The journal ending of Althaus et al. to the Australian Policy Cycle stresses the fundamental cognizance of the real substance and limited qualities of the model (Althaus et al., 2023). The authors represent the cycle as one of the effective tools of navigation rather than following the harsh model of such in the described one that demands equality, faithfulness, and obedience. Their best known analogy is the map of the London Underground, which is neither accurate, nor to scale, but which does help you find your way around (Bridgman and Davis, 2003). The feeling behind such analogy is a sign that they agree that there is indeed a comparison between policymaking in the real world, which is said to be messy, unpredictable and simply cannot be modelled in any form well in a schematic way.
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Clearly, policy instruments of the said agency did not intend to create a predetermined trend or order, and the eight steps, which are supposed to be followed reoccurring in a cycle issue identification, policy analysis, policy instruments, consultation, irreducible complexity policy, coordination, decision, implementation, and evaluation. Instead, Bridgman and Davis explain it outright as a hominid mentality, an ideal form of which all realities will differ (Bridgman and Davis, 2003). In that sense, they directly address criticisms according to which the model is excessively rationalist or excessively mechanistic.
Empirical evidence can support this body of knowledge. Based on the interviews carried out by Howard on the senior Australian public servants, it has become apparent that this cycle at least was not within the sphere of practitioners being reflective of other approaches to this extent being distinct between the policy to policy processes. In fact timescales are compressed, political pressures have taken their toll, and issues are duplicated or overlapped (Howard, 2005). The implementation of Policies is more of a non-linear jump through the steps than a continuum, though, and not of a ball being shot through the stages, but of each of the stages of the policy being run conspecifically.
This mutual convergence is recursive and iterative and it is this that defines the present-day policy recognition of Althaus et al. (Althaus et al., 2023). The agenda setting of the future is informed by the present process of policy assessment; the implementation process effectively executing a policy process with bureaucrats bargaining legislation; and consultation never manifests in any given stage but is reiterated in another. These overlaps tell us why the author insists that the cycle explains the way things could have been and not the way things ought to have been.
Contemporary policy academia has lost a concern with cycle in the descriptive sense (Cairney, 2016). It has since been assumed to be among a multiplicity of tools to be utilised in analysing policymaking in addition to the other tools which include multiple streams theory, punctuated equilibrium, and the advocacy framework. These alternatives illuminate a lot on the dynamics of a specific stage of a policy change, yet the policy cycle can be considered as utilitarian useful.
The unity of pedagogical and the organisational roles of cycle is a source of strength of the cycle in the long run. It also provides shared terminology to the practitioners and helps them to frame the issues and share roles and locate stakeholder engagement points. Critics themselves admit that that breaks complex up into small, attainable units that may be of special service to students and inexperienced policy workers (Bridgman and Davis, 2003).
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Better still, such a cycle is not the alternative to substantive analysis or judgement. It is a simple and manageable scheme as Bridgman and Davis stress, and it is helpful as is because it recognises the political nature of the policy-making landscape. It also systematises the worry of process in not imposing future to truthfully results. A feeling that therefore the cycle assists, not rather, the intellectual and political work, policymaking.
Additional reduction on consistency is what perseveres the Australian Policy Cycle to exist, however, because it agrees between wisdom and reality (Althaus et al., 2023). When faced with the model being a map rather than mandate, Althaus et al. would think of the restrictions of the model theoretically, and the practical uses practically.
Reference List
Journal
- Althaus, C., Ball, S., Bridgman, P., Davis, G. and Threlfall, D. (2023). The Australian Policy Handbook: A Practical Guide to the Policymaking Process (8th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003351993
- Bridgman, P. and Davis, G. (2003). What use is a policy cycle? Plenty, if the aim is clear. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 62(3), 98-102. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1467-8500.2003.00342.x
- Cairney, P. (2016). Policy in 500 words: if the policy cycle does not exist, what do we do? Paul Cairney: Politics & Public Policy. Retrieved from https://paulcairney.wordpress.com/2016/05/21/policy-in-500-words-if-the-policy-cycle-does-not-exist-what-do-we-do/
- Colebatch, H.K. (2005). Policy analysis, policy practice and political science. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 64(3), 14-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2005.00448.x
- Everett, S. (2003). The policy cycle: Democratic process or rational paradigm revisited? Australian Journal of Public Administration, 62(2), 65-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8497.00325
- Howard, C. (2005). The policy cycle: A model of post‐Machiavellian policy making? Australian Journal of Public Administration, 64(3), 3-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2005.00447.x
