PUBLIC POLICY AS THE CONTINUATION OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY BY OTHER MEANS

William P. Branden

Review of Policy Research, 1984, vol. 4, issue 1, 60-70

Abstract: The paper suggests that the oldest and newest glsubfieldslg of political science—political philosophy and public policy analysis–share important features lacking in those areas of the discipline that have modeled themselves after the natural sciences. Both are incompatible with the belief social sciences can be “value‐free” and both are legitimate academic pur‐ suits that aspire to systematic and rigorous analysis of significant questions or problems. Fundamental considerations link the two enterprises. (1) Public policy analysis as currently practiced i s based largely on economics which i s the instantiation of a particular moral philosophy. (2) Logical problems in the basic assumptions of applied economics and policy analysis require the kind of fundamental reexamination to which moral philosophy can contribute. The second section uses three health policy examples–tax expenditures that promote the purchase of health insurance, euthanasia, and long‐term institutional care for the elderly–to show how moral philosophy can help in policy analysis. The third section, an examination of Graham Allison's three epistemological models for understanding public policy, demonstrates that work in public policy also should stimulate philosophical inquiry.

Date: 1984
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