Policy Paradox: Political Decision Making

1
Policy Paradox Political Decision Making

• Social Work 5763
• Community Organizing Development
• September 29, 2003

2
Policy Paradox

• What are the paradoxes of policy?
• Why is the art of political decision making
  important?
• Paradox defined Two or more contradictory
  interpretations are both true

3
Goals of politicians

• Politicians have two goals
• Create policy to address issue/problem
• Political goal, gain power preserve power to
  achieve first goal
• Do social workers administering social programs
  or community coalitions have similar goals?

4
Power

• How do you amass power?
• Turn defeats into victories
• This is possible because paradoxes predominate
  political and social life

5
The Rationality Project

• Rescuing policy from irrationality of politics
• Making policy rational, analytical, and
  scientific
• Common goals of political science, public
  administration, law, and social work

6
Goal 1 of Stones Book

• Rationality project misses the point of politics
• She calls this an impossible dream
• Inside of the rationality project, politics looks
  messy, foolish, erratic
• In the rationality project, policy is somehow
  above politics
• Rationality is the correct vantage point

7
Goal 2 of Stones book

• ALTERNATIVE
• Elements of policy are paradoxical themselves
• Policy is defined in a political struggle
• Cant exist outside of politics, because policy
  is abstract (uses language)
• Language leads to ambiguities

8

• Desired conduct an analysis where political
  influences are considered
• to better resolve paradoxes
• Undergirding assumption that policy can be good,
  but politics is bad
• Stone believes that politics is a creative and
  valuable feature of social existence

9
Three components of policy

• A model of reasoning
• A model of society
• A model of policy making

10
Model of Reasoning

• A series of well-defined steps
• Identify objectives
• Identify alternative courses of action
• Predict possible consequences of each alternative
• Evaluate the possible consequences of each
  alternative
• Select alternative that maximizes attainment of
  objectives

11
political reasoning

• An alternate model of political reasoning would
  consider
• changing ones objectives
• pursuing contradictory objectives simultaneously
• winning by appearing to lose and turning loss
  into victory

12
Model of Society

• In the rationality project, the model of society
  is the market
• Society is a collection of autonomous, rational
  decision makers who have no community life
• Life consists of trading with others to maximize
  their individual well-being
• Individuals maximize self-interest through
  rational decisions

13
Alternative Political Community

• Stone calls the political community a polis
• Necessary because policy is created in a
  political community, rather than market
• Market does not allow a way to explain decisions
  that are not rational

14
Model of Policy Making

• In the rationality project, policy is created in
  an orderly sequence of stages (assembly line)
• This is a production line model
• An issue is placed on the agenda
• Problem is defined
• Moves through committees that have studied
• Single best alternative is enacted

15
Political policy making

• Production model fails to recognize
• THE STRUGGLE OVER IDEAS
• Shared meanings motivate people to action
• Ideas are the center of all political conflict