Question : “The term policy implementation is in some respects preferable to the label public administration”. Argue.
(2015)
Answer : As per various school of thought, administration is all about effective implementation of policy. However it would not be justified to restrict public administration to policy implementation only. “Wilson in his essay the study of public administration try to develop science of administration by seperating it from politics. His successor tried to emphasis on the tool and technique of administration like MIS PERT CPM which mainly deal with effective execution of plans and vision.
The study ....
Question : Lenin’s concept of Socialist management refers to directing the organisational development of Socialist society.” Explain.
(2015)
Answer : Lenin socialistic principle sought to develop an egalitarian society where the production means and distribution will be controlled by the bureaucracy. To put this into effect, lenin came out with certain characteristics which later became the characteristic of socialistic society.
Lenin developed his ideas of Socialist Management over the ideas of Marx and Engel. The idea of socialist management advocates the management of capital, labour and production by the proletariat society. To realise this aim, organisational ....
Question : “The concept of political feasibility in policy alternative is a probabilistic concept and is related to each policy alternative.” In the context of the above statement analyse Dror’s contribution.
(2015)
Answer : Dror’s paper on Prediction of Political Feasibility emphasized it’s significance in Policy making process. Each alternative of policy must be analysed thoroughly by various aspects including political feasibility as critical one.
Dror through his normative optimum model tried to fill the gap of rational model by bringing in extra rational elements to fit the policy making process to a reality . There are many hindrances to making a rational policy at the same time difficult to ....
Question : “The field of MIS is not necessarily an extension of computer science, but of management and organization theory.” Elucidate.
(2014)
Answer : MIS provides information to improve efficiency of decision making. Simon has divided the process of decision making into three parts: Intelligence activity, Design activity and Choice activity. Design activity needs more and more information to analyze all possible alternatives. The more relevant information is present, better is the decision making.
To the managers MIS is the implementation of organizational procedures and systems while to a programmer it is file processing and structuring.
MIS as an extension of ....
Question : “The Output Studies Approach to public policy analysis overstresses the rational techniques and allocative dimension of public policy.” Analyse the statement.
(2014)
Answer : Thomas Dye defines public policy as an expression of intent about what to do and what not to do. The study of public policy helps us in understanding the problem and the better methods to solve them. There can be many approaches in public policy based on its locus and focus. In output studies approach the main focus is on output and locus is on scientific tools. David Easton defined public policy as authoritative allocation ....
Question : According to Y. Dror, “The Science of Muddling through is essentially a reinforcement of pro-inertia and anti-innovation ideas in policy-making”. Comment.
(2014)
Answer : Lindblom published his famous article “The science of muddling through” in 1959. In the article he gave his incremental policy making model. According to him rational policy making need knowledge of all alternatives and there consequences which requires huge man-power, intelligence, time and money. So he proposed his incremental model in which step by step improvement is done. As incremental approach only requires comparison of limited policies which have small differences so it decreases lot ....
Question : “Policies determine politics as governments constrain.” Attempt a critique of this statement.
(2014)
Answer : In the era of constrained govt, civil society and private should take govt’s place and thus they should determine policies but in reality policies still gets dictated by politics e.g. agri lobby influencing agri policy,
Various pressure groups influence the policy formulation. These multiple stake holders constrains govt. the normative interpretation of Lindblom’s partisan mutual agreement where there is policy making through bargaining, politics and arriving at consensus seeing each other’s self interest in mind. Govt. ....
Question : “Instead of reforms to budgetary process, Wildavsky proposes to redefine the role of political institutions and rules by which politics leads to agreement on budget.” Explain.
(2014)
Answer : Aaron Wildavsky analysed US budget for many decades and helped academicians in improving budget. According to him any change in budgetary process is done to bring more efficiency but still every budgetary process was changed with new process by new government. Roosevelt replaced Line-item Budget by Program Budget. Lyndon Johnson introduced PPBS and John Carter introduced ZBB.
No doubt every budgeting process bring some element of improvement or adjustment according to environment, but most of them ....
Question : “The policy process was not structured in the way required by bureaucratic planning.” ”Arguably, instrumentalism now stands most in contrast to neo liberal nationality that impose market against both gradual change and democratic liberalism.” Analyse these two statements.
(2013)
Answer : The emergence of the bureaucratic type of organisation in modern governments has laid the foundation for a body of civil servants who work for the government as a life-time career. The very presence of such a professional body of trained persons is expected to exert a rational influence on the entire process of policy making. The importance of the bureaucracy in policy making is increasing day by day. It is often said that it is ....
Question : “Public interest is still inadequate as a ground concept to evaluate public policy.” Discuss.
(2013)
Answer : There are certain limitations to the idea of public interest which leave it inadequate to evaluate public policy. Public interest is categorised- substantive and procedural. Substantive public interest refers to the subject matter or content, or the ‘value’ inhering in policy from which the theme and the main substance of the ‘policy is derived.
Procedural public interest refers to procedural stipulations that must be observed in public interest, since compliance with procedure is necessary in that ....
Question : Suppose the government of India is thinking of constructing a dam in a mountain valley girded by forests and inhibited by ethnic communities. What rational techniques of policy analysis should it resort to for coping with likely uncertainties and unforeseen contingencies?
(2013)
Answer : Major problems faced during construction of dams include difficult/inaccessible potential sites and lack of infrastructural facilities like road and communication, land acquisition problems, environment and forest issues, resettlement and rehabilitation problems, law and order problem, paucity of funds, longer gestation period, geological surprises, inter-state aspects, non availability of hydrological and topological data, security restrictions in border areas and lack of adequate skilled manpower.
Enhancing the level of energy consumption, particularly in less developed and developing countries, ....
Question : ‘Policy judgements comprise reality judgements, value judgements and instrumental judgements’ [Geoffrey Vickers]. Elucidate.
(2012)
Answer : Policy making is related with direction of activities and enabling cooperation among them. The judgments taken in a policy include all angles of a situation. They include the procedure or the instruments to be used and judgment related with them. For example, national water policy talks about achieving efficient use of resources through Public-private partnership model. Values of the society are also involved in the policy judgments to make them fruitful. For example, Indian context ....
Question : ‘Our normal expectation should be that new programs will fail to get off the ground and that, at best, they will take considerable time to get started. The cards in this world are stacked against things happening’ [Pressman and Wildavsky]. Comment.
(2012)
Answer : The programs and policies of the government do face multiple obstacles at multiple stages starting from formulation, implementation.
Such obstacles should be anticipated even before taking any action towards any program. Obstacles could emanate from political compulsions, socio-economic status of the society, moral and cultural values, technological progress etc. There could be excessive pressure for preferring one mode of implementation than the other for a particular program which may leave out certain sections of beneficiaries. This ....
Question : Would you agree with Bachrach and Baratz that along with decisions, non-decisions are also part of policy? Give reasons for your answer.
(2012)
Answer : Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz developed a model as a response to Dahl-the two faces of power. This model is also a critique of Dahl’s basic premises. Dahl assumed a pluralistic society, in which all the community interests are represented by means of open processes. Bachrach and Baratz termed this representation incomplete because of some missing within-organization processes which are not made public. Bachrach and Baratz also have a doubt as to whether the decision-making ....
Question : ‘Policy is being made as it is being administered arid administered as it is being made.’ Comment.
(2011)
Answer : An organization devises the process and method to attain it’s aims and objectives of is called policies. In government arena it is called government policy. It is arduous task to make a policy and much more difficulty comes in implementation of such policy. But the policy making and implementation are both closely related to each other. Any policy has a background of the earlier policy which guide to make new policy, effective and efficient. This ....
Question : Critically examine the following statements in the field of Policy Sciences.
(2011)
Answer : (i). Public policy is a complex process in this whiter activity diverse perception has to be kept while devising and formatting the policy. Incremental Paradigm is one among them:
According to this paradigm public policy are just extension over or adding new future exiting policies. In this differences are not drastic just, omission and commission has been done. This implies that future/policies would contend little bit of amendment or modification. This changes could lead positive and ....
Question : “Public administration can be portrayed as a wheel of relationship focussed on the formulation and implementation of public policy.” Explain.
(2010)
Answer : All nations irrespective of their system of governance, require some form of administrative machinery for shaping and implementing public policies. Public administration has been the instrument of ancient empires, of monarchies, of both democracies and dictatorships and of both developed and developing nations. With emergence of Administrative State Public Administration has become all encompassing and affects the lives of people from ‘the womb to tomb.’
It is playing a dual role, as administrative organ implementing the ....
Question : “Cost-benefit analysis is a very unsatisfactory view of evaluating public policy,” Comment.
(2010)
Answer : Public policy Evaluation is a process in which the assessment of impact of public policy is done. The public policy evaluation gives information about the success or failure of the public policy. It also provides the reasons for its failure.
This can help in rectifying or bringing out a better public policy. There are various methods of public policy evaluation. Cost-benefit analysis is a form of policy evaluation method. In this the policy is evaluated for ....
Question : “………even if policies are well organised efficiently operated, widely utilized, adequately financed and supported, we may still ask, so what? Do they work? ….. what about their costs, outputs and impact?” Discuss.
(2009)
Answer : Policy is some kind of major guidelines. Policy has long-term perspective whereas decisions have short-term perspective. So many decisions combined together makes a policy and therefore decision is a moment in a policy. A policy decision is also applied in order to examine the public policy.
Public policy deals not merely with what the government is doing and how it is doing. Outlays, output and outcome are the three-basis constituent of public policy and a successful ....
Question : “Yehezkel Dror’s normative models of policy making tend to be academic in perspective with poor operational utility”. Comment.
(2009)
Answer : Yehezkel Drorthe normative models of policy tool for making as systematically analyzing public policy-making, as a basis for the criteria & standards needed to evaluate policy-making and as a guide for formulating effective proposals for any improvements that are found to be desirable. He identified six normative models, which were
These normative models were having many limitations and hence Dror suggested an optional model ....
Question : ‘Laxity in monitoring and evaluation can render even the best policies infructuous.’ Discuss.
(2007)
Answer : Monitoring and evaluation of policies is as important as framing policies. Whenever a laxity in monitoring and evaluation of policies, it can Paralysethe policy implementation.
There are number of problems in policy implementation. Policy implementation concern over execution of policy has given birth to the new field of implemention studies. Woodrow Wilson aptly commented, “It is getting harder to run a Constitution than frame one”. Running is the implementation aspect of Government activities.
There are two ways ....
Question : “Implementing a public policy is a process of discovering what works and what does not.”? Examine.
(2007)
Answer : Any public policy comprises two major parts i.e. policy formulation and policy implementation. The implementation, of late, has gained a prominent place in matters of public policy. The importance of the study of Comparative Public Administration (CPA) is well accepted today. There are two factors that make comparative studies significant. The first factor relates to the academic study of public administration. It is believed that through comparative public administration hypotheses, generalisations, models and theories can ....
Question : Give an assessment of the processes of policy formulation and discuss the problems of policy implementation.
(2005)
Answer : A policy decision involves action by some official person or body to approve, modify or reject a preferred policy alternative. If positive, it takes such forms as the enactment of legislation or the issuance of an executive order.
Policy formulation is a complex process. Demands for policy actions that are generated in the environment and transmitted to the political system; at the same time, the environment places limits and constraints upon what can be done by ....
Question : Policy is a decision driven model of research use. Explain.
(2004)
Answer : Policy may be defined as a deliberate course of action or inaction taken by those in office under the influence of values and pressures on the way resources are to be used. Policy is the outcome of decisions about the political allocation of resources and it therefore characterized by the use of legal and coercive sanctions; by being of general concern; and by the application of political values to problem solving.
The policy making process being ....
Question : Public policy is not an independent variable and human history shows little evidence of systematic learning form policy experience. Discuss.
(2004)
Answer : Public policy is the outcome of decisions about the political allocation of resources and it therefore characterized by the use of legal and coercive sanctions; by being of general concern; and by the application of political values to problem solving. Public policies are those adopted and implemented by the governmental authorities.
The idea that policymaking is partly a manifestation of power makes it necessary to consider now power is exercised in the policy-making process. There is ....
Question : Comment on the role of public administration in policy making and its implementation. What are the other factors influencing the policy process?
(2003)
Answer : The role of public administration in policy-making and its implementation has increased and still increasing in leap and bound. Since policy making is political act, one aspect of the dichotomy of politics and administration was that of politics is concerned with policy formulation, setting the goals or making of law whereas administration executes that policy or implements those laws. One is concerned with the ends and other is with the means or instrumentality by which ....
Question : “Public policy is what politics is about.” Substantiate.
(2002)
Answer : Public policy are those which are “developed by governmental bodies” and officials, though non-governmental actors and agencies may also exert direct or indirect pressure or influence in the policy-making process. The special characteristics of public policies as differentiated from other policies emanate from the fact that they are formulated by what David Easton has termed the “authorities” in a political system namely, elders, paramount chiefs, executives, legislators, judges, administrators, councellors, monarch, and the like.”
There ....
Question : Elucidate the political process of policy formulation. Bring out its distinguishing features in developing countries.
(1999)
Answer : A policy decision involves action by some official person or body to approve, modify or reject a preferred policy alternative. If positive, it takes such forms as the enactment of legislation or the issuance of an executive order.
Formally legislature performs the task of law-making in a political system. It is often said that the British and Indian parliaments merely consent to laws that are originated by political parties and pressure groups, framed by bureaucrats and ....
Question : “All policy-making is decision-making, but all the decision-making is not policy-making.” Elaborate. How does a policy emanate and what course does policy-making in government follow?
(1998)
Answer : Public policies in modern political system are purposive or goal-oriented statements. A public policy may be either positive or negative in form. In its positive form, it may involve some form of overt government action to deal with a particular problem. On the other hand, in its negative form it involves a decision by public servants not to take action in some other matter on which governmental order is sought. Public policy is based on ....
Question : “Policy implementation in less developed countries needs to be effective.” Comment.
(1998)
Answer : Policy-making is a function of the legislature and its executive, of the administration. Policy-making is a part of the political processes under which groups of individuals, communities and nations are governed. In developing countries, the executive has more influence in policy-making because of a greater concentration of power in governmental hands coupled with less responsiveness to the Legislature. Another limiting factor is the availability of resources.
Policy implementation is the process of carrying out authoritative public ....
Question : “Policy-making does not end once a decision is made. The implementation of the decision can have just as great an impact on public policy as the decision itself.” Discuss.
(1997)
Answer : Public Policy is the outcome of decisions about the political allocation of resources and it therefore characterized by the use of legal and coercive sanctions; by being of general concern; and by the application of political values to problem solving. Public policies are those adopted and implemented by the governmental authorities.
In a democratic set up, policy-making is a function of the legislature, a political body and its executive, of the administration. In actual practice, while ....
Question : An attack has been made on the ‘top down’ character of the kind of implementation studies and an alternative bottom up approach has been developed.
(1996)
Answer : The study of implementation process, problems and remedies is still in its infancy. The nature of implementation process is exactly opposite to policy adoption process; instead of becoming centralized in one place, it gets dispersed to every place. Implementation should not be taken as a routine activity. It is only when policy becomes operational, some of its trival aspects become routinized. During the implementation phase, the policy organization is always concerned with finding out how ....
Question : Sketch an overview of the state of Public Policy Analysis, as it is most likely to interest those who have a public administration perspective.
(1996)
Answer : Policy analysis is a technique to measure organizational effectiveness through an examination and evaluation of the effect of a programme. Policy analysis is a systematic and data-based alternative to intuitive judgements about the effect of policy.Policy advocacy is concerned with what governments ought to do or bring about changes in what they do through discussion, persuasion, and activism. On the other hand, policy analysis is concerned with the examination of the impact of policy using ....
Question : Explain how factors such as Communications, Resources, Self-interests, and bureaucrat structures affect implementation of Public Policies?
(1995)
Answer : Policies are general statements or understandings that guide thinking in decision-making. The essence of policies is the existence of discretion within certain limits, in guiding decision making. Policy may be defined as a deliberate course of action or in action taken by those in office under the influence of valued and pressure on the way resources are to be used or not to be used. Public policy is the outcome of decisions about the political ....
