Political Feasibility and Policy Analysis

study as a prelude to action is becoming the norm. short, Frederick Taylor seems to be vindicated. Well not quite. As James Schlesinger put it: In principle, everyone is for analysis; in practice, there is no certainty that it will be incorporated in the real-world decision process.2 After a number of years of working with this real-world decision process, Charles Schultze reflected that what we can do best analytically we find hardest to achieve politically.3 Obviously, if analysis is to be worthwhile, it cannot go the way of planning activities where studies sit on the shelf and gather dust because of lost political opportunities. Like the multitude of salmon that set out