
  exogenous variables include
• The rules in use
• The concept of rules Ostrom defines rules as
  shared understanding among those involved that
  refer to enforced prescriptions about what
  actions are required, prohibited, or permitted.
  All rules are the results of implicit or explicit
  efforts to achieve order and predictability among
  humans by creating classes of persons (positions)
  that are then required, permitted, or forbidden
  to take classes of persons in relation to
  required, permitted, or forbidden states of the
  world. (Ostrom, 1999, P. 49, original emphases)

31
(No Transcript)
32
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• The exogenous Variables
• The rules in use
• Rule configurations Ostrom differentiates seven
  types of working rules each of which affect one
  aspect of the structure of the respective action
  arena. These rules are represented as follows.
  (Source Ostrom, 2005, P. 189)
• Accordingly, these seven types of rule will
  configure into a set of rules-in-use in a
  particular action arena and subsequently in an
  institution.

33
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• States of the world It refers to the
  biophysical/material condition, in which the
  action arena is embedded. Ostrom has specified
  the attributes of the states of the world with
  two dimensions, namely excludability and
  subtractability.
• Excludability refers to the extent that whether
  the goods and/or services available in a given
  state of the world are difficult and costly to
  exclude those who are not entitled to consume the
  respective goods and/or services.
• Subtractability refers to the extent that whether
  numbers of consumers consuming the goods and/or
  service in a given state of the world will
  subtract the quantity and quality of the
  respective goods and/or services.

34
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• States of the world ..Accordingly, goods and
  services available in a given state of the world
  can be categorized as follows. (Source Ostrom,
  2005, P. 25)

35
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Attributes of community The third set of
  exogenous variables affecting the structure of
  the action arena is the community and its
  attributes. It is the least development
  conceptual unit in the IAD model. This
  underdevelopment of the conceptual unity of
  community is understandable given the academic
  background of Ostrom, who is a political
  scientist focusing on rational-choice
  institutionalism. She has specifically assigned
  the task of developing the conceptual unit of
  community to sociologists, who tend to be more
  interested in how shared value system affect the
  ways human organize their relationships with one
  another. (Ostrom, 1999, P. 50)

36
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Attributes of community
• Ostrom has simply outlined five attributes of
  community, namely (Ostrom, 2005, P. 26-27)
• values (and norms) of behavior generally
  accepted in the community
• the level of common understanding that potential
  participants share (or do not share) about the
  structure of particular types of action arenas
• the extent of homogeneity in the preferences of
  those living in a community
• the size and composition of the relevant
  community and
• the extent of inequality of basic assets among
  those affected.

37
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• The interaction patterns and outcomes Ostrom, as
  an institution analyst, underlines that the
  accuracy of institutional analysts inference of
  interaction patterns (i.e. institutions) and
  outcomes generated in a given action arena
  depends on the empirical attributes of the
  exogenous variables, the actors and the action
  situations in the IAD models at point.

38
(No Transcript)
39
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Market Institution Prefect competitive market

40
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Tragedies of the Common

41
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Application of tragedy of the common on the
  impact of Direct-Subsidized Scheme (DSS) on the
  common-pool of schools and schoolplaces in the
  public-school sector of Hong Kong.

42
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Prisoners dilemma Ostrom conceives prisoners
  dilemma model in game theory as a particular case
  of common-pool resource (CPR) situation. Instead
  of numerous participants, in prisoner dilemma
  model there are only two participants. However,
  under the assumption of rational calculation of
  maxcimizattion of bebefit, the situation would
  only encourage defect and discourage cooperation.
  Hence, the results of the prinsoners rational
  choices are the same as CPR situation, i.e.
  tragedy of the common.

43
(No Transcript)
44
(No Transcript)
45
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Evaluating outcomes The final conceptual unit of
  the IAD framework is the evaluating the outcomes
  being achieved. Ostrom proposes that the outcomes
  can be evaluated under six criteria. These
  evaluative criteria are
• Economic efficiency Economic efficiency is
  determined by the magnitude of the change in the
  flow of net benefits associated with an
  allocation or reallocation of resources.
  (Ostrom, 1999, P. 48)

46
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Evaluating outcomes
• Fiscal equivalence There are two principal
  means of assessing equity (1) on the basis of
  the equality between individuals contributions
  to an effort and benefits they derive and (2) on
  the differential abilities to pay. The concept of
  equity that underlies an exchange economy holds
  that those who benefit from a service should bear
  the burden of financing that service. (Ostrom,
  1999, P. 48)
• Redistributional equity Policy that
  redistribute resources to poorer individuals are
  of considerable important. The provision of
  facilities that benefit particularly needy groups
  may conflict with the goal of achieving fiscal
  equivalence. Ostrom, 1999, P. 48)

47
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Evaluating outcomes
• Accountability In democratic polity, officials
  should be accountable to citizens concerning the
  development and use of public facilities and
  natural resources. Concern for accountability
  need not conflict greatly with efficiency and
  equity goals. (Ostrom, 1999, P. 48)

48
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Evaluating outcomes
• Conformance to general morality This criterion
  refers to evaluate the level of general level of
  general morality fostered by a particular set of
  institutional arrangements. And Ostrom has
  suggested two of such general morality. One is
  honesty, which concerns with issues such as are
  those who are able to cheat and go undetected
  able to obtain very high payoffs? Are those who
  keep promises more likely to be rewarded and
  advanced in their careers? Another general
  morality is sustainability of reciprocal
  interaction, i.e. How do those who repeatedly
  interact within a set of institutional
  arrangements learn to relate to one another over
  the long term? (Ostrom, 1999, P. 49)

49
Elinor Ostroms Institutional Analysis
Development in Rational-Choice Institutionalism

• Evaluating outcomes
• Adaptability Lastly, Ostrom underlines that
  unless institutional arrangements are able to
  respond to ever-changing environments, the
  sustainability of resources and investment is
  likely to suffer. (Ostrom, 1999, P. 49)
• Taken as a whole, Ostrom reminds us trade-off
  are often necessary in using performance criteria
  as a basis for selecting from alternative
  institutional arrangements. It is particularly
  difficult to choose between the goals of
  efficiency and redistributional equity. (Ostrom,
  1999, P. 49)

50
(No Transcript)
51
Policy-Making Theory III Multiple Stream Approach

• The approach grows out of the Garbage Can Model,
  which is another alternate policy-process model
  to the scientific-rational model in the 1970s.
  The primary assumption of the model is the
  emphasis on the ambiguity nature of the policy
  phenomena.
• By ambiguity, it refers to a state of having
  many way of thinking about the same circumstances
  or phenomena. (Feldman, 1989, quoted in
  Zahariadis, 1999, p.74) The concept of ambiguity
  differs from the concept of uncertainty, which is
  one of the constituent concept in rational model,
  is that uncertainty can be reduced or even
  eliminated by information and analysis of it,
  while ambiguity on policy phenomena cannot be
  reduced by information but in some case may even
  enhance it.

52
Policy-Making Theory III Multiple Stream Approach

• Another essential assumption of the approach is
  that policy issues or even problems are not
  attended in an analytic-rational way as the
  scientific-rational model assumes. The
  garbage-can and multiple-stream models stress
  that the logic of approaching policy issue is
  temporal sorting and not rational choice.
• Who pays attention to what and when is
  critical. Time is a unique, scarce resource.
  Because the primary concern of decision-makers
  is to manage time effectively rather than manage
  tasks. It is reasonable to pursue a lens
  (approach) that accords significance to time
  rather than to rationality. (Zahariadis, 1999,
  p.74)

53
Policy-Making Theory III Multiple Stream Approach

• John Kingdons three streams in policy making
• Problem It refers to the conditions or mechanism
  on which policy makers identify, define and take
  action on a policy problem. They include
• Indicators
• Dramatic events or crisis
• Feedback of existing programs
• Policy It refers to the conditions spawned from
  the policy issues or phenomena themselves. They
  include
• Policy ideas generated from policy communities
• The prospect of technical feasibility and value
  acceptability of the policy itself
• Politics It refers to the conditions grow out of
  the political environment. They include
• National mood
• Legislative and executive turnover

54
Policy-Making Theory III Multiple Stream Approach

• John Kingdons three streams in policy making
• The conception of the coupling of the streams and
  the formation of policy window. Kingdon
  signifies that when the three streams are joined
  together at critical moments in time, they will
  constitute a policy window. As a policy
  window opens, it indicates that the policy issue
  will elevate into a policy agenda and sequent
  policy-making steps will materialized.

55
Policy-making Theory IV Discourse Perspective

• In discursive perspective, policy making is
  construed as language game of persuasion and
  argumentation. Hence, policy-making studies are
  analyses of how different parties concerned
  frame, organize and possibly win the
  argumentation in a policy discourse.
• Formal argument model in policy analysis
• Constituents in formal argument model (William
  Dunn)
• Claim
• Information
• Warrant
• Backing
• Qualifier
• Rebuttal

56
therefore
C
I
Claim affirms that the policy conclusion is true
Policy-relevant Information is the beginning of a
policy argument
since
W
C becomes I in a sequent argument
Warrant justifies the movement from I to C
The Logical Structure of Policy Argument
57
therefore
C
I
Mother tongue Instruction (MTI) enhance
learning effectiveness
MTI for all in compulsory education
since
W
C becomes I in a sequent argument
Findings of International Studies in
Educational Achievement (IEA) for Science
The Logical Structure of Policy Argument
58
therefore
C
Q
I
Qualifier indicates that the claim has a given
plausibility
Claim affirms that the policy conclusion is
true as qualified
Policy-relevant Information is the beginning of a
policy argument
unless
since
W
R
C becomes I in a sequent argument
Rebuttal indicates that special conditions,
exceptions, or qualifications to W, or I
reduce the plausibility of C
Warrant justifies the movement from I to C
because
B
Backing justifies W
The Logical Structure of Policy Argument
59
therefore
C
Q
I
On what subjects? At what levels?
MTI for all in compulsory education
MTI enhance learning effectiveness
unless
since
W
R
C becomes I in a sequent argument
Not in English Not at more advanced levels
Findings of IEA for Science
because
B
Backing justifies W
The Logical Structure of Policy Argument
60
therefore
C
Q
I
Most of independent States adopt MTI
MTI for all in compulsory education
MTI enhance learning effectiveness
unless
since
W
R
C becomes I in a sequent argument
Not in most of post-colonial states
UNESCO 1953 Document
because
B
Backing justifies W
The Logical Structure of Policy Argument
61
Policy Argumentation Interpretive Approach

• Formal argument model in policy analysis
• Constituents in formal argument model (William
  Dunn)
• Claim
• Information
• Warrant
• Backing
• Qualifier
• Rebuttal
• Types of argumentative claims
• Designative claims on facts
• Evaluative claims on values
• Advocative claims on actions

62
Policy Argumentation Interpretive Approach

• Interpretive approach to policy argument
• Deep description of arguments of different
  interpretive communities
• Constituents of the architecture of argumentation
  and the textuality of argumentative/persuasive
  texts
• Genre
• Frame
• Rhetoric
• Narrative

63
The Conception of Genre in Critical Discourse
Analysis

• Concept of genre
• A genre is a group of texts that share specific
  discursive features. (Gill Whedbee, 1997,
  p.163).
• Genre means distinctions within convention
  between text types. (Fairclough, 1995, p. 13)
  More specifically, Fairclough defines genre as
  socially ratified way of using language in
  connection with a particular type of social
  activities, (Fairclough, 1997, p. 14) e.g.
  interview, narrative, exposition, argumentation,
  persuasion.
• Accordingly policy text and/or discourse can
  mainly be construed as argumentative and/or
  persuasive genre of text and/or discourse.

64
The Conception of Genre in Critical Discourse
Analysis

• Concept of genre
• According to Richard Edwards and his associates
  persuasive text may take the following forms
• Deliberative genre It refers to policy discourse
  which is associate with policy and its future
  orientated and speculative. (Edwards et al.,
  2004, p.19) For example, in documents relating to
  recent education reform, they commonly refer to
  the future of global-informational economy and
  network society and how education reform should
  prepare students to fit into new species of
  flexible and workers and/or networkers.
• Forensic genre It refers to policy discourse
  which focuses on past events and attempt to
  provide an account that is taken to be true.
  (ibid) For example, the rhetoric of presenting
  data of declining standards in comparative
  educational research and statistics of falling
  competitiveness of national economy in global
  market can be construed as a kind of forensic
  genre.

65
The Conception of Genre in Critical Discourse
Analysis

• Concept of genre
• According to Richard Edwards and his associates
  persuasive text may take the following forms
• Epideictic genre It refers to policy discourse
  which focuses on the contemporary. However, in
  epideictic genre one can usually find the notion
  of naming and shaming, publicly denouncing
  organizations and individuals who fail to meet
  the quality standards and inspection criteria to
  which they are subject. (ibid) For example,
  blaming on teachers, naming negative value-added
  schools, and shaming failing schools.

66
Conception of Frame in Policy Studies

• Law and Rein define frame as a way of
  representing knowledge, and as the reliance on
  (and development of) interpretative schemas that
  bound and order a chaotic situation, facilitate
  interpretation and provide a guide for doing and
  acting. (Law and Rein, 2003, p.173)

67
Conception of Frame in Policy Studies

• The concept of frame finds its scholarly
  resonance in the well-documented concept of
  definition of situation in symbolic
  interactionism. As Law and Rein quote in length
  of Goffmans exposition
• I assume that when individuals attend to any
  current situation, they face the question What
  is going on here? Whether asked explicitly, as
  in times of confusion and doubt, or tacitly,
  during occasions of usual certitude, the question
  is put and the answer to it is presumed by the
  way the individual then proceeds to get on with
  the affairs at hand. (Quoted in Law Rein, p.
  175)

68
Conception of Frame in Policy Studies

• The functions of frames in policy argumentation
  are to (Law Rein, p. 174)
• note a special type of story that focuses
  attention
• provide stability and structure by narrating a
  problem-centred discourse as evolves over time,
• define the boundary between evidence and noise,
• wed fact and value into belief about how to act

69
Conception of Frame in Policy Studies

• Types of policy frame
• Rhetoric frame
• Action frame
• Policy action frame It refers to the frame an
  institutional actor uses to construct the problem
  of a specific policy situation.
• Institutional action frame It indicates the
  frame held by institutions. This signifies that
  as agents of thought and action, institutions
  possess characteristics point of view, prevailing
  system of beliefs, category scheme, images,
  routines and styles of argument and action, all
  of which inform their action frames. (Schon
  Rein, 1994, p.33)

70
Conception of Frame in Policy Studies

• Framing HKSAR education reform
• Lifelong learning for employability and
  competitiveness
• Lifelong learning for social inclusion and
  political empowerment
• Framing Quality Education
• Quality for analytic-technical control
• Quality for communal understanding of trust and
  care
• Quality for potential emancipation
• Framing MOI policy
• MOI policy as issue of learning effectiveness
• MOI policy as issue of nation-building
• MOI policy as issue of social capital formation
• MOI policy as issue of human right

71
Conception of Rhetoric in Policy Studies

• Meanings of rhetoric Rhetoric has a long history
  in Western literary as well as philosophical
  traditions. It can be traced back to Aristotle.
• Aristotle defines rhetoric as the ability to
  see, in any given case, the available means of
  persuasion. (Aristotle, 1991, quoted in Gill
  Whedbee, 1997, p. 155)
• Wharley defines it as the findings of suitable
  arguments to prove a given point, and the
  skillful arrangement of them. (Whately, 1963,
  quoted in Gill Whedbee, 1997, p. 155)

72
Conception of Rhetoric in Policy Studies

• Meanings of rhetoric
• A dictionary definition of rhetoric is that it is
  the art of using language so as to persuade or
  influence others. (Edwards et al. 2004, p.3)
  Hence, Rhetorical analysis involves the study of
  the ways in which we attempt to persuade or
  influence in our discursive, textual and gestural
  practices. (Edwards et al., 2004, p.13) Hence,
  part of the job of the rhetoric analyst is to
  determine how constructions of the real are
  made persuasive (Simon, 1990 quoted in Edwards
  et al., 2004, p. 13) Here the question is not so
  much about whether reality matches rhetoric or
  not, but which fabrications of the real are more
  persuasive and why. (Edwards, et al., 2004,
  p.13)
• As for the case of educational discourse,
  rhetoric analysis aims to explore and reveal
  hidden rhetoric aspect to educational
  discourse. (Edwards et al., 2004, p. 9)

73
Conception of Rhetoric in Policy Studies

• Constituents of rhetoric performance It has been
  identified by analysts of rhetoric that there are
  several essential constituents for a rhetoric
  performance, i.e. to make rhetoric persuasive.
  They are
• Context Rhetoric by definition is pragmatic in
  nature, i.e. it responds to or interacts with
  societal issues or problems, and it produces some
  action upon or change in the world. (Gill
  Whedbee, 1997, p.161). Therefore, in order to be
  comprehended and/or critically analyzed the
  rhetoric in a policy text, it must be set against
  the context (temporal, socio-cultural and/or
  pragmatic contexts), in which it is derived.

74
Conception of Rhetoric in Policy Studies

• Constituents of rhetoric performance
• Exigence It refers to the way the issue and/or
  problem to be addressed in the rhetoric of a
  policy text are defined and formulated. For
  example, in recent education reforms, the most
  commonly used exigencies are either the decline
  of standards of students and school leavers or
  the threat of losing national competitiveness in
  global economic competitions.

75
Conception of Rhetoric in Policy Studies

• Constituents of rhetoric performance
• Audience It signifies the actual or figurative
  audience, whom the rhetoric of a policy text
  suppose to address or appeal to. For example, in
  recent education-reform documents, the audiences
  to be addressed are usually employers and/or
  parents rather than teachers and education
  professions. It indicates a sense of
  distrustfulness to professionals, who usually
  been depicted as the sourced of falling standard
  in education and/or falling competitiveness in
  national economy. Even within the audience of
  parents, they has been defined as consumers
  striving for individual gains rather than as
  citizens constituting common will and good for
  the society as a whole.

76
Conception of Rhetoric in Policy Studies

• Constituents of rhetoric performance
• Rhetor credibility It indicates the authorities
  of the speakers or writers of the texts, and/or
  the authorities that the rhetoric of a policy
  documents try to appealed to. For example, appeal
  to concepts as well as authorities of neo-liberal
  economists, such as Milton Friedman, in policy
  texts of education reform of liberalization is
  one of the most common practices in recent
  education reforms.
• Absence It has been underlined that one of the
  essential components in analyzing rhetoric is
  what is absent from or silenced by the text.
  (Gill Whedbee, 1997, p.169).

77
Conception of Rhetoric in Policy Studies

• Constituents of rhetoric performance
• Metaphor The essence of metaphor is
  understanding and experiencing one kind of thing
  in terms of another. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980
  quoted in Edwards, 2004, p.25) In metaphoric
  analysis, it is claimed that human understanding
  is a metaphoric process the mind grasps an
  unfamiliar idea only by comparison to or in terms
  of something already known. Thus the metaphoric
  language in a text presents a particular view of
  reality by structuring the understanding of one
  idea in terms of something previously
  understood. (Gill Whedbee, 1997, p.173)
• For example, in the rhetoric of the
  neo-liberalism the education system is
  metaphorically prescribed as a market mechanism,
  a school as a input-output factory, students as
  materials to be processed and added on value,
  parents as choosing consumers, school principals
  as CEO, etc.

78
Conception of Rhetoric in Policy Studies

• Constituents of rhetoric performance
• Iconicity Iconicity functions in a way that is
  similar to metaphor, iconicity rests on the
  intuitive recognition of similarities one field
  of reference (the form of language) and
  another. (Gill Whedbee, 1997, p.174) For
  example, HK school like to use celebrity
  graduates as rhetoric to indicate the quality of
  the school.

79
Conception of Narrative in Policy Studies

• Conception of narrative in policy study
• Narrative can be defined as literal
  representation which takes the form of a
  storyline, i.e. with clear beginning,
  development, and end.
• It refers to the storyline that each
  interpretive community constructs, follows and
  put fore in a policy argumentation. It is a
  representation schema a interpretive community
  used to define their situation in the policy
  reality and organize their arguments.

80
Conception of Narrative in Policy Studies

• The structure of narrative Numbers of scholars
  have tried to summarize the structure of a
  narrative. Here Hyden Whites formulation will be
  adopted
• Central subject The narrator or the main
  character in the story. In the case of policy
  argumentation, the central subject is a
  particular interpretive community/interest group.
• Plot
• It refers to the sequence of events selectively
  organized into a narrative by an interpretive
  community in the policy argumentation.
• It represents a structure of relationships by
  which the events contained in the account are
  endowed with a meaning by being identified as
  parts of an integrated whole (P.9)
• The plot of a narrative imposes a meaning on the
  events that make up its story level by revealing
  at the end a structure that was immanent in the
  events all along. (p.20)

81
Conception of Narrative in Policy Studies

• The structure of narrative
• Closure
• It refers to the resolution, evaluation and even
  moral meaning elicited from the precedent
  sequence of events, i.e. plots.
• As White indicates a proper historical narrative
  achieves narrative fullness by explicitly
  invoking the idea of a social system to serve as
  a fixed reference point by which the flow of
  ephemeral events can be endowed with specifically
  moral meaning. (Hence), the chronicle must
  approach the form of an allegory, moral or
  analogical as the case may be, in order to
  achieve both narrativity and historicality. (p.
  22)
• As in the case of policy narrative, the closure
  performs the function of resolving the policy
  alternatives and/or conflicts, evaluating the
  policy choices, and attributing moral meanings to
  the policy conclusion. But most importantly these
  resolution, evaluation and attribution are all
  constructed according to the worldview and/or
  vested interest of the interpretive community
  concerned.

82
Conception of Narrative in Policy Studies

• The structure of narrative
• Authority Narratives will usually be present in
  authoritative manner as if they are the
  establishment of facts, order and even truth

83
Conception of Narrative in Policy Studies

• Narrative identity and decision-making by rule
  following
• By relating James Marchs institutionist
  thesis of decision-making by rule following with
  the interpretive approach to narrative identity
  of interpretive communities

84
Conception of Narrative in Policy Studies

• Narrative identity and decision-making by rule
  following
• The conception of interpretive community can be
  construed as a community with a particular
  narrative identity on a policy issue
• As a result members of an interpretive community
  will follow the logic of appropriateness in
  making decision on policy issue
• Hence, they are most unlikely to approach the
  policy decision at hand in self-interest
  calculation orientation but to base the decision
  on the narrative identity of the interpretive
  community to which they have identified.

85
Perspectives and Processes in Policy Studies
86
7Policy Process Study Policy-Making Study
END