Title: The End of Policy Analysis: With Apologies to Daniel ("The End of Ideology") Bell and Francis ("The End of History") Fukiyama
Abstract: Small changes the meat and potatoes of policy analysts. By temperament we tinkerers and not transformers, cautious folk for whom the word opportunity seems invariably to be followed by cost. Whether the problem concerns welfare or AIDS, criminal justice or education or the environment, we pride ourselves on our capacity to design modest but useful improvements, not revolutions. Even the bureaucrat-heroes of our caselore are, comparatively speaking, the souls of modesty. While lawyers and politicians, scientists and tycoons get lionized in film, try to imagine Hollywood making a movie with a policy analyst as its hero-Robert Redford cast as Gordon Chase, perhaps? It's hardly news that our profession is suffering from the crisis of confidence that affects public problem solvers generally. If you walk the corridors of Congress, talking to the lawmakers or the staffers, concepts like gridlock and malaise acquire entire new meanings. Nothing much seems to be happening-nothing good, anyway. Scandal, whether real or manufactured, has largely ousted substance in Washington. The 20-year journey from Watergate to Rubbergate, and the Robespierresque drive to wipe out congressional perks, the cheap haircuts and gym privileges, marks a steep descent from Federalist Papers-profound to be abidingly trivial. What you'll get in Washington after November, says Minnesota Representative Vin Weber, who won't be returning, are out-of-shape lawmakers who know how to balance their own checkbooks.
Publication Year: 1992
Publication Date: 1992-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 16
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