Abstract
The dynamics of intractability, frame multiplicity and intense controversy not only characterize policy formation struggles, as described by Schön and Rein, but also affect the evaluation of policies and government action. Policy analysts play an important part in the politics of policy evaluation. This article demonstrates that they tend to produce very different explanations for controversial, failing policies. Such differing explanations imply different causal attributions, different allocations of blame, and different lessons for future policy-making. Such differences are not random occurrences; they are embedded in the analytical frames that evaluators use to reconstruct policy processes and to explain their outcomes. It is shown that at least three deep-rooted frames can be reconstructed: fiascoes as failures of public problem solving, fiascoes as institutional imbalances, and fiascoes as system artefacts. One of the great epistemological challenges is how to deal with multiple analytical frames. The final part of the article discusses various strategies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allison, G.T. (1971).Essence of Decision. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Almond, G.A., R.J. Flanagan, and Mundt (Eds.) (1973).Crisis, Choice, and Change. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Apter, D.E. (1991). Institutionalism reconsidered.International Social Science Journal 129:463–81.
Bell, D., Raiffa, H., and A. Tversky (Eds.) (1990).Decision Making. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bendor, J.M. (1985).Parallel Systems: Redundancy in Government. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bovens, M.A.P. and P. ’t Hart (1996).Understanding Policy Fiascoes. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction.
Brownill, S. (1990).Developing London’s Docklands: Another Great Planning Disaster? London: Paul Chapman Publishing.
Burke, J., and Greenstein, F. (1989).How Presidents Test Reality. New York: Russel Sage.
Burrell, W.G., and Morgan, G. (1979).Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis. London: Heinemann.
Cohen, E.A., and Gooch, J. (1991).Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War. New York: Vintage Books.
Dahl, R.A. (1971)Polyarchy. New Haven: Yale University Press.
David, C.P. (1993)Foreign Policy Failure in the White House. Lanham: University Press of America.
DeLeon, P. (1991). Political events and the policy sciences. In: P. Wagner, B. Wittrock, C.H. Weiss, and H. Wollman (Eds.),Social Sciences and Modern States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Deutsch, K.W. (1963).The Nerves of Government. New York: Free Press.
Dixon, N. (1987).Our Own Worst Enemy. London: Jonathan Cape.
Douglas, M. (1992).Risk and Blame. London: Routledge.
Dunleavy, P. (1990). Reinterpreting the Westland affair: Theories of the state and core executive decision making.Public Administration 68:3–33.
Easton, D. (1965).A Systems Analysis of Political Life. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Etheredge, L.S. (1985).Can Governments Learn? Oxford: Pergamon.
Feldman, E.J. (1985).Concorde and Dissent: Explaining High-Technology Failure in Britain and France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Forester, J. (1989). Envisioning the Politics of Public Sector Dispute Resolution. Unpublished manuscript, Cornell University.
Friedrich, C.J. (1972).The Pathologies of Politics. New York: Free Press.
Gabriel, R.T. (1985).Military Incompetence. New York: Hill and Wang.
George, A.L. (1980).Presidential Decision Making in Foreign Policy. Boulder: Westview Press.
Golembiewski, R.T. (1977).Public Administration as a Developing Discipline. New York: Dekker.
Gough, J. (1979).The Political Economy of the Welfare State. London: Macmillan.
Habermas, J. (1975).Legitimation Crisis. Boston: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1984).The Theory of Communicative Action. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hall, P. (1982).Great Planning Disasters. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hamilton, V.L. and P. Sanders (1992). Responsibility and risk in organizational crimes of obedience. In: B.M. Staw (Ed.)Research in Organizational Behavior. Greenwich: JAI Press.
Hanusch, H. (Ed.) (1983).Anatomy of Government Deficiencies. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Hart, P.’t (1990; 1994).Groupthink in Government: A Study of Small Groups and Policy Failure. Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger; and Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hawkesworth, M.E. (1988).Theoretical Issues in Policy Analysis. Albany: SUNY Press.
Hirschman, A.O. (1971).A Bias for Hope. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Hood, C.C. (1991). A public management for all seasons?Public Administration 69: 3–19.
Hood, C.C., and M. Jackson (1991). The new public management: A recipe for disaster. In: D. Parker and J. Handmer (Eds.),Hazard Management and Emergency Planning: Perspectives on Britain. London: James and James.
Jacobs, B.D. and P.’t Hart (1991). The Hillsborough Stadium disaster: A comparative analysis. In: D. Parker and J. Handmer (Eds.),Hazard Management and Emergency Planning: Perspectives on Britain. London: James and James.
James, P. (Ed.) (1990).Technocratic Dreaming. Melbourne: Left Book Club Cooperative.
Janis, I.L. (1982).Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Foreign Policy Decisions and Fiascoes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Janis, I.L. (1989).Crucial Decisions: Leadership in Policy-making and Crisis Management. New York: Free Press.
Janis, I.L., and Mann, L. (1977).Decision Making: A Psychological Analysis of Conflict, Choice, and Commitment. New York: Free Press.
Jervis, R. (1976).Perceptions and Misperceptions in International Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Kelman, H.C. and V.L. Hamilton (1989).Crimes of Obedience. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Kuhn, T. (1964) Postscript to the second edition ofThe Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Landau, M. (1988). Foreword. In: E.B. Portis and M.B. Levy (Eds.),Handbook of Political Theory and Policy Science. New York: Greenwood Press.
Lane, J.E. (1990).The Public Sector. London: Sage.
Lijphart, A. (1977).Democracy in Plural Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Lindblom, C.E. (1991).Inquiry and Change. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Linz, J.J., and A. Stepan (Eds.) (1978).The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
March, J.G. and J.P. Olsen (1989)Rediscovering Institutions. New York: Free Press.
McKinney, J.B. and M. Johnston (Eds.) (1987).Fraud, Waste and Abuse in Government: Causes, Consequences and Cures. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues.
Mucciaroni, G. (1990).The Political Failure of Unemployment Policy, 1945–1980. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press.
Nelson, R.R. (1977).The Moon and the Ghetto. New York: Norton.
Nemeth, C.J. and B.M. Staw (1989). The tradeoffs of social control and innovation in groups and organizations.Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 22: 175–210.
Nisbett, R. and L. Ross (1980).Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Niskanen, W. (1971).Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Aldine: Atherton.
Nordlinger, E. (1972).Conflict Regulation in Divided Societies. Cambridge: Harvard Center for International Affairs.
O’Connor, J. (1973).The Fiscal Crisis of the State. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Offe, C. (1984).Contradictions of the Welfare State. London: Hutchinson.
Ostrom, E. (1990).Governing the Commons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peirce, W. (1981).Bureaucratic Failure and Public Expenditure. New York: Academic Press.
Perrow, C. (1984).Normal Accidents: Living With High-Risk Technologies. New York: Basic Books.
Portis, E.B. and M.B. Levy (Eds.) (1988).Handbook of Political Theory and Policy Science. New York: Greenwood Press.
Presman, J.L. and A. Wildavsky (1973).Implementation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Reason, J. (1990).Human Error. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Roberts, K. (1993).New Challenges to Understanding Organizations. New York: Macmillan.
Rosenthal, U., Hart, P. ’t, and A. Kouzmin (1991). The bureau-politics of crisis management.Public Administration 69: 211–233.
Russo, R.J. and P. Schoemaker (1988).Decision Traps. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Sagan, S.D. (1993).The Limits of Safety. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Schön, D.A. and M. Rein (1994).Reframing: Toward the Resolution of Intractable Policy Controversies. New York: Basic Books.
Schulman, P. (1993). Negotiated order of organizational reliability.Administration and Society 25: 353–372.
Sick, G. (1985).All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter with Iran. New York: Penguin.
Sieber, S.D. (1981).Fatal Remedies. New York: Plenum Press.
Steinbruner, J.D. (1974).The Cybernetic Theory of Decision. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Stone, D.A. (1988).Policy Paradox and Political Reason. Glenview IL.: Scott Foresman.
Toonen, T.A.J. (1983). Administrative plurality in a unitary state: The analysis of public organisational pluralism.Policy and Politics 11: 249–71.
Wildavsky, A. (1988).Searching for Safety. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction.
Wilensky, H. (1967).Organizational Intelligence. New York: Free Press.
Williams, W. (1990).Mismanaging America: The Rise of the Anti-Analytic Presidency. Lawrence: Kansas University Press.
Williamson, O. (1975).Markets and Hierarchies. New York: Free Press.
Wolf, C. (1988).Markets or Governments. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
His research interests include the philosophy of administration, policy analysis, organizational studies and constitutional theory.
His research interests include public policy-making, crisis management, and social-psychological approaches to understanding governance.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bovens, M., Hart, P. Frame multiplicity and policy fiascoes: Limits to explanation. Knowledge and Policy 8, 61–82 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02832230
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02832230