Emergence of a policy analysis tradition in the public sector

Abstract

"This paper looks especially at the epistemological feature of policy analysis in order to overcome the debate on the utility of policy analysis. A method called argumentative reasoning is employed to lead to a new direction of policy analysis. It lays out a logically-built argumentation table which reflects upon the debates on the utility of policy analysis methods from their own epistemological features. Transition to democratic societies and development of science and technology reduce the relevance of knowledge from the positivistic methods, widely adopted in the scientific community as a dominant, frequently used model. The new direction includes the adoption of the presumptive view of science, the emphasis on problem-solving power, the managerial concept of science, and the adoption of argumentative approach. That the belief in human judgement based upon personal experience allows multiple paradigms and explanations on a subject raised the importance of problem-solving power. Argumentation based upon efforts to falsify common sense remains to be a most reliable method and the accompanying philosophical and epistemological debates has led to a practical approach of policy analysis for heightening problem-solving power. This paper suggests a new direction of policy analysis that can produce policy-relevant knowledge for decision-making. ? Serials Publications Pvt. Ltd.