Agile: a problem-based model of regulatory policy making
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Agile: a problem-based model of regulatory policy making Alexander Boer • Tom van Engers
Published online: 14 November 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract We understand regulatory policy problems against the backdrop of existing implementations of a regulatory framework. There are argument schemes for proposing a policy and for criticising a proposal, rooted in a shared understanding that there is an existing regulatory framework which is implemented in social structures in society, yet has problems. The problems with the existing implementations may be attributed either to those implementations or to the constraints imposed by the regulatory framework. In this paper we propose that calls for change of regulatory policy, and case-based and statistical evidence produced in support of policy proposals, are based in model-based problem solving activities. This perspective suggests schemes for a good argument pro or con a policy proposal, while avoiding the problem of backing up claims and evidence on the policy level with a conjectural deep model of the policy domain. Keywords Public administration Policy making Knowledge management Model-based diagnosis
1 Introduction Most of us have experience with policy making processes. Policy making covers anything from planning family holidays to coordinating worldwide reduction of CO2 emissions. A policy is a commitment to a rule or principle that guides decisions during the period that the policy is adopted. A policy maker commits himself to
A. Boer (&) T. van Engers University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] T. van Engers e-mail: [email protected]
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dealing with future decision problems that fall within the scope of the policy in a certain, predictable way. A policy making problem is generally understood to be based on a policy field theory and a policy effects theory (Fischer et al. 2007). The policy field theory explains the causal relationships between phenomena that play a role in the policy problem domain. The policy effects theory explains the instruments that could be used to influence the policy field in a desired direction. This is a familiar variation on a more generic problem formulation: we need to understand the relevant features of the problem situation we are in, and the effects of the various moves we may make, and then we pick the best move. To come up with a good policy, we need to have a good grip on both the policy field and policy effects. When we address policy making in a journal dedicated to Artificial Intelligence & Law, we are interested in regulatory policy specifically, made by governments and large organizations, in complex policy making processes in which stakeholders with competing interests are involved. The use of the law to influence the decisions of others is a policy instrument characteristic, even essential, of government. In group policy making processes, both the policy field theory and the policy effects theory tend to be subjec
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