journal of public affairs education - NASPAA *The Global Standard ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Public Values as a Core Element of NASPAAADDRESSING PUBLIC VALUES IN PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENTWhile I am attracted to the proposition that bringing public values to bearupon the analysis and management of organizations, programs, and policiesshould be a core element of the identity of NASPAA programs, it is not at allclear whether this aspiration has widespread support. I look forward todiscussions during the coming months and years of the desirability of thisaspiration. But even if this proposition is appealing to the NASPAAmembership, we have a long way to go before we can legitimately claim that wefulfill this role. That is, as a profession, I don’t think we have done a very goodjob of helping society incorporate public values into public decisions.One very important manifestation of this shortcoming is the way we go aboutdetermining when public intervention is warranted. Market failure is theprimary lens that mainstream policy analysts apply to determine when publicintervention is warranted (or, more accurately, when it should be considered,because market failure in the classical view is a necessary, yet insufficient,condition for government intervention). In many respects this lens is quiteuseful, and I am not at all advocating that it should be abandoned. Indeed,there are some cases where greater attention to market failures would facilitatebetter public policy and management. To take one dramatic example, it seemsclear, at least in retrospect, that transactions over the past few years involvingderivatives of subprime mortgages entailed a considerable level of informationasymmetry — a classic rationale for increased regulation.However, the market-failure lens is incomplete in the sense that the absenceof a market failure should not necessarily be taken to mean that governmentintervention is unwarranted, as is generally the case in current thinking. A moreappropriate view is that a market failure is neither a necessary nor sufficientcondition for government intervention. As my friend Barry Bozeman (2007)and others have pointed out, the notion that government intervention iswarranted only if a market failure is present is based on economic individualism,and assumes that economic efficiency is the only value that should drive publicand private decisions. Certainly, economic efficiency is an important goal ofpublic policy and management. But it obviously should not be the only goal.I don’t think we can simply reject the principle that market failure is anecessary condition for government intervention without replacing thatprinciple with something else. There are many issues that advocates believeshould be addressed by government, and we need some framework to filter theseissues. Simply throwing out the market-failure lens is likely to greatly exacerbatethe frequency of — as Gene Bardach (1981) warned many years ago —“legitimating private grievances as ‘public problems’ ” (p. 167). But what exactlyshould replace the principle that market failure is a necessary condition forgovernment intervention? Perhaps we should simply broaden the traditionalmarket-failure approach, by adding the prescription that government264 Journal of Public Affairs Education
Public Values as a Core Element of NASPAAintervention is warranted when the market fails (or can be predicted to fail) toachieve significant public values, one of which is economic efficiency.Of course, standard views of policy analysis do indeed talk about theimportance of considering certain other ends — most notably social equity andprotection of rights — in public decision making. But we tend not to “walk thewalk” when it comes to addressing these considerations. That is, I suspect thereare many instances where these ends should be taken into consideration, butthey are either ignored altogether, or given short shrift.Moreover, I’m not convinced that economic efficiency, social equity, andprotection of rights exhausts the set of significant public values. Examples of otherpossible public values — and these are intended as a very tentative list — includeresource conservation and environmental sustainability, fiscal sustainability, alonger time horizon (a social discount rate that is lower than the private discountrate), and different levels of risk tolerance. (Many public risks 1 are either too largeto be insured against, or involve outcomes for which no fair compensation exists.)All of these examples, by the way, still maintain the assumption of individualism.That is, they are valued because of their (potential) effects on individualconsumption. In addition to values associated with individual consumption,public values associated with collective outcomes also may be important, althoughthey are rarely articulated and generally receive little attention.When thinking about incorporating public values other than economicefficiency into public policy and management, it is helpful to understand whythe market-failure lens is so attractive. One large reason is because it is anorganizing concept that is easily understood (although our students don’talways get it as quickly as we might like!) and communicated. By contrast, ouranalytic frameworks for addressing public values other than economicefficiency are not nearly as well-developed as the market-failure lens, and not aseasily communicated.Doing a better job of helping society incorporate public values — other thaneconomic efficiency — into public policy and management is likely to yieldsocial benefits beyond a clearer identity for NASPAA and its members. Forexample, as Michael Lipsky (2007) and his colleagues have pointed out, therole of government has been undercut over the past 40 years. This hassubstantial negative consequences, not only for our profession, but also, moreimportantly, for our country. They attribute this in large part to “decades ofrelentless negative rhetoric [on the part of public officials and candidates forpublic office] emphasizing waste and government mismanagement” (Lipsky &Stewart, 2007, p. A29).But, I would argue that our neglect to go beyond the market-failure lens alsohas contributed to this erosion of the government’s role. If the only criterionapplied is economic efficiency, then the desirable role and scope of government isfar more circumscribed than when a broader set of public values is applied.Journal of Public Affairs Education 265
Page 1 and 2: Summer 2009 Volume 15, No. 3JPAEJOU
Page 5 and 6: the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Page 7 and 8: Public Values As aCore Element of N
Page 9: Public Values as a Core Element of
Page 13 and 14: Public Values as a Core Element of
Page 15 and 16: How Do We Know What They Know?Evalu
Page 33 and 34: Enhancing Professional Socializatio
Page 61 and 62:
Staying Connected: MPA StudentPerce
Page 63 and 64:
Staying Connected: MPA Student Perc
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Teaching Public Administration As a
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Badgers & Hoosiers:An Interstate Co
Page 93 and 94:
Badgers & Hoosiers: An Interstate C
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Operation PSA: The Action Learningo
Page 105 and 106:
Operation PSA: The Action Learning
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Introduction of Government ProcessM
Page 127 and 128:
Introduction of Government Process
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
show all

journal of public affairs education - NASPAA *The Global Standard ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?