PP

There’s a couple of lines of argument about how we do public policy in this country (and in other comparable countries for that matter) that have been on my mind recently. One line is that we’re no good at it. Or at least not as good at it now as we once were in a golden age often associated with the era in which those opining the decline were active and influential. Lost our policy “chops” According to this line of thinking, for a number of reasons (of which more in a minute), we’ve lost our policy “chops” and live in a period when the normal sources of good policy making, especially within the public sector at all levels, seem to be withering. The second line of argument is that the policy making we are doing suffers from a terminal lack of discipline and good process, leading to outcomes whose quality and lack of deep, often reforming impact is a reflection of the haphazard and superficial manner in which too much of it has been thrown together. Taken together, the arguments contend that we are living with the consequences of a steady decline in the art and practice of policy making. For some, the steady decline in policy capability in the public service at every level is the inevitably consequence of a prolong period of financial and ideological hostility. Austerity, efficiency dividends and other ostensible budget repair mechanisms, teamed with a growing …

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