Top

Policy Sciences

Published in:

31-07-2017 | Research Article

Rescuing the decision process

Author: Matthew R. Auer

Published in: Policy Sciences | Issue 4/2017

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

On the occasion of the 50th volume of policy sciences, a former editor considers which concept from the policy sciences has diffused most widely outside the pages of the journal. If textbooks on the policy process are any indicator of what’s most valuable about Lasswell’s policy sciences framework, then the decision process is his most enduring contribution. Unfortunately, many textbooks conflate the decision process with derivative policy process concepts, thereby distorting the original and isolating it from a complete set of diagnostic and prescriptive tools all meant to be deployed together.

next article A “review” of policy sciences: bibliometric analysis of authors, references, and topics during 1970–2017

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Both the impetuses for and outcomes of the Cornell-Peru Project are subjects of debate, as is Lasswell’s involvement in the project (see Ross 2010).

Reisman writes (1999: 2), boldly:

Mainstream contemporary legal theory—with its emphasis on the state as the centerpiece of any legal system and, for many theorists, its primary, if not exclusive, source of law—misdirects our attention from the full realm of law. The law of the state may be important, but law, real law, is found in all human relations, from the simplest, briefest encounter between two people to the most inclusive and permanent type of interaction. Law is a property of interaction. Real law is generated, reinforced, changed, and terminated continually in the course of almost all of human activity (italics in original).

Ascher, W. (forthcoming). Understanding the policymaking process in developing countries. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Ascher, W. (2017). Keeping the faith: Policy sciences as the gatekeeper. Policy Sciences, 50(2), 157–162.CrossRef

Auer, M. R. (2007). Policy sciences in critical perspective. In J. Rabin, J. G. J. Miller, & W. B. Hildreth (Eds.), Handbook of public administration (pp. 545–566). London: Taylor & Francis.

Brewer, G. D. (2017). There at the beginning: We’re still “emerging”, maybe forever. Policy Sciences, 50(1), 1–7.CrossRef

Brunner, R. D., & Lynch, A. H. (2010). Adaptive governance and climate change. Boston: American Meteorological Association.CrossRef

Clark, S. G., Rutherford, M. B., & Casey, D. (Eds.). (2005). Coexisting with large carnivores: Lessons from greater yellowstone. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Clark, S. G., & Wallace, R. L. (2015). Integration and interdisciplinarity: Concepts, frameworks, and education. Policy Sciences, 48(2), 233–255.CrossRef

Clark, S. G., Willard, A. R., & Cromley, C. M. (Eds.). (2000). Foundations of natural resources policy and management. New Haven: Yale University Press.

DeLeon, P. (1999). The stages approach to the policy process: What has it done? Where is it going? In P. A. Sabatier (Ed.), Theories of the policy process (pp. 19–32). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Dobyns, H. F., Doughty, P. L., & Lasswell, H. D. (Eds.). (1971). Peasants, power, and applied social change: Vicos as a model. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

Fleeger, M. E., & Becker, M. (2010). Decision processes for multijurisdictional planning and management: Community wildfire protection planning in Oregon. Society and Natural, 23(4), 351–365.

Hogwood, B. W., & Gunn, L. A. (1984). Policy analysis for the real world. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Holmberg, A. R. (1971). Experimental intervention in the field. In H. F. Dobyns, P. L. Doughty, & H. D. Lasswell (Eds.), Peasants, power, and applied social change: Vicos as a model (pp. 21–63). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

Howlett, M., Ramesh, M., & Perl, A. (2009). Studying public policy: Policy cycles and policy subsystems. Ontario: Oxford University Press.

Hupe, P. L., & Hill, M. J. (2006). The three action levels of governance: Re-framing the policy process beyond the stages model. In B. G. Peters & J. Pierre (Eds.), Handbook of public policy (pp. 13–30). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRef

Jann, W., & Wegrich, K. (2007). Theories of the policy cycle. In F. Fischer, G. J. Miller, & M. S. Sidney (Eds.), Handbook of public policy analysis: Theory, politics, and methods (pp. 43–62). Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis.

Jenkins-Smith, H. C., & Sabatier, P. A. (1993). The study of public policy processes. In P. A. Sabatier & H. C. Jenkins-Smith (Eds.), Policy change and learning: An advocacy coalition approach (pp. 1–9). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Jones, C. O. (1970). An introduction to the study of public policy. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Lasswell, H. D. (1956). The decision process: Seven categories of functional analysis. College Park, MD: University of Maryland.

Lasswell, H. D. (1963). The future of political science. New York: Atherton Press.

Lasswell, H. D. (1971). A pre-view of policy sciences. New York: American Elsevier.

Lasswell, H. D., & McDougal, M. S. (1992). Jurisprudence for a free society: Science in law, science and policy, volumes I and II. New Haven, CT: New Haven Press and Martinus Nijhoff.

Lurie, S., & Clark, S. G. (2001). The policy frontier: Sustainability planning in Teton County, Wyoming. In S. G. Clark, M. J. Stevenson, K. Ziegelmayer, & M. B. Rutherford (Eds.), Yale F&ES bulletin 105 (pp. 203–221). Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New Haven: Species and Ecosystem Conservation: An Interdisciplinary Approach.

McGinnis, M. D., & Ostrom, E. (2014). Social-ecological system framework: Initial changes and continuing challenges. Ecology and Society, 19(2), 30.CrossRef

Neblo, M. A., Minozzi, W., Esterling, K. M., Green, J., Kingzette, J., & Lazer, D. M. J. (2017). The need for a translational science of democracy. Science, 355(6328), 914–915.CrossRef

Ostrom, E. (1999). Institutional rational choice: An assessment of the institutional analysis and development framework. In P. A. Sabatier (Ed.), Theories of the policy process (pp. 35–71). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Reisman, W. M. (1981). International law-making: A process of communication. In 75 American Society of International Law Proceedings 101.

Reisman, W. M. (1999). Law in brief encounters. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Ross, E. B. (2010). Reflections on vicos: Anthropology, the cold war, and the idea of peasant conservatism. In T. Greaves, R. Bolton, & F. Zapata (Eds.), Vicos and beyond: A half century of applying anthropology in Peru (pp. 129–162). Lanham, MD: Rowman Altamira.

Sapru, R. K. (2011). Public policy: Art and craft of policy analysis. New Delhi: PHI Learning.

Smith, K. B., & Larimer, C. W. (2016). The public policy theory primer. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Tryhorn, L. M., & Lynch, A. H. (2010). Climate change adaptation in the Alpine Shire of Australia: A decision process appraisal. Policy Sciences, 43(2), 105–127.CrossRef

Weible, C. M. (2014). Introducing the scope and focus of policy process research and theory. In P. A. Sabatier & C. M. Weible (Eds.), Theories of the policy process (pp. 3–21). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Zittoun, P. (2011). Knowledge and politics inside the policy process: Contradiction or complementarity? In G. Papanagnou (Ed.), Social science and policy challenges: Democracy, values and capacities (pp. 143–164). Paris: UNESCO.

Title: Rescuing the decision process
Author: Matthew R. Auer
Publication date: 31-07-2017
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Policy Sciences / Issue 4/2017
Print ISSN: 0032-2687
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0891
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-017-9292-2

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Other articles of this Issue 4/2017

A “review” of policy sciences: bibliometric analysis of authors, references, and topics during 1970–2017

Crowdsourcing: a new tool for policy-making?

On credit and blame: disentangling the motivations of public policy decision-making behaviour

The enduring challenge of ‘wicked problems’: revisiting Rittel and Webber

Strategic use of evidence in state-level policymaking: matching evidence type to legislative stage

Plus ça Change, Plus C’est La Même Chose? A review of Paul Sabatier’s “An advocacy coalition framework of policy change and the role of policy-oriented learning therein”

Premium Partner