Politics and Policy Analysis

When it comes to assessing the relevance of political science to public policy, the discipline seems to have an identity crisis. Within the literature and at conference panels it has become fashionable to stress the limitations of political science insights for guiding policy making. ' Nonetheless, as indicated by the growing importance of public policy studies and policy analysis within the discipline, there is substantial interest in making the discipline more policy relevant. When placed in the historical context of the development of the field of policy analysis, it is ironic that the policy relevance of political science is being lamented. Indeed, one of the main features that in principle distinguishes policy analysis from its more sterile ancestry of systems analysis is attention to political considerations. In discussing the new field of policy analysis in 1967, Yehezkel Dror commented that unlike systems analysis: