Framing the Problem:
Introduction
This section shows you how to define a problem and specify its issues for policy consideration and action.
Identifying a Problem
How does public policy making begin? Typically, it starts with perception of a problem. Somebody perceives a condition in society or environment to be ‘wrong.’ Perceptions of a problem differ, so finding a solution often involves conflict.
Problems come to public attention in various ways. Sometimes, the problem chooses you. Something happens, you are affected as a private individual, and you seek public action to address the problem. The triggering event might be large-scale, as in the attacks against New York City and Washington DC in September 2001. After that event, families of victims organized to seek compensation or other action by government.
In contrast, a triggering event might be small-scale, even personal and singular. Following her child’s death due to a drunk driver, a parent formed the national nonprofit organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving to influence national standards for drunk driving law enforcement. In another example, a scenario at the beginning of this chapter tells how personal injury from air bag deployment motivated a student to learn more about auto safety regulations.
Sometimes, you choose the problem. Choosers vary. For example, elected officials have authority to decide what is and is not a problem or which problems will receive attention. In the budgeting scenario, a governor and state legislative committees exemplify this kind of chooser.
Authorities’ choice-making might be aided by policy analysts acting as neutral experts to review policy options, as shown in the budgeting scenario. Interns in policy institutes or think tanks sometimes get involved in analysis, as shown in scenario 1 on the right where a student intern does research for analysis of needs for elder health care. A common type of chooser is the advocacy group that gets a problem into public debate or onto a legislative agenda.
To influence policymaking, the perception of a wrong is not enough. If public policy is to be a solution, the wrong must be defined as one that policymakers can address. For example, you might perceive that obesity is wrong because it harms individuals. But individual obesity cannot be legislated. However, if you define obesity as a public health problem, you relate obesity to public concerns such as health standards or medical research in the causes of disease. Those are problems with broad societal significance that can be addressed by policymakers.
Problem definition is important.
As the logical first ‘move’ of a policy process, problem definition sets the debate. It also predicts the solution. Different definitions lead to different solutions. For example, even though health authorities recognize obesity as a serious problem, the average citizen seemingly does not. Why, you wonder, are people in the United States getting fatter? Your question defines the problem differently, thereby revealing different potential solutions.
By shifting the focus to people in everyday life, you expose another set of conditions relevant for obesity—behavioral issues such as eating habits, physiological issues such as genetics, cultural issues such as food preferences, and economic issues such as food industry profits. You point to solutions involving consumers, educators, businesses and industries rather than doctors.
No matter how messy the process becomes, your action in a policy process is directed by your definition of the problem.