Why is politics seen as a substitute for policy analysis?
Lasswell indicates (1971) that politics is a practical use of the knowledge produced within science. According to Lasswell, the more knowledge is in policy, the easier it is to use it in practice. The current tendency of politicization of science causes the issue when politics is seen as a substitute for policy analysis. Policy analysis can be considered as the first step within politics when scientists investigate which politics will likely achieve goals, while politics are deeper and involve more peculiarities.
Why are government programs seldom terminated?
Government program termination is an action that should include reflections about necessity, redundancy, and outdated form of the particular program. According to Deleon, six obstacles lead to the political program of termination: “psychological reluctance: institutional permanence; dynamic conservatism; antitermination coalition; legal obstacles; and high start-up costs” (Deleon, 1978, p.379). In the case of government programs, the resistance occurs more often. On the other hand, it is a significant rule of life: everything should be changed and modernized regarding the current situation.
The role of the Government Accountability Office
The main role of the Government Accountability Office is to support Congress in the process of audit and evaluation of the programs, “carrying out its constitutional responsibilities” (Yager, 2010). Moreover, GAO’s mission is to help improve the image and assure the accountability of the government in front of the citizens of the United States. GAO provides high-quality information and ensures that government programs are developed by the professional and objective people who care about the nation.
Frequently, formal program evaluations are deemed as failures. Why is it the case?
Such a situation can be caused by unpredictable events such as the economical collapse, military conflicts, natural disasters, etc. Although most of the time, the scientists try to prevent all possible negative impacts, sometimes it is impossible to prevent or control the events (Douglah). Although formal program evaluations take time for collection of the evidence and judgments, modern society lives in a highly and rapidly development world and every day a number of the new factors arise that may influence the previous evaluation.
Reference List
Deleon, Peter. (1978). Public policy termination: An End and a Beginning. Policy Analysis, 4:3.
Douglah, M. (1998). Developing a Concept of Extension Program Evaluation. Web.
Lasswell, H.D. (1971). A pre-view of policy sciences. New York: Elsevier.
Yager, L. (2010). The Role of the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Web.