Policy Design

1.

Politecnico di Milano
School of Management
Giancarlo Vecchi
POLICY ANALYSIS 2022 – Policy Design
2a. Problem definition as a critical task

2.

1. The problem of problem definition
• Remember the idea that a “problem” usually
means that some people think there is
something wrong in the world.
• But you should consider that “wrong” is a very
debatable term
• Not everyone will think that the facts you have
defined as a problem are really a problem
needed a public policy or a public intervention.
Giancarlo Vecchi

3.

1. The problem of problem definition
Problem definition is contestable, due to the different
values and interests in society: problem definition
acquires often a political connotation
Remember:
• Labelling is first attributing a name to a problem
through a definitional process of association (with
facts, numbers, etc.). This attribution is the first of
the language games among actors identified by
Wittgenstein (Wittgenstein, 1958).
• Labelling will influence meaning.
Giancarlo Vecchi

4.

1. The problem of problem definition
A policy problem statement is a somewhat political
weapon of its stakeholders, who want not only to
describe the disorder of our society but also to shape
it: they want transforming a given situation into an
unacceptable public problem (to force public
intervention) and then into hypothesis of solution.
A problem definition relies not only on the naming of
its principal object but also on the definitional activity:
i.e. linking the object named to a set of expected
outcomes through some proposals which gives it
meaning and will structure the policy actions.
Giancarlo Vecchi

5.

1. The problem of problem definition
• In handbooks you can find suggestions to start a problem
definition claiming for the public intervention, using
argumentations relating to:
- market failures (e.g. private companies do not have
interests in providing goods, or they created a
monopoly/oligopoly with to high prices and low quality)
- side effects of well functioning markets (e.g. pollution
and ecological problems, health problems, etc.), or
- social failures connected to breakdown of some social
systems, like family relationships, racial or minorities
discriminations, etc.
Giancarlo Vecchi

6.

2. PROBLEM DEFINITION & AGENDA SETTING
Problem definition = Agenda-setting phase
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM TO SOLVE?
HOW TO DEFINE A PROBLEM IN A
PLURALISTIC CONTEXT?
Before a new project/policy is introduced,
an issue should be defined as a ‘problem’
that need an intervention
Giancarlo Vecchi

7.

2.
• Problem setting refers to the genesis of
policy/project, that starts with the
recognition of a collective problem
• What counts as a problem and how a
problem is defined depends upon the
way in which actors and policy-makers
(subjects that represent societal groups)
seek to address an issue or an event
Giancarlo Vecchi

8.

2.
Actors:
• Have interests and values
• Want public policies (or projects) that fit those
interests, beliefs, values
And for that reasons:
• … actors try to define issues in a way which
makes action or inaction likely, according to
their interests and/or values, beliefs
Giancarlo Vecchi

9.

2.
• “Agenda setting is the list of subjects or problems
to which governmental officials, and people
outside the government closely associated with
those officials, are paying serious attention at any
given time. … They do in fact seriously attend to
some of them rather than others. So, the agenda
setting process narrows this set of conceivable
subjects to the set that actually becomes the
focus of attention” (Kingdon, 1984, p. 3)
Giancarlo Vecchi

10.

2.
Types of agenda
• Public Agenda: the main problems discussed at
societal level, with the involvement of one or
some opinion leaders that raise a problem
• Institutional (governmental) Agenda: the list of
problems that are getting attention of public
institutions
• Decision Agenda: problems that are up for an
active decision
Giancarlo Vecchi

11.

From issues to policy problems
• “Whosoever initially identifies a social
problem shapes the initial terms in
which it will be debated” (J. Jones)
• Consider for example the following
sequence:
Giancarlo Vecchi

12.

2.
ISSUE
people sleeping on the street
↓
PROBLEM
↓
POLICY
Giancarlo Vecchi

13.

2.
ISSUE
people sleeping on the street
↓
PROBLEM
a) homeless (social policy: problem of houses?)
b) security of inhabitants (security policy: problem
of vagrancy?)
↓
POLICY
Giancarlo Vecchi

14.

2.
ISSUE
people sleeping on the street
↓
PROBLEM
a) homeless (problem of houses?)
b) security of inhabitants (problem of vagrancy?)
↓
POLICY
a) more social housing or labour measures
(against unemployment)
b) more police and law enforcement
Giancarlo Vecchi

15.

2.
Facts are things which never speak for
themselves: they require an interpreter
Problems tend to exist in policy terms (and
political sense) when it affects and
threatens some societal groups.
Giancarlo Vecchi

16.

2.
A problem has to be defined, structured,
located within certain boundaries and be
given a name.
The words and concepts we employ to
describe, analyse or categorize an
event/issue will frame the reality to wich we
seek to apply a “ policy solution”.
Giancarlo Vecchi

17.

2.
The fact we may share the same data, or
at least believe that we share the same
data, does not mean that we see/intend
the same things:
VALUES, BELIEFS, IDEOLOGIES,
INTERESTS AND BIAS ALL SHAPE
PERCEPTIONS OF REALITY
Giancarlo Vecchi

18.

2.
Giancarlo Vecchi

19.

2
The ambiguity of the reality
duck or rabbit?
da Beverley Southgate, Postmodernism in History: Fear or Freedom?,
Publisher: Routledge, Publication Date: 2003
19

20.

2.
(perceptions and reality)
Da Watzlawick

21.

2.
Experts (Goffman, Lakoff, Shön,
Kahneman) use the term: FRAME to
underline that the reality is perceived
through a framework:
people have, through their lifetimes
(experiences/culture/values/interests/conte
xt), built series of mental emotional filters.
They use these filters to make sense of the
world. The choices they then make are
influenced by their frame or emotional
filters.
Giancarlo Vecchi

22.

2. Example: animal testing
ANIMAL TESTING
Actor A: Animal rights movement
Interest/value/belief: ….
Giancarlo Vecchi

23.

2. Example
Interest/value/belief:
animal rights need to be defended
Framing ‘animal testing’
Giancarlo Vecchi

24.

2. Example
Framing ‘animal testing’:
‘animal cruelty’, a phenomenon that should not be
allowed in a civilized society
And public policies in line with this specific interest:
no financial funds to pharmaceutical research,
rules that prohibits animal testing, etc.
Giancarlo Vecchi

25.

2. Example
Actor B
Scientist at university
Interest/value/belief: ….
Giancarlo Vecchi

26.

2. Example
Interest/value/belief:
animal testing help to cure people and their
diseases and sicknesses
Giancarlo Vecchi

27.

2. Example
Framing ‘animal testing’:
“Life-saving research”
And Public policies that allow animal testing
Giancarlo Vecchi

28.

2.
SUMMING UP: “The definition of a
problem is part of the problem”
Agenda setting is the phase in which a
problematic conditions of society are
debated in order to obtain public
recognition
There are many conflicts among the different
societal groups to reach public recognition
and public interventions/resources directed
to ameliorate problematic conditions
Giancarlo Vecchi

29.

EXERCISE 1
WETLAND NATURE RESERVE CASE
STUDY
To questions:
a) Define the different steps of the policy cycle
b) find the different problem definitions, the
actor/s that sustained each of them, and the
consequences in terms of public policies
Giancarlo Vecchi