Policy and Complex Systems - Volume 3 Number 1 - Spring 2017 Complex System Behavior In Democratic Policy Theory
Michael Givel A
The theoretical underpinning of modern U . S . policy theories commenced with Harold Lasswell ’ s policy cycles theory in the 1950s . This analysis indicates while modern theories have become very nuanced , their primary orientation is a more sophisticated continuation of the policy cycle theories of Lasswell . This paper consolidates modern US theories into a comparative policy theory based on complexity and democratic policymaking . These represent two significant gaps in the conglomerated model of US policy theories . The paper concludes with an updated policy model incorporating complexity interactions and democratization to nudge policy theory forward .
Keywords : public policy , complexity , Lasswell , US policy theories
Introduction
Many scholars of US public policy
studies view political scientist
Harold Lasswell and his policy sciences delineation in the early 1950s as the starting point for modern US public policy theories ( DeLeon & Martell , 2006 ; Lasswell , 1951a ). The original policy science , which was multidisciplinary , utilized a variety of interdisciplinary methodological approaches , and was focused on applied government problem solving ( Birkland , 2011 ; DeLeon & Martell , 2006 ; Lasswell , 1948 ; Lasswell & Kaplan , 1971 ; Theodoulou , 2013 ). Government decision making according to the policy sciences theory included the following unilateral and linear staged policy cycle approach : intelligence , promotion , prescription , invocation , application , termination , and appraisal that lead back to intelligence ( Lasswell , 1956 ).
An updated and another linear version of Lasswell ’ s policy cycle approach emerged in the 1970s to the 1980s ( DeLeon & Martell , 2006 ; Weible , 2014 ). This updated conception of the policy sciences policy cycle model included the following unilateral steps : a problem or issue reaching the public agenda , policy formulation , policy enactment , policy implementation , and feedback through policy evaluations ( Anderson , 1975 ; Jones , 1970 ; Lasswell , 1956 ; Lasswell & Kaplan , 1971 ; Weible , 2014 ). The stages heuristic theory remained dominant as a descriptive model as Jenkins- Smith and Sabatier argued until the 1980s .
Critics have also argued these modern policy theories continue to be based primarily on a linear model of policy making that is mechanistic and clock-like
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University of Oklahoma doi : 10.18278 / jpcs . 3.1.4
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