NCJ Number
106146
Editor(s)
F Fischer,
J Forester
Date Published
1987
Length
293 pages
Annotation
Twelve papers address emerging ethical issues in policy analysis, policy analysis and its institutional context, theoretical and methodological issues in policy analysis, and ethical responsibility in policy analysis.
Abstract
Papers on principles and practices describe policy analysis as an intellectual enterprise intended to assist those responsible for public choice and address the normative roles of policy analysts by focusing on the institutional context in which these roles are performed. Papers which further deal with the normative context of policy analysis assess the role of cost-benefit analysis and the relation of policy analysis to the state. Discussions of normative theory and related methodological issues offer a reformulation of the interpretive foundations of policy analysis, provide an empirical study of a planning analysts at work, and consider how rational-choice theory contributes to normative reasoning in the policy sciences. Papers on the ethical responsibilities of policy analysts focus on the moral constraints imposed by the bureaucratic context and the tension between the promised benefits of policy experimentation and the rights of subjects who may be involved. Three case studies illustrate the politics involved as normative criteria are used in policy analysis. Chapter notes and name index.