Anticipating and designing for policy effectiveness

The new design orientation in the policy sciences has placed renewed emphasis on problem-solving and developing effective public policies. In this paper, we contribute to this scholarship by presenting a policy framework on anticipating effective policies. We argue that anticipation–that is, foreseeing the future and preparing for it–must be central to how a policy is designed, executed and assessed. Anticipating policy effectiveness requires a careful understanding of the problem and its root causes, as well as selection and utilization of the most ‘appropriate’ policy instrument(s) to solve it. We consider ‘appropriateness’ along three dimensions–analytical, political and operational–in two different respects: choice of policy tools and the capacity of the implementing agency.