Policy design for democracy

A decade ago when we first began conversations that eventually led to this book, we were drawn together by a shared conviction that the content of public policy is vitally important to a democratic society. We were concerned, however, that policy content was being largely ignored by political science and treated in narrow, disciplinary specific ways by policy researchers. We were convinced that public policy scholars could make important contributions to solving public problems, even though the field was fragmented and often at cross-purposes, Policy research and analysis sometimes was a theoretical, revealing interesting stories about power and influence, but contributing little to policy improvement. In order instances, policy analysis was theoretically driven but largely irrelevant to the real world of policy making. The theories that guided policy research seemed to be real world of policy making. The theories that guided policy seemed deficient in many respects - either to instrumental and inattentive to the important political and democratic implications: or too focused on the flaws in the policy making or implementation process. We were frustrated about the charm that separated different forms of policy analysis from one another and from political science. Neither of us wished to abandon the practical world of democratic problem solving, however frustrating, to pursue policy theory as a mainly intellectual pursuit. We both believed that research and analysis of public policy would have to confront the complexity of policy designs (the actual content of policy found in statutes, guidelines, court rulings and practices of case workers) rather than focus exclusively on policy processes. We were convinced that ideals such as democratic engagement, justice, efficiency, effectiveness, responsiveness, and political compromise were not irresolutely at odds but could be melded together through improved real-world policy choices. When we began this project in 1987, we believed a taxonomy of policy penitent was needed to enable descriptions of policy along common dimensions permitting comparisons across time, societies, and different policy arenas. Just as botanists have a language to describe the common characteristics of ...., wheat.....