PUP-3002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Nonpartisanism, Operational Definition
Document Summary
Good examples: 20% of americans smoke, local drinking water has mercury levels that are too high (above 2 ppb) Some problems not amenable to policy analysis: value-based issues (school-prayer; marijuana legalizaion, if the sole reason for the problem is diference in values, then not much room for policy analysis. Develop operaional measures: observable evidence of the problem, be as objecive as possible. Precision: cannot measure an imprecisely deined problem. Descripive data that shows problem characterisics: who"s afected, how much, in what ways? o, what are the trends, causes of the problem. What are the root causes of the problems: the fundamental, structural cause of the problem. Research backward root cause: what contributes to the problem, where does it start, root cause-how did you get in the river, proximate cause- your drowning. Set a goal about a reasonable expectaion for how the problem can change: 5% fewer smokers per year. Grabbing your atenion: newspapers, news magazines.
