Eight Flawed Ways of Looking at Policies

In Missing in Action, Pranay Kotasthane talks about eight ways of thinking that don’t make for good policy making. First up is the idea that you know what a good policy looks like. Nobody does, because the world is too complicated. Actions have unintended consequences. People don’t always react in ways you (or the policy maker) hoped. Second one is related to this – a belief that one needs to be consistent on policy matters. No, he says, one should be flexible and change one’s views based on how policies have fared. Un-learning is just as important as learning.

 

Third is the belief that good intentions translate into good policies. The fate of all attempts at prohibition across the world are a perfect example of this. Fourth is the wrong idea that a policy is good, just that its implementation or execution is where the fault lay. No, he argues, a “policy formulated bereft of implementation details” cannot be a good policy. All of us know both these points from our own life experience, yet we fall for these fallacies when it comes to policy making.

 

Fifth is the idea that one has to support policies based on either capitalism or socialism. Incorrect, he says. Policy making isn’t just based on economic theories – it should also be influenced by “sociology, psychology, philosophy, (and) ethics”. Sixth is the disgust with politicians. After all, elected politicians frame policies. So if we only have disgust, then as Sir Humphrey said, “The wrong people get it (power)” and well, they are the ones who will frame policies.

 

Seventh, and this is the opposite of the Gita, he says there’s no such thing as a good or bad policy – there are only good or bad outcomes. At some level we know this all too well – communism is working for China; dictatorship worked for Singapore; and democracy has worked for America.

 

And lastly, Kotasthane reminds us that no single government policy can meet multiple objectives. Efficiency and effectiveness are hard enough to achieve in any policy, don’t pile on more and more end goals onto the same policy.

“Practicing parsimony while thinking of desired policy outcomes is underrated.”