Rational-Comprehensive Approach to Policy Making (Essay Sample)

Rational-Comprehensive Approach to Policy Making
Student’s Name
University
Course
Professor
Date
Policy-making is a decision-making process that is established, carried out, and implemented by a sitting government or management of a particular entity following a particular sequence from inception to conclusion. In other words, policy-making focuses on the building of a plan, formulation of the agenda, adoption, implementation of the plan, evaluation or termination of the agenda. This means that the aspect of policy-making does not necessarily revolve around the formulation of policy but also the idea of terminating a policy that is not favorable to the people. In simple terms, a policy can be defined as a law, incentive, procedure, administrative action, a regulation, or a voluntary practice of government that is reflected in resource allocation (Goll & Rasheed, 1997). Policy-making allows for the evaluation of whether the allocation is beneficial to all or whether it is misused and termination should be applied. Nonetheless, the aspect of policy-making is very crucial in the governance of any government or institution in the world.
First, policy-making helps promote a system of guidance by providing measures needed to be followed in order for objectives to be achieved. Moreover, guidance can be seen on how the policy promotes a comprehensive mechanism of getting to deal with issues that arise, for instance, policies regarding tax collection, control of money supply, security, and terrorism countermeasures, among others (Dodero, 2010). On the other hand, policy-making brings about a sense of consistency in the government; in this case, it ensures that policies formulated are in line with the government or the organization's process so that they may not deviate or lose focus over time. Furthermore, the adoption of a consistent policy approach helps managements and authorities to grasp their roles better and make them understand what is expected of them. Other than guidance and consistency, policy-making is important as it promotes accountability in the institutions. In accordance with accountability, policies and procedures formulated follow a particular consistent flow and offer rules and regulations that may help avoid unfairness and unethical practices against the people being represented. Efficiency is also one of the most important aspects in policy-making; this helps improve the overall performance of the institutions as it makes people be on the same ground in handling issues. On the other hand, policy-making helps promote clarity since when everyone is on the same page, one knows who answers to who, and this leads to smooth operations, smooth governance, and effective growth and coordination.
The rational-comprehensive approach is also one of the key aspects in the process of policy-making, and it helps come up and promote quick decision-making in the institutions or governments. In simple terms, the Rational-comprehensive approach is a theoretical model that helps in the understanding of how policy and decision-making process is to betakes. Moreover, it helps stipulate the possible actions, measures, and approaches of coming up with a solution of a problem through study and identifying options of the solutions with regards to cost and benefit of each option, assessed and compared against the other (Goll & Rasheed, 1997). In other words, this is a comprehensive decision-making process aimed at coming up with precise and well-researched solutions to a well-defined problem using the appropriate and precise methodology. In this case, the people making decisions, be it the government, management, or the authorities, derive necessary information out of the information gathered out of observation, modeling, survey, or statistical analysis and come up with a systematic analysis of this quantitative data so as to make a rational decision out of alternative courses of actions.
Nonetheless, proper policy-making from formulation to implementation focuses ideally on comprehensive decision-making. On the other hand, policy-making depends on people's experiences, conventions, education, arising situation, and culture, among others. Therefore, in this essay, we will critically discuss the pros, cons, and necessary conditions for the adoption of a rational-comprehensive approach to policy-making, as well as make an analysis on whether the availability of scientific evidence increases the likelihood of successful rational policy-making. Such pros and cons have helped in the suggestion of solutions and have acted as facilitating tools that aid in precise decision-making for purposes of policy-making ad formulation.
Advantages of adoption of a rational-comprehensive approach to policy-making
The rational-comprehensive approach is considered highly effective in decision and policy-making as it is backed with facts and precise findings. In other words, it is facilitated with scientifically obtained data that helps in the informed decision-making process, mitigation of assumptions, subjectivity, distortion, errors, and distortion so that policy-making is made with consideration to all available factors (Dodero, 2010). Therefore, it is clear that the first advantage associated with the rational-comprehensive approach is consistency; in this case, through scientific data findings, the approach allows for further research or review of the policy if it ends up being bias. Horizontal consistency is adopted in most policy-making processes, which is used into a broader policy space or rather across various fields in the government or institutions. Nonetheless, consistency allows for a