Public Policy as Information

1
Public Policy as Information

• A research agenda
• Professor Jenny Stewart
• Visiting Fellow, School of Business, ADFA
• 9 April 2009

2
My aims for today

• To outline a major research project that will (I
  hope) change the way we think about public policy
• To explore (from my perspective) where some of
  the ideas might go
• To invite reactions from the School

3
My proposition

• We can significantly improve the effectiveness of
  public policy by understanding its content and
  processes as a form of information.

4
I see implications for

• Policy learning and evaluation
• Implementation
• Instrument choice
• Policy design
• As well as work in networks, communicative
  theories of public policy

5
My background

• Escaped public servant academic from 1993
• As a public servant, struck by the futility of
  much that we did
• How to connect with the problems that we saw?

6
Some examples

• Reports, submissions and briefs that were never
  read by Ministers, let alone acted upon
• Promising ideas that could not be sold up the
  line
• Simplistic solutions that became entrenched, not
  because they were good, but because they were
  convenient

7
My intuition was ..

• Bureaucratic hierarchy was a poor way of making
  policy
• Our attempts at control often made matters worse
• We needed new ways of conceptualising public
  policy

8
The academic view (Dryzek)

• Policy capacity constantly tested (response to
  global financial crisis one of many problems)
• Conventional ways of doing policy (ie through
  centralised politics and bureaucracy) may have
  reached their limits
• New approaches (eg deliberative governance)
  needed but remain undeveloped

9
Further examples of the problem

• Unintended consequences when linkages overlooked
  or misunderstood (eg effects of privatisation on
  training)
• Misdirected interventions because we
  misunderstand the system (eg r d incentives)
• Clumsy interventions because policy instruments
  too coarse (eg Commonwealths relationship to
  universities)

10
Whats information

• Reduction of uncertainty
• More nuanced understandings of info eg Kenneth
  Boulding information is form or pattern that
  conveys meaning
• The act of communication builds meaning (contrast
  with information as commodity to be bought and
  sold)

11
Whats policy?

• Two key models
• Rational model (policy cycle)
• Structured interaction (see Colebatch 2002)
• Both have a role for information
• Rational model collect information
• about the world analyse it then use it within
  a causal model.

12
Interaction models

• Information is produced and used in many ways
• It is the process that shapes the outcome
• Hierarchy, markets and networks

13
Hierarchy

• Information flows upwards for decision, and
  downwards (and outwards) for implementation
• Information is generated in functionally distinct
  parts of organisations

14
Networks

• Networks loose mechanisms for cooperation/collabor
  ation
• They can be managed in various ways
• Information flows are less constrained, less
  stylised than in the hierarchical bureaucracy

15
Markets

• Information most decentralised here.
• Prices are formed in ways that reflect the
  information in peoples heads
• But this information moves, and is used, in ways
  that are not controlled by any one mind (Hayek
  1974)

16
Public policies

• Use all these modalities
• But often, not very well
• There is a fundamental problem
• Accountability versus flexibility
• If we allow public servants more freedom to
  respond to problems, we cannot also expect to
  retain highly centralised forms of decision-making

17
A way forward?

• To what extent do existing theories of public
  policy help us resolve this problem?
• Systems theories (Easton, Luhmann)
• Communicative theories (Fischer)
• Networking theories (Kickert Provan and Milward)
• Governance-related theories (Dryzek)

18
Systems theory

• Systems theory the theory that died in policy
  science?
• Eastman simple model of the political system
• Luhmann (theory of social differentiation thru
  reflexivity of systems)
• Checkland (soft systems theory understanding
  organisational processes)

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Luhmann

• Systems theory
• Luhmann self-structuring properties of networks
• Actors dont know the full possibilities of what
  they are doing they emerge as communication
  develops
• Increasing social complexity implies increasing
  complexity in government
• But where does public policy fit in?

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If we start with policy

• Can we see public policy in general as a form of
  information?
• Yes policy systems respond to signals that
  something is wrong (eg when regulation fails to
  work, we get a strong signal that we need better
  regulation)
• Public policy is an attempt to structure
  complexity and manage risk (eg when we create a
  system of public education or when we make
  superannuation compulsory)

21
Processes that produce signals

• Media commentary
• Informal communication
• Performance measurement
• Audit
• Evaluation
• Consultation

22
Processes that produce systems

• Implementing activities
• Eg Creating new organisations
• Coordinating activities
• Eg specifying decision points
• Resourcing activities
• Eg executing budgets
• Motivating activities
• Eg incentives and regulations

23
In more specific terms

• Policy is all about information flow
• When we talk about networks, we are trying to
  capture this aspect of policy
• An information-based model of policy might,
  therefore, try to understand the costs and
  benefits of different kinds of organisational
  connections in terms of signalling, response and
  action.

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Fig 1 Relationships in conventional policy
Policy Agency A
Policy Agency B
Coordination                                    
             
 
Management Agency A
Management Agency B
Other agencies
Clients
25
Fig 2 Networking model
Agencies
                               
 
B
A
C
 
Clients
Clients

E
D
Network shape determined by problem area
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Figure 3 Polycentric nodality
                     
 
Other links
outwards accountability
Network Node agency A
Information flows
Agency A
Network Node agency A
vertical accountability axis
Agency B
Network Node agency B
vertical axis agency B
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Where to next?

• I am hoping that I have the beginnings of a
  theory here
• Or maybe a way of re-interpreting existing theory
• Or maybe a thought-starter - a way of
  stimulating new work on a variety of fronts

28
References

• Colebatch (2002) Policy (2nd ed) Open University
  Press
• Checkland (1999) Systems theory, systems
  practice, Wiley
• Dryzek (1987) Rational Ecology, OUP
• Easton (1965) A systems analysis of political
  life, Uni of Chicago Press
• Hayek (1974) Nobel Memorial Lecture
• Kickert (1997) Management of Complex Networks,
  Sage
• Luhmann (1982) Differentiation of Society,
  Columbia
• Provan and Milward (2000) Governing the hollow
  state Public Admin Research and Theory, 10(2)