Giancarlo Vecchi

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URBAN PLANNING & POLICY DESIGN
POLICY ANALYSIS
2022
Giancarlo Vecchi
Designing interventions that work in practice:
policy design for an urban planning course
Lecture 1

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POLICY ANALYSIS: INTRODUCTION
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Policy Analysis is a political science
sub-discipline involved in explaining
and predicting the ways in which
governments at all levels interact with
citizens, firms and other public and
private organisations in the solution of
collective problems.
Giancarlo Vecchi

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1.1. Policy, Politics, Polity
POLITY: The political community. Researches:
democratic regimes, institutions, rights, etc.
POLITICS: The competition for power. Researches:
representations, political leadership, parties,
coalitions, etc.
POLICY: the public programmes to solve public
problems. Researches: who decides about to
problems and solutions; the effectiveness of
programmes; how to foster innovations in public
sectors; etc.
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1.1. Public policy: definitions
Definitions: public policy is…
• ... whatever the government does… what
government chooses to do or not to do
(Dye, 1966)
policies are intentional choices (and not
accidents or accidental occurrences)
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1.1.
• … a set of decisions taken by a political
actor or by a group of actors concerning the
choice of the objectives and the
instruments (Jenkins, 1978)
Policies are made by decisions, taken by
various actors, governmental and not (role
of bureaucracies, pressure groups, societal
groups, etc.)
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1.1.
• … a given course of action that one
actor or a group of actors follows in
order to manage a problem or an
issue of specific interest (Anderson,
1984)
it underlines the process, not only the
decision phase; policies involve
aims/goals, instruments, planning and
implementation
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1.1.
• … a set of actions that influence the
solution of a collective problem, or
unrealized needs, values or opportunities
of improvements (Dunn, 1996)
The focus to evaluate the success of a
policy is the capacity to modify the
undesired condition of groups of
citizens/firms, in terms of needs and
values
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1.1.
and it introduces the term:
opportunities to innovate (role of the
experts).
REMEMBER: Policies are an analytical
construct; they don’t exist in the real
world as things, but are concepts!
Concepts reconstructed studying the
activities of actors involved in dealing
with public problems
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1.2. The policy cycle
The classic way to study a policy is to break it down
into stages
6 main phases/stages:
• Setting the agenda: is there a problem?
(Problem setting or Problem definition)
• Policy formulation/design: which are the
possible solutions?
• Decision: which is the best alternative?
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(The policy cycle)
• Policy implementation: putting the solution
into practice
• Policy evaluation (ex-post): have we solved
the problem?
• And then: policy maintenance, succession or
termination
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1.
POLICY CYCLE
12
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1.
Problem definition and Agenda-setting→
Identifying problems that require government
attention, deciding which issues deserve the
most attention and defining the nature of the
problem.
Government (Supranational, National,
Regional, Local) accepts to consider an issue
supported and presented by an actor (or
some actors) - (But not all the issues will be
selected and decided)
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1.
Formulation / Policy Design →
Identifying and choosing possible solutions to
a problem.
Setting policy theory, objectives and expected
results, identifying the cost and estimating the
effect of solutions, selecting policy
instruments.
(There are situations in which policies are
formulated without a ‘coherent’ design)
Giancarlo Vecchi

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Decision (as legitimation) →
Public authority (authorities) chooses and
legitimate a solution among those formulated.
Ensuring that the chosen policy design have
support. It can involve one or a combination of:
legislative approval, executive approval, seeking
consent through consultation with interest groups,
and referenda.
In the real life, we have decisions in every steps of
the policy cycle; here the question is about the
legitimation by a public authority that will open the
door for the implementation of a policy
Giancarlo Vecchi

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Implementation
Public organisations, in general working with
a network of other actors (public and private),
translate policy design and plan into concrete
action using substantive policy tools (direct
intervention, regulation, money, persuasion,
co-production, etc.).
To remember: not every decided policy are
translated in the implementation phase. See
symbolic policies, policies decided and
communicated but without implementation
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Evaluation (ex post) →
Assessing the extent to which the policy was
successful and had the desired effect or even
undesired/unplanned effects; or the policy decision
was the correct one; or if it was implemented
correctly.
Evaluation can be performed by different actors
(public organizations, experts, consultants’
companies, etc.).
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1.
Evaluation (ex post) →
The functions of evaluation could be:
• Learning = Did the policy work? Was the design
correct, and the implementation coherent?
• Programming: Do we replicate or diffuse the
policy, stop it, etc.
• Accountability processes in the relationships
among different institutions and/or actors: Did the
organisations use the resources in a proper way?
Did them reach the contracted results?
Giancarlo Vecchi

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1.
Evaluation/2:
Evaluation concepts are one of the tools of
policy design; in other words, concepts as
inputs, outputs, outcomes, etc., are used to
design a policy in the ex ante phase
Giancarlo Vecchi

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1.
Policy maintenance, succession or
termination
Considering if the policy should be continued
(eventually with minor changes/adaptations),
replaced, or suppressed.
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1.
The policy cycle model is a simple sketch of more
complex processes in the real world.
There are many cycles operating at the same time;
decision are taken in every stage; political conflicts
are diffused during all the phases, etc.
But it is a way to share some concepts and to
underline some relevant questions that are specific of
some stages:
• how to design interventions
• strategies to decide
• how to assure implementation
• how to elaborateGiancarlo
an Vecchi
evaluation study, etc.