Musings on Paul Peterson's "School Politics Chicago Style" and on the Utility of Decision-Making Models (original) (raw)

quick-to credit Graham Allison's work. There are major differences between them, however. The authcfs reao^ different conclusions about the tele of rationality and bargaining because they ase different definitions, because of .the influence of the dominant mode of thinking'at the time they vrote, because of the differing character of the puzzles examined, and because of the questions the analysts •anted to answer .and «hy they wanted to answer them. Three lessons caa be learned from efforts to apply, models to decision-making, first, alternative models hold out the possibility of a better; if not-more complicated, understanding of how decisions are actually .mad* and. how programs are actually implemented. Second, models have added measurably to'the complexity of conducting policy research, third, the utility of a, model depends in part on the personal judgments of the^analyst on what is important and appropriate for study. Hodele of decision-making , whether frustrating or not, have helped analysts gain a deeper understanding of society and its study, and they' are essential for the further development-of policy analytis. fAnthor/IBT) Documents acquired by EEIC include many informal unpublished materials not available from ether sources^ ERIC makes every effort to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal reproducibility are often'encountered and this affects the quality of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC'makes available Via the BBIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original.