Presidential Address: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
Part of the glue holding together the membership of the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management is a concern about the character and path of public policies. Embedded in this is the professional opinion that analysis will improve the outcomes of policy deliberations. This issue-the relationship between policy analysis and policy development-has been the subject of a long-standing debate that has recently been revived. On the positive side is a simple factual question: Has past policy research influenced the character of policies (and, maybe, has this influence been benign)? On the normative side are several more questions: How can policy research be made more useful? Are funding and incentives for policy research appropriate? And are particular types of research being undervalued and underemployed?
