Tuesday 3 May 2011

In Search of Public Policy

(H/T: Sez)

So thats it, my Masters Degree is done. Right after my last exam I ran into some of my classmates in the lobby. "We did it, we finished a Graduate Degree in Public Policy!" Followed by giggles. Followed by silence.

I've learned a lot over the last two years, but I have to say I'm still not entirely sure what to tell people when they ask me what I'm studying. I usually try and explain Public Policy as the study of how to make government more efficient. That gets lots of laughs, especially back home in the US (which is ironically the birthplace of Public Policy studies and home to its most hallowed institute, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government).

Our Dean likes to say that one of the world's biggest shortages is that of good governance. This is absolutely true, but I feel like during my time in school I haven't spent enough time learning how to close that gap. My impression of what I have been taught is that in order to institute change all you need to do is make a rational argument with plenty of quantitative evidence backing you up. This is obviously not true in the majority of cases. People fear change and will resist it even when it is completely illogical (to you at least). Instead, you need to learn how to find "policy windows," or if necessary make them yourself, before you can change existing paradigms. That requires learning how to frame your arguments, speak the right language, build up a constituency, and, well, be shrewd. In my opinion these components have been almost completely absent from my education (the exception might be the class taught by this guy). I understand there is only so much you can put in a two year program, but I'm still a little disappointed.

The 22 minutes worth of youtube videos posted below are a documentary put together by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the refurbishment of the Phnom Penh water system after the devastating Cambodian civil war. I love this video because it illustrates so well the critical importance of implementation. At one point in the video the agency director Ek Sonn Chan tells people that if they want water, "you have to pay!" I wish more politicians in rich countries had the guts to tell their constituents the same thing, but thats a post for another day.

Over the past two years I feel like I've spent 80% of my time on theory, 10% on planning, and 10% on implementation. I agree with one of my profs when he says "nothing is more important than a good theory," but I still feel that in the real world success is something like 20% theory, 20% planning, and 60% implementation. There are no shortage of books on public policy theory and beautiful master plans sitting around the government offices of the world, but there are very few Ek Soon Chans. 

Feel free to disagree with me in the comments.



2 comments:

  1. Hey Reuben.
    Great post, but how do you actually learn about implementation in school? Isn't school for theory and reality for practice?

    I just imagine it would be hard to write an assignment where I am supposed to account for constraints on implementation, because it is so easy to write you way out of it and assume compromise can be reached at some configuration of policies.

    Maybe a school time with more internships, but internships are often unpaid and people often do not get to have a lot of responsibility.

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  2. A theory is to be exploited, but not believed, said one of the most experienced professors.

    Pay? Pay for water? What kind of capitalist vulture are you?

    Yes, it's true. The degree hardly touches upon the reality that politics and "culture" trump policy 4 out of 5 times. The degrees hardly touch upon the great malaises affecting most of these countries: inefficient & corrupt law enforcement and administration of justice, for example.

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