Theory
Knowledge Utilization and Policy Analysis
This post discusses two journal articles:
Hird, J.A. (2005). Policy analysis for what? The effectiveness of nonpartisan policy research organizations. The policy studies journal, 33 (1), pp. 83-105.
Shulock, N. (1999). The paradox of policy analysis: If it is not used, why do we produce so much of it? Journal of policy analysis and management, 18 (2), pp. 226-244.
Both Shulock and Hird discuss the use of the knowledge generated by policy analysis in policymaking. Both scholars argue that policy analysis is primarily used in the policy process, and has a smaller effect on the policies themselves.
Thoughts on thenewstate.com
Why the new state? We have entered into a new American epoch. Economic, technological, and political structures that have been the framework of the study and practice of public administration have radically changed. In the ever so close past, the ends that governing sought were limited to economic development. Safety, housing, the environment, and education had all become commodities and have been used as means to generate economic development. Privatization, outsourcing, de-regulation, and “creative” finance are just a few of the tools that public administrators have used to generate economic development. But now with the collapse of our economy we have realized that the focus on economic development has left us with crumbling infrastructure, substandard education and environmental policy, over-crowded jails, a food production industry dependent on environmentally devastating practices, massive corruption, a socially stagnant classes with little mobility, and greater wealth accumulation in a ridiculously few. A self interested society, it turns out, is not sustainable.
