Institutional Analysis, Policy Analysis, and Performance Evaluation

Abstract

(From p. 3):

"In this paper I shall focus upon some basic cognitive distinctions that scholars make when they engage in the study of political phenomena. The distinctions I want to make pertain to what I shall refer to as policy analysis, institutional analysis and operational analysis. First, I wish to show how these different modes of analysis are related to one another and show some of the difficulties that are likely to occur when studies are conducted without an awareness of the essential complementarity of these different modes of analysis. I shall turn first to policy analysis, to operational analysis and then to institutional analysis. Finally, I shall indicate how the focus upon implementation structures and upon public-service industries to study patterns of interorganizational relationships are essentially complementary to one another. The tasks confronting us, then, is to develop a conscious awareness of the importance of making proper linkages in scholarship drawing upon these different ways of conceptualizing patters of interorganizational relationships."