REPRESENTATIONS OF POLITICAL ARGUMENT: APPLICATIONS WITHIN META-PLANNING

Abstract. Central to the best-known classification of Political Arguments is a distinction between want-regarding and ideal-regarding principles, upon which this paper bases alternative representations of the dynamics of political debate. These are discussed with specific reference to the possibility that want-regarding goals are served less well by British planning decisions than if ideal-regarding arguments were permitted. The representations provide a limited explanation of how such a situation might come about and be maintained. Initially they draw on Downs'models of voting and party competition, but explore alternatives because of: (1) the possibility that some assumptions needed for a Downsian representation cannot realistically be made about political arguments; and (2) the probability that factors other than verbal arguments enter into planning decisions.     

PUBLIC PROTEST AND PUBLIC POLICY: THE ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT AND POLITICAL INNOVATION*

With the Comprehensive Anti-apartheid Act of 1986, Congress instituted economic sanctions against South Africa, thereby reversing the historic course of U. S. foreign policy. This political innovation constituted a great victory for minority interests. This article utilizes the agenda-setting literature to examine the relationship between Anti-apartheid movement activity in the United States and adoption of economic sanctions against South Africa. The analysis is based upon an events data set consisting of 1353 events appearing in the New York Times between 1960 and 1986, interviews with activists and legislators, and archived materials. The ar- ticle concludes that although the Anti-apartheid movement was only in- directly involved in moving sanctions legislation to the policy agenda, the movement exerted direct influence in the policy process once the legislation had agenda status.     

PUBLIC POLICY AND POLITICAL CHOICE: A REVIEW ARTICLE

Abstract: In reviewing the literature on policy studies, as in studying policy making itself, what you see depends on where you look. Studies of public policy vary widely in forms, methods and rationale. This paper does not try to categorize and capture the spirit of all aspects of a diverse and burgeoning literature. Its focus is on a number of recent books that straddle broadly the categories of process and administrative studies. The questions addressed in the volumes discussed are about how institutions handle issues in public policy, their relevance to the actual content of policy, and the ways in which individuals and groups within them see and respond to opportunities for choice. Each book is concerned with questions of theory but the books do not, either singly or together, suggest a single compelling theory of institutions and policy processes. Indeed, considering their theoretical sophistication, one may doubt whether such a goal is practicable. The better the work done on policy studies the more open-ended theoretically the field seems to be.     

POLITICAL CONDITIONS MOTIVATING LEGISLATORS' USE OF POLICY INFORMATION

While "research utilization" literature has focused on the limited use of policy research by policymakers, there has been l i t t l e attention directed at legislators1 use of policy research o r the importance of the decisionmaking context in explaining policy research use.
Relying on the research utilization literature and the legislative behavior literature, this paper examines the legislative setting as it relates to policy information use, and it outlines the conditions under which policy information might be used by legislators. Specifically, two types of legislator information searches are discussed–the constituent service search and policy formulating search. While there are many obstacles to policy information use–including cognitive and organizational ones–this paper focuses only on political conditions and political obstacles relating to legis- lators' use of policy information.     

EVALUATION RESEARCH AND POLITICAL SCIENCE: AN ARGUMENT AGAINST THE DIVISION OF SCHOLARLY LABOR

Political science might have been the birthplace of evaluation research, but it has instead been unreceptive to it for a number of reasons. Hofferbert's suggestion that political scientists become involved by studying the impact of policy on democratic processes does not take into account the ferment that has been taking place in the field of evaluation. Political scientists should not conduct evaluation studies using the same methodology they normally use because these may not produce the kind of information needed for improving policies or programs. A disciplinary division of labor is impractical for a number of reasons. Instead, they should use a policy sciences framework, which contains normative elements and focuses on potentials for change, among other things.     

FEDERAL POLICY IN LOCAL CONTEXT:PUZZLING THROUGH THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PARADIGMATIC POLICY REFORM

Although comprehensive reform programs (CRPs) have been influenced by theories of government failure, they pose some puzzles for these theorists. My purpose is to address puzzles that relate to observed characteristics of the timing, radicalism, implementation, rhetoric and democratic consequences of reforms. The long period of paradigm stability which typically precede them is explained in terms of the institutional and political risks associated with radical policy reform while the reforms themselves are explained in terms of factors that generated opportunities for new sources of policy leadership. This leadership was collectively supplied by a network that sought to break the hold of a fragmented structure of policy communities over the policy process.     

POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIO-ECONOMICS*

Avariety of efforts are currently underway to develop alternatives to the neoclassical paradigm and neoclassical analysis of economic behavior. Here, the author seeks not to argue which approach is most productive, but to demonstrate the useful policy implications of adding key noneconomic (so- cial, psychological and political) variables to a paradigm that attempts to model economic behavior. This co-deterministic paradigm is called socio- economics. The article discusses the different and often insightful policy analysis that results from employing a socio-economic set of variables in four major areas: (1) allowing for shifting preferences; (2) including institu- tional contexts and influences within which individual transactions take place; (3) recognizing the effects of political as well as economic power differences; and (4) combining macro and structural policies.     

SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES AND POLICY RESEARCH: THE CASE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

It has been argued that social science disciplines influence their members policy research via theoretical focus, methods, norms, and system maintenance mechanisms and that these forces inhibit the usefulness of policy research for policy-making. Political science is found to influence substantially its members policy research output and to decrease its policy usefulness, primarily by promoting explanations of policy, although the extent of influence and lack of usefulness are less than studies of other disciplines suggest. Whereas highly useful outcome analyses are produced less frequently than many advocates of policy research would hope, a sub-stantial body of policy research undertakes objectives that when satisfied, particularly in the area of problem definition, provide moderately useful output to decision makers. In addition, policy research output is remarkably diverse substantively, but less so in terms of the purposes it serves.     

THE LIMITS OF ENERGY POLICY ANALYSIS

Glenn R. De Souza, Energy Policy and Forecasting: Economic, Financial, and Technological Dimensions
Raymond C. Scheppach and Everett M. Ehrlich, (Eds.), Energy-Policy Analysis and Congressional Action
Aaron Wildavsky and Ellen Tenenbaum, The Politics of Mistrust: Estimating American Oil and Gas Resources     

REGULATORY POLICY ANALYSIS: WORKING IN A QUAGMIRE

The authors review five "definitions-in-use" that characterize regulatory policymaking and policy analysis. They survey these contradictory meanings and argue that the common use of all five has adversely affected efforts to reform and study government regulation.     

NEW ISSUES IN THE LOGIC OF POLICY ANALYSIS

Case studies of social interventions need not exchange relevance for rigor, provided analysts keep three methodological issues in mind. First, certain critical tests can and should be performed to help establish causal relations even when empirical data are limited. Second, "causell is an explanatory category representing a moral judgment. Third, case studies should provide some systematic attempt to evaluate the program under scrutiny. The article entitled "Social-Problem Solving in a Revolutionary Setting: Nicaragua's Pesticide Policy Reforms" by Douglas L. Murray (Policy Studies Review, November 1984) is used to illustrate these issues.