ABSTRACT
In discovery, analysis as problem solving is more art than craft, more finding new ways than persuading others of their feasibility and desirability. In justification, analysis is more craft than art. Shifting the frame of discourse, so that different facts become persuasive, suggests that art and craft are interdependent. Policy analysis is creating and crafting problems worth solving. Craft is distinguished from technique by the use of constraints to direct rather than deflect inquiry, to liberate rather than imprison analysis within the confines of custom. Craftsmanship is persuasive performance. Among the advantages that policy analysts yield to medical practitioners, in addition to knowledge and power, two stand out: patients take their doctors' advice as much as half the time and doctors occasionally bring good news. Disciplinary skeptics dismiss policy analysis as nothing more than, say, "old public administration in a refurbished wardrobe.".
