Policy vs. Politics
I’ve found it useful to think about candidates policy proposals during an election as falling into a given location on a 2×2 matrix:
Any policy proposal can be catagorized by how sound it is, in terms of being effective policy, and how politically popular it is.
I’ve been considering this framework for a bit but am not sure whether it is accurate or significant. Some initial observations:
- Candidates will try to give themselves credit for their positions on which there is a consensus while making opponent’s proposals seem elitist.
- Social issues do not solve any policy problems and can only be judged by whether or not they are politically popular.
One Response to 'Policy vs. Politics'
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This is really interesting, though it might be tough to objectively identify which policies are effective.
One way in which this might be useful is in plotting past presidents’ major policy initiatives. I bet there might be a correlation between how those presidents are viewed by historians (Great, Near-Great, Average, etc.) and where their dots would fall on this matrix. I would expect the greatest presidents to fall more into the “Consensus Policies” area.
I also wonder if there would be some correlation between whether a presidential candidate won and whether his policy proposals were good politics — but not whether they were good policy.
Also… are populist policies necessarily bad policy? Populism can be a good thing, no?
Ying
11 Oct 08 at 2:13 pm