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

Enhancing Professional Socialization Through the Metaphor of Traditionseparated powers of government. Decision-making by the administration in thiscase is deontological, with procedural rules handed down through thebureaucracy from political leaders who have managed the substantive issues athand. Therefore, the instrumental rationality is administrative in nature, andseeks the most efficient way(s) to achieve the given goals. In order to achievehierarchical accountability, analysis techniques tend to be quantitative, andprocedural measures of an output nature are of great importance. Because this isthe Constitutional norm, we must prepare students to work with electedrepresentatives who may expect them to play this functionary role.In the Discretionary tradition, the analyst uses expertise to guide and interpretpolicy independently from the political system. Rather than following strictdirectives from the elected leaders, the analyst is asked to act in an influentialadvisory capacity, and is then given large amounts of discretion to achieve adoptedgoals with high levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Analysts not only influencepolicy designs and choice, but also determine how it will be implemented andevaluated. Decision-making, therefore, is dependent upon objectives defined byexperts using a teleological form of rationality to pursue both technical andnormative ends. In this regard, practices such as cost-benefit analysis are inpartnership with social science evaluation approaches. In this tradition, outcomemeasures play a greater role in analysis and evaluation, and political analysis mustbe added, in order to ensure successful adoption and implementation of favoredpolicies. Given the highly complex nature of public policy, this is the mostcommon role that analysts are asked to play, which puts expertise in a greaterleadership position, as part of a blurred political and administrative rolecontinuum. In fact, many reform efforts since the birth of the field have beengeared toward empowering administrative expertise in these processes.In the Collaborative tradition, the analyst offers substantive expertise as anequal participant in a self-governing network—being fully on tap but never ontop. Thus, all forms of technical and substantive analysis and evaluation are putto work toward goals defined collaboratively by all those affected. Decisionmakingand problem-solving activities occur through deliberative, consensusbasedprocesses. Here, critical and interpretive forms of policy analysis andevaluation must be brought to bear on the process, in addition to output- andoutcome-oriented techniques.It also should be noted that research methods beyond these applied analyticaltechniques are related to the ontological assumptions of the traditions and themanner in which they are manifested in epistemology. The Constitutionaltradition is closely linked to positivism by its reliance on deontological rules andprocedures. The Discretionary tradition, on the other hand, is very behaviorallyoriented, and is more closely linked to post-positivist approaches to knowledge.Finally, the Collaborative tradition is linked to a postmodern orphenomenological understanding of knowledge. Ideally, all three should be310 Journal of Public Affairs Education