Unravelling Complexity

transcript

Professor Adam Graycaradam.graycar@anu.edu.au

11 October, 2011

Policy is what government choose to do or not do

• Philosophy• Product• Process• Framework for action

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Government

• Sets and implements policies (initiates and responds)

• Manages competing interests• Manages risk and uncertainty• Seeks to create public value

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Mark Moore

• Rule setter• Service provider• Social safety net• Creator of public value

Creating Public Value, Harvard University Press 1995

Mark Moore’s Strategic Triangle

Legitimacy & Support

Operational Capabilities Public Value

Policy combines government

• Vision• Actions• Outcomes

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• Vision and values • Evidence and analysis • Understanding of stakeholders • Delivery capabilities

In order to get there:

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Policy Cycle (Reference: Althaus, Bridgman, Davis 2007)

• Problems we know the answer to

• Problems we don’t know the answer to

When does a private problem become a public problem?

Who owns the problem?

Who owns the solution?

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Capacity:• Extractive• Distributive• Regulatory

Willingness:tempered by • Ideology• Resources• Response to

crisis• Alternative

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• Information

• Regulate/mandate

• Subsidise

• Purchase

• Provide World Bank

Hierarchy of Government Interventions?

• Agreement on a problem• Prospect for a solution• How important, how urgent• Initiating/ responding?

• Opportunity/ old sore

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Health

Education & Training

Work Incentives

Develop good habits

(eg diet, exercise)

Childcare Out of school care

Literacy & numeracy skills

Maintain good habits

Transition into w

orking lifeEncourage & support work

Early work

experience

Balance work & study

Supporting re-entryBalance work & family

Maintain good health

Support ongoing participation

Balance work & leisure

Manage health

Maintain & refresh skill sets

Healthy Living

Lifelong Learning

Encouraging & Supporting Work

Early childhood development

Life Cycle

Bureaucrats and Expertise

• Scientific expertise• Policy expertise• Process expertise• Instrument expertise

• Is this a function for government, the market, individuals or families, or charitable activity?

• If a mixture, are the other players meeting their share (e.g. through user charges)?

• Is this the responsibility of the Commonwealth, or of the states or local government?

• Is there serious risk of government failure if it took on the responsibility?

Role of government?

• Facilitating Role• Allocation Function• Distribution Function• Stabilisation Function

The role of government in market economies

The role of government in market economies (cont)

Facilitating Role• Ensuring conditions for competitive markets to

operate• Providing the legal structure for contractual

arrangements and exchanges

Allocation Function• Addressing market failures• Providing ‘public goods’

Distribution Function• Reflecting social values including acceptable distribution

of income and wealth

Stabilisation Function• Policies for full employment, price stability and desirable

economic growth

• Reflecting the public, as distinct from a private, view of the value of the future

The role of government in market economies (cont)

policy workers understand • Boundaries• Complexity• Accountability

For whom is it a problem?• For program clients (or potential clients)?• For other program stakeholders?• For taxpayers?• For the public more generally?• For those fundamentally opposed to the

endorsed policy?• Where is ‘the public interest’?

• Urgent/ important• Who sees problem - who cares?• Prospects for a solution• Initiating/ responding• Who’s in charge• What’s routine, what’s not• Does problem match service system

Key points in scoping problems

• Problems and service systems do not match

• Mismatch of problems and opportunity for solutions

Lesson

Break each problem into small and manageable conceptual and implementable parts, but

Keep an eye on the big picture!

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Push the frontier

Keep things running

Make our ideas work

Strategic policy

Operational policy

Responsive policy

Scott/Baehler’s Policy Work Triangle

Media story of unmet need

Economic crisis

Adverse ANAO Report

Environmental disaster

Media story re poor treatment

of program client

Ongoing policy research, statistics, review

Policy Development in thereal World

The science of ‘muddling through’Must start from where you areAgreeing on what to do is often easier than agreeing on

the reasonsIncremental change has less risk and is easy to adjustEven radical change usually requires a series of stepsBUTIncrementalism or inertia?Risk of ad hoc changes, lost opportunities etc

Lindblom /Dror debate from 1959 through 1960s

Unravelling Complexity

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