Policy analysis in the post-positivist era: Engaging stakeh

A growing number of evaluation research analysts are using a post-positivist approach for evaluating research methods that is based on understanding agency operations from insiders' or stakeholders' perspectives. The ways that these new methods are used in a nationwide study of the Economi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public administration review 1993-01, Vol.53 (2), p.135-135
Main Authors: Kelly, Marisa, Maynard-Moody, Steven
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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9110
9130
9190
9550
Case studies
Company specific/case studies
Economic development
Economic Development Administration
Experimental/theoretical treatment
Government agencies
Implementations
Inhalants
Logical Thinking
Narratives
Objectivity
Observation
Philosophers
Policy Analysis
Policy making
Positivism
Public sector organizations
Research methodology
Roles
Science
Scientific Methodology
Scientific Principles
Social policy
Studies
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Description
Summary:A growing number of evaluation research analysts are using a post-positivist approach for evaluating research methods that is based on understanding agency operations from insiders' or stakeholders' perspectives. The ways that these new methods are used in a nationwide study of the Economic Development Districts Program are described. Post-positivist conceptions of policy analysis recognize the importance of history and the interpretive nature of policy and assessments of it. They also recognize the need to engage in interpretive research that seeks to expand and recontextualize the webs of understanding, seeing objectivity as the process of striving to enhance. In a study, post-positivist thought was applied to a policy analysis of the Economic Development District Program (EDD), one of the Economic Development Administration's major programs. Basic ideas that guided the study included elevating the importance of stakeholders in all phases of the research. In interpretive policy analysis, designing the forum and selecting the participants are primary, if novel, roles for the analyst. The major revision of the EDD involved adding recommended policy options and then organizing the discussion around those recommendations. According to several officials, the final report provides a basis for ongoing review of the program.
ISSN:0033-3352
1540-6210