MODULE 6
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WHAT IS POLICY RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS?
Policy research /analysis/ science means:
1. Study using quantitative and non-quantitative analysis involving
incremental comparison of values of and policy
● First spoken of by Lindblom during the 1950s
2. An applied social science discipline that attempts to produce useful
Distinction in varieties of policy analysis is in terms of explicit purpose and/or
information for policy decision-making
client, separating analysis for policy from analysis of policy.
● Involves analyzing the feasibility and implementability of policy
options
Analysis for policy
3. A client-oriented advice relevant to public decisions and informed by
1. Policy advocacy
social values.
● Advocates a single policy
● Client is ideally the public, but sometimes, it may also be the
● Serves some end which the researchers value
policy makers, politicians and other stakeholders
2. Information policy
4. Uses multiple methods of inquiry to produce and transform
● provide policy-makers with information and advice
policy-relevant information to resolve policy problems.
5. Relies on factual information and information about facts, values and
Analysis of policy
ideals
1. Policy monitoring and evaluation
● depends on statistics and explanations on such statistics
● post hoc analysis of policies and programs
6. Its utility is advice to solve societal problems
● May be aimed at providing:
● to provide information as basis for social action, not to further
○ Impact and effectiveness of policies
develop theory about an area of activity
○ Feasibility analysis for future policies
7. It is “decision-oriented” rather than ‘conclusion-oriented’ research
○ Limits of possibility
● Its concern is on the approaches to address the problem and
2. Analysis of policy determination
prevent its negative effects and impacts
● Emphasis is on the inputs and transformational processes
8. Its audience is a set of political actors
operating upon the construction of public policy
● Its subject is a societal concern which are authoritatively
● Emphasizes constraints upon action to the point where
addressed or acted upon by the official stakeholders in the
patterns of activity are portrayed as the necessary outcomes
policy-making arena
of a confluence of forces
3. Analysis of policy content
Policy research and analysis are:
● conducted for academic advancement rather than public
● used interchangeably to mean policy science
impact
● multidisciplinary, eclectic, problem-solving activity which aims to
● content studies engage in “value analysis” and show social
improve policies and societal situations
policies as institutionalizing social theories
● descriptive, evaluative and prescriptive
● both policy studies and policy analysis
● both art and science
Policy analysis is concerned with the following:
WHAT DISTINGUISHES POLICY RESEARCH? world of policy or the conceptual world of the client without loss of
It can be distinguished through its features and principles. The features of meaning.
policy research are: ● begins with a problem formulated outside any discipline and
beyond any intellectual problem posed by previous research or
1. Policy research pays attention to the politics of policy-making. theory
● knows the game, the players and the goals of both the players ● its solution will not bring about the advancement of knowledge
and the play in the discipline, but societal policy modified.
● considers aspects such as: political feasibility, recruitment of 6. The existence of competing and conflicting interests requires special
support, and the like so that its policy recommendations may self-corrective devices such as:
have better chances of being adopted and implemented ● the commissioning of more than one research group under the
2. It views decision-making beyond resource allocation or economics auspices of different interested parties
● Uses qualitative methods, too ● independent review of research results, using an adversarial or
3. It emphasizes creativity and encourages innovation dialectical process.
● This is in contrast to comparative analysis of available 7. Values in policy research imply a desire to see one path of action
alternatives and synthesis of new alternatives only pursued than another.
4. It emphasizes “futures” as essential for current policy-making ● values are used to advocate certain positions which are
● It assesses each alternative policy options by ‘writing’ believed to be the best in addressing or solving societal
scenarios or probable states, positive and negative effects and problems
impacts and the like 8. The values governing transmission of research results back into the
5. It approaches problems and solutions systematically world of action are determined by conditions of acceptance of the
6. It is applied, inter- and multidisciplinary, politically sensitive and policy research problem.
client-oriented ● Requires avoidance of three types of errors:
○ Correct solution to a wrong problem (Type I);
The principles of policy research, according to Coleman, are: ○ Wrong solution to a correct problem (Type II);
○ Wrong solution to a wrong problem (Type III).
1. Partial information available at the time an action must be taken is 9. Results of policy research will not ordinarily be acted upon or openly
better than complete information after the time disclosed to others, unless it benefits a party’s interests
2. The value of policy research results lies in a high probability of giving 10. Those stages of policy research should be governed by the
approximately the right guides to action, rather than in their deviation investigator’s personal values and should appropriately include
from or correspondence to a good theory. The correctness of the advocacy.
predictions or results is important and redundancy is valuable.
● The criteria of parsimony and elegance that apply in discipline
research are not always important.
3. The ultimate product of policy research is not a contribution to existing
knowledge in the literature, but a social policy modified by the research
results.
4. It is necessary to treat differently policy variables which are subject to
policy manipulation and situational variables which are not. The basic
thrust of policy research is to continue effective control of policy
variables.
5. The research problem of policy research enters from outside any
academic discipline and must be carefully translated from the real
THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF POLICY RESEARCH PREPARATIONS FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
In knowing how to do policy research, an analyst must have the following
preparations
1. An analyst must
● know how to gather, organize and communicate information
under deadline pressures and in situations where access to
relevant people is limited
● be able to develop strategies for quickly understanding the
nature of policy problems and the range of possible solutions
● be able to identify, quantitatively and qualitatively, the likely
costs and benefits of alternative solutions and communicate
these assessments to their clients.
2. An analyst needs a perspective for putting perceived social problems in
context. When is it legitimate for the government to intervene?
3. An analyst needs technical skills to enable him or her to predict better
and to evaluate more confidently the consequences of alternative
policies
4. An analyst must have an understanding of political and organizational
behavior in order to predict and perhaps, influence the feasibility of
adoption and successful implementation of policies.
5. An analyst should have an ethical framework that explicitly takes
account of his or her relationships with clients
DOING POLICY ANALYSIS: PROCESSES AND STEPS
