Framing the Public Policy Cycle for World Sustainability 11/25/2009
Defining an agenda for World Sustainability offers a daunting challenge. We will draw upon the tools developed in the Public Policy Cycle: agenda, formulation (effective + feasible), implementation, budget, and evaluation. (Emphasis is given to key words as they are introduced.)
- The agenda must to global and must specify institutional settings. An example is the ___ program at the World Bank or the Milennium Program at the U.N. One tip is to discover Best Practices, then research how these programs became agenda items. Look for anomolies, events unexpected assuming the Dominant Social Paradigm. Another tip is to transcend orthodoxy and parochialism. See how such an agenda for World Sustainability can be defined.
- The suggested policy formulation must be effective at achieving its stated goals. The feasibility criteria will be relaxed in this way: We anticipate that the urgency of World Sustainability will deepen and that what appears feasible today may be more acceptable in several years. An example for consideration is the Tobin Tax.
- The implementation of sustainability policy departs from the assumption of the internal workings of nation-states. The development of international institutions is such that little centralization exists -- a strength for sustainability. While the World Bank and the U.N. have roles to play, much that will be suggested on the agenda will fit the capacity of civil society organizations, which has potential but are non-state actors. This involved a shift in the way we think about implementing public policy. World Sustainability must be decentralized.
- The budgets dedicated to World Sustainability will be modest, especially when cast as a percentage of World Domestic Product. That is, these programs must stress capacity building rather than large cash outlays. They must be smart, adaptable, localized, and perhaps ephemeral. There is no durable source of revenues, such as taxation or tariffs. This budgetary frailty can ironically be transform into a strength. Budges must therefore be highly leveraged and little can be devoted to bureaucracy.
- The road to World Sustainability requires much gathering of intelligence and data. Thus, feedback mechanisms within an evaluation process will be presumed to offer high value.