A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving.

• Author: Bardach, Eugene

A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis; the Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving is written by two political scientists primarily focusing on policy implementation and promoting better interagency cooperation in public administration. By using real-world examples, the authors draw attention to active, effective, precise, and convincing policy analysis. The outcome of their work is a book providing its readers with dozens of professionally handled concrete tips, new case studies and step-by-step strategies fulfilling three main goals: to create an eight-part policy analysis process guide, to help students develop concrete skills to obtain data on policy issues, and assist solving design problems by employing "smart applications" which will provide a road map for policy proposals.

In the first chapter of the book, the authors dwell on eight steps which they believe contribute enormously to the problem-solving process in policy making. The first of these steps is "defining the problem" which is referred as a "crucial step" (p. 10) by the authors since it gives both a reason and a sense of direction to what follows next. Authors here emphasize the importance of the simplicity of the language that is being used by the policy makers and warn against "issue rhetoric" (p. 4). The second step is "assembling the evidence" (p. 14) which is crucial in the solution of policy problems. According to authors, we need evidence for three primary purposes; "to assess the nature and extent of the problem; to assess the particular features of the concrete policy situation; and finally to assess policies that have been thought to have worked effectively elsewhere" (p. 11).

The third stage of the policy process is to construct the alternatives (p. 21). By alternatives, the authors refer to alternative intervention strategies to solve or alleviate the problem (21). In this section, the authors focus specifically on "modelling the system" and the "model types" and argue that it is in the best interest of the researcher to create two or three main alternatives as models in the initial stages of the analysis. The fourth step is then the selection of the evaluation criteria (p. 31). According to the authors "Policy story has two plot lines: the analytical (facts) and the evaluative (value judgements)." The evaluative criteria include efficiency (focusing on utility); equality (focusing on fairness); freedom and values. Step five is the most difficult in the...