Policy Design

Michael Kevin T. Macesar

PA 211
The Logic of Policy Design
Scholars and the individuals involved in making public policy use a variety of words to describe how they
actually arrive at the content of those policies. Perhaps the most commonly used word is “formulation” (Jordan
and Turnpenny, 2015), but words such as creation, innovation, and development are also used to describe
the process of finding some form of intervention to confront a policy problem. The hope is always that the
policy that is formulated or created will be able to “solve” the problem, and that government (and citizens)
can go on to cope with the next problem that arises. When Herbert Simon (1996) wrote that “everyone designs
who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones”, the definition was
somewhat generic but was definitely speaking to policy design.

Although thinking about policy design has become more common in policy studies, it should be considered
as a significant alternative to more casual ways of thinking about policy formulation. As Jan Tinbergen (1958),
a Nobel laureate in economics argued, design (in particular design for development policy) was an alternative
to “decisions taken on the basis of a general idea of progress and often somewhat haphazardly”. That
haphazard style of making policies persists in many countries and in many policy areas. Therefore, careful
consideration of design strategies is important for both academic students of policy and policymakers in the
“real world” of government.

Design is a concept that is used increasingly to describe the process of creating a policy response to a
policy problem. Thinking about designing policy is not an entirely new phenomenon – Harold Lasswell’s early
work in public policy (1951) contained some clear inklings of this concept. Further, the literature on planning
in the public sector contained a very strong element of design thinking (Bauer and Gergen, 1968). Some of
these conceptions of formulation and planning were highly political (Dahl and Lindblom, 1953), while others
were more technocratic (Berger, 1958). All of these conceptions of design, however, have sought to identify
the means for reaching “good” policy as well as to identify what the substance of that good policy would be.
What is Policy Design?
Policy Design is the process by which policies are designed, both through
technical analysis and through the political process to achieve a particular goal.
It is the first phase to be undertaken when creating a new policy (basically a
change approach or new solution by Government). This could be identifying a brand
new problem to be solved or fixing an existing policy or service. Traditionally needs
were raised through public letters, petitions or political recommendations. However,
today many public administrations practice Open Policy Making which brings
together different stakeholders to share knowledge and experiences to build a
coherent picture of problems and needs that can be resolved by policy. Using a co-
design approach, a wide variety of viewpoints can be captured and discussed,
ensuring everyone involved understands and respects each other’s views,
determining together the focus of the policy intervention. By placing the end-users
firmly in the center of policy development the end result will more likely, efficiently
and effectively, meet their needs.
Elements of Policy Design

Element Questions to ask

1. The goals of the policy • What are the goals of the policy?
• To eliminate a problem?
• To alleviate a problem but not entirely to eliminate it?
• To keep a problem from getting worse?
2. The causal model • What is the causal model?
• Do we know that if we do X, Y will result?
• How do we know this?
• If we don’t know, how can we find out?
3. The tools of the policy • What tools or instruments will be used to put the policy
into effect?
• Will they be more or less coercive?
• Will they rely more on incentives, persuasion or
information? Capacity building?
4. The targets of the policy • Whose behavior is supposed to change?
• Are there direct and indirect targets?
• Are design choices predicated on our social construction
of the target population?
5. How will the program be • How will the program be implemented?
implemented? • Who will lay out the implementation system?
• Will a top-down or bottom-up design be selected? Why?
Preparing to Design Policies

Problem

Condition Problem
- About which little or nothing - About which some sort of private
can be done. or public action can be taken.

“The definition of the problem often shapes the way the

problem is treated throughout the policy process.”
- E.E. Schatssneider
Preparing to Design Policies

Goals
• Policies are made because someone has persuaded enough of us (i.e., citizens,
elected officials, or both) that something needs to be done about a problem.
• Policies are created to meet or at least make progress toward these goals.
• All of these policies are linked to perceived problems and goals.

Four Major Categories of Goals:

➢Equity – justice/fairness
➢Efficiency – achieving maximum productivity
➢Security – certainty/safety
➢Liberty – autonomy/independence
Preparing to Design Policies

Efficiency
• More a means to a goal rather than a goal itself, but treats efficiency as a goal
category because many policy advocates tout their ideas on purported
improvements on efficiency (Deborah Stone)
• Gaining the most output for a given level of input, or getting “more bang for the
buck.”
• Often thought of as getting the same output for less of a particular input, or getting
more of something for a constant input.

Polis
▪ In Deborah Stone’s book Policy Paradox, the polis is the political community, and is
contrasted with the market as a way of describing human organization and
interaction.
▪ The decisions we make to address our common problems are usually political
(cooperation, negotiation, common or public interests) rather than market-based
(voluntary exchanges between just two parties intended to increase both parties’
welfare).
Policy Design
There are a plethora of existing tools and techniques available to support the
Open Policy Making process, this Toolbox however focuses on a new approach –
leveraging open data for accelerating the collection of policy evidence and
accelerating the time to policy implementation. This is achieved through the use of
advanced policy visualizations. We kick off the process with four key steps in the
policy design cycle which are 1) problem setting, 2) policy formulation, 3) scenario
analysis, and 4) decision.
Step 1: Problem setting
The first step of policy design consists in formulating the issue to be faced, to legitimize it as a common problem
recognized by a community. Usually, an issue is raised by the public in response to a need or a gap in service delivery. A
good starting point is then the exploration of existing policies to see how they have been dealing with the problem/issue to
date. In addition, the identification of the stakeholders and actors affected by the issue helps understand the scope of the
issue and who to engage for collaborative problem solving. Key actions include:

1. Analyzing existing policies and their impacts to investigate their effectiveness in dealing with the problem;
2. Mapping key stakeholders and if possible their opinion;
3. Finding correlation with possible cause of the problem;
4. Building the quantitative dimensions of the problem – problem description, overarching policy goals, specific policy
objectives

The use of data visuals can help find and conceptualize a problem, and provide evidence of its existence. With regards
to mobility policy for example, traffic model maps layered with other data sources such as weather, accidents, air quality,
accidents etc. can help show a correlation between traffic flow and other factors, which provides evidence of a policy
intervention need. To achieve an even deeper understanding of cause and effect, small experiments can be performed using
visuals by changing specific factors through data manipulation to see how impact increases or decreases. Using visuals,
decision makers can more easily communicate and discuss the issue with stakeholders through a common view of the
situation and collect their feedback to verify the validity of the hypotheses made. This process can be easily embedded in
traditional consultative problems, sharing the visuals for public debate via remote consultation or within a meeting format.
Step 2: Problem Formulation
Once the problem is understood, the hypotheses confirmed, and the goals and objectives identified and shared with the
larger community, it is time for policy formulation. Policy formulation aims to define and mobilize a set of solution options in
relation to the issue and determine which option is best able to address the problem considering available resources and existing
constraints. The construction of scenarios (written and visual) can help support the understanding and formulation of alternative
strategies and actions. The main activities include:

1. Defining relevant strategies – strictly related to the political decision

2. Defining possible actions – operational translation of the strategies
3. Calculating impacts – potential systemic results of implementing the options strategy

Visualizations help here by showcasing and explaining the impacts of different scenarios. These can be calculated in many
different forms using simulation models to forecast new behaviors on the basis of past trends; the resulting impacts represent
the changes promised by a policy and together with strategies and actions give shape to the optional Policy Scenario. Scenarios
help decision makers and stakeholders make a choice between different alternative options by enabling them to explore and
formulate different ways forward. Visually presenting complex information about a range of futures digitally, makes them easier
to understand and accelerates the ability for people to work together via a common interface to assess the approaches and work
towards a chosen one.
Step 3: Scenario Analysis
Once scenarios are produced to represent different policy options for dealing with the identified problem, it is possible to
choose the best one among the options they represent in terms of strategies and actions. Analyzing scenarios includes also the
(re)tuning of existing policy actions which is also carried out through small experiments (pilot tests) and public debate. Usually
on-the-ground experiments seek to trial the different options on a small scale to understand potential impacts, which can be a
timely and expensive process. In many cases it may be possible to simulate visualizations for the different policy options to
explore the impacts digitally. For example, predicting how traffic flow and density will change based upon changing road
access, or how public transport could cope with demand surges. The main activities related to scenario analysis are:

1. Defining best strategies;

2. Defining best actions;
3. Estimating impacts.

In the policy design cycle, the key output of the scenario analysis step is the policy draft, ready for a comprehensive public
debate. It also includes the scenario and often it considers the main costs of the action’s implementation. The policy draft also
contains evidence acquired by experiments carried out for the tuning of the actions and proving both: 1) that the experiments
produced impacts coherent with objectives and actions expectations; and 2) that the policy is effective in dealing with the
identified problem. A public debate can prepare the field for the final formal decision by the public authority.
Step 4: Decision
In order for a decision to be made, a clear description of the problem, of the policy and its
scenario, and of the policy acceptance by the public has to be prepared for the presentation and
discussion inside the public unit responsible for the decision. Relevant to the decision is the
narrative of the process: how the problem has been explored, how data has been collected and
used, how goals and objectives have been identified and translated into strategies and actions,
how impacts have been simulated and computed, why some options have been preferred to others,
what has been the contribution of the public to the entire process. When the decision is made and
the policy ready to be translated into an implementation plan, the policy implementation cycle can
start.
References

Bauer, R. A. and K. J. Gergen (1968) The Study of Policy Formation (New York: Free Press).

Berger, G. (1958) Technocratie et politique (Paris: PUF).

Birkland, Thomas A. (2016). An introduction to the policy process: theories, concepts and models of public
policy making, 4th edn (New York, NY: Routledge).

Dahl, R. A. and C. E. Lindblom (1953) Politics, Economics and Welfare (New York: Harper & Row).

Jordan, A. J. and J. R. Turnpenny (2015) The Tools of Policy Formulation (Cheltenham, UK and
Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing).

Lasswell, H. D. (1951) The Policy Orientation, in H. D. Lasswell and D. Lerner (eds), The Policy Sciences:
Recent Developments in Theory and Method (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press).

Simon, H. A. (1996) The Sciences of the Artificial, 3rd edn (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).

Tinbergen, J. (1958) Design for Development (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).