Introduction to Policy Design - The Problem Definition Step

1.

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Policy Analysis 2022
Lecture 2b - Introduction to Policy Design - The
Problem Definition Step
Giancarlo Vecchi ([email protected])

2.

Policy design to foster innovation
Giancarlo Vecchi
2

3.

1. POLICY DESIGN
3
HERBERT SIMON (Nobel Prize)
It has been the task of the natural science disciplines
to teach about natural things: how they are and how
they work.
It has been the task of social sciences to teach about
artificial things: how to make artifacts that have
desired properties and how to design.
Everyone designs who devises courses of action
aimed at changing existing situations into
preferred ones.
(adapted from The Sciences of the Artificial (1969),
3d ed. 1996, p.111)
Giancarlo Vecchi

4.

4
Giancarlo Vecchi

5.

5
1.
HERBERT SIMON (Nobel Prize)
Schools of engineering, as well as schools of
architecture/planning, business, education, …, are all
centrally concerned with the process of design:
a) Policy/projects = an artifact
b) Objective: changing existing situations into
preferred ones = change undesired situations,
dealing with collective problems
c) Process of design = to construct a model of causeand-effect that connect the component of the policy
with the expected changes (outcomes) in a specific
(real) context.
Giancarlo Vecchi

6.

6
1.
DEFINITION:
Public policies and projects are the results of efforts
made by governments and other actors to change
undesired conditions of someone (citizens,
companies,…); they alter aspects of their own
behaviour or the social behaviour, to carry out
specific or wide-ranging ends or purposes.
We assume that these efforts should embodying
a conscious, intentional ‘design’.
Giancarlo Vecchi

7.

7
1.
Policy design extends to both the means and
mechanisms through which goals are given effect, and
to the goals themselves.
In fact, goal articulation inevitably involves
considerations of feasibility, or what is practical or
possible to achieve in given contexts circumstances.
Giancarlo Vecchi

8.

8
1.
Policy design is the effort to develop efficient and
effective policies or projects through the application of
knowledge (gained from research, experience, etc.)
and reason, to the development and adoption of
courses of action that are likely to succeed in attaining
their desired goals within specific policy contexts and
conjunctures.
See: Howlett, Designing Public Policies, 2011
Giancarlo Vecchi

9.

1. MAIN ELEMENTS OF POLICY DESIGN
9
The main elements of policy design:
• Problem setting/definition (and the agenda setting
characteristics)
• Policy / Program Theory -> Theory of change
• Policy Instruments/Tools
• Implementation Theory (theory of action):
Mechanisms and Nudge
• Strategies for Policy Designing: a) lesson drawing
from good practices and policy transfer (equivalent
functional); b) pilot experiments
• Decision making processes and strategies to
overcome barriers
• Communication: Narratives theory
Giancarlo Vecchi

10.

2. PROBLEM SETTING / PROBLEM DEFINITION
10
• Problem setting or problem definition refers to the
activity of structuring a problem
• Your problem definition is a crucial step, because it
gives you:
(1)a reason for doing all the work necessary to
develop the policy design
(2)a sense of direction for your evidence-gathering
activity and data collection
(3)in the last phases, will help you structure how you
tell your story (e.g. to communicate your
solution/project with a convincing narrative)
Giancarlo Vecchi

11.

11
2.
A useful heuristic:
THINK IN TERMS OF DEFICIT AND EXCESS
• There is too much pollution/cars in the
town/neighbourhood
• The demand of water for agricultural uses is growing
faster and is challenging our ability to manage this
demand and other water uses, considering at the
same time environmental problems
• There is a deficit of houses with an affordable cost
for aged people with a low income
• There are too much judicial trials that are decided
after 3 years from the registration
Giancarlo Vecchi

12.

12
2.
• Use the world “too” in the definition can help to orient
attention
• Remember: the problems deserving our attention
don’t necessarily exist “today” but are (at least
potentially) in prospect for the future (near or distant).
Eg. when we use the ‘future generations’ argument
Comment:
Don’t use the “deficits or excesses” tool when your problem is an already well
structured problem. For instance:
- The long time needed to process this procedure is due to the lack of
competences of employees in using the installed software
Giancarlo Vecchi

13.

2. DEALING WITH ISSUE RHETORIC
13
•Usually the raw material for your initial problem
definition comes from your client or interview of
stakeholders (subjects with information about the
theme under investigation)
•Generally, that material derives from the ordinary
language of debate and discussion in the client’s
political environment.
•We call this language “Issue Rhètoric”
•This rhètoric may be narrowly confined to a technical
problem, located in a controversy of wide social
interest, based on ordinary knowledge, etc.
Giancarlo Vecchi

14.

14
2.
• In either case, the researcher has to overcome
rhetoric to define a problem that:
(a) is analytically manageable = a theory is (or more
theories are) available to explain that
unsatisfactory situation; in other words, exists
almost one theory that explain the causes that are
correlated to the unsatisfactory situation
(b) some possible solutions had been tested
(c) the problem’ definition makes sense in light of
the political and institutional means available for
mitigate the “problem”
Giancarlo Vecchi

15.

15
2.
• Use the raw material of issue rhetoric with care:
- may be some people don’t consider the situation as
“bad”
- may point to some supposed – but not necessarily
real – causes of the troubling condition
• Some issues may connote more than one problem
Giancarlo Vecchi

16.

EXERCISE 1
16
WETLAND NATURE RESERVE CASE
STUDY
Two 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
1 page, word 12p
GiancarloVecchi
Vecchi
Giancarlo