Policy Analysis: A Story

Policy analysis is an important element in the communication process between planner and administrator, researcher and adviser, and decisionmaker and politician. Its impact on this process depends, to some degree, upon the intelligibility of its presentation. In policy analysis, however, one often tends to use specific language which is not (or not easily) understood by decisionmakers/politicians. This paper is based on the assumption that the use of every day language and of real-world examples would significantly improve the attention given policy analysis, and thus improve its impact on the decisions to be made. In order to achieve this an unusual approach has been adopted: A new Minister takes office in a hypothetical state and is immediately exposed to ‘conventional’ advice. His attempts to relate this advice to the real world fail all too often. Finally, he quits.