ABSTRACT
For a long time, the field of policy analysis has been fraught with argument over its purposes and methods. What began as a ‘policy orientation’ within social science (Lasswell 1951) was later elevated by some proponents to the level of ‘a new supra discipline’ (Dror 1971: ix). A widely accepted view, however, takes policy analysis to be a multidisciplinary field that cuts across existing specializations to employ whatever theoretical or methodological approach is most relevant to the issue or problem under investigation. According to Ham and Hill:
the purpose of policy analysis is to draw on ideas from a range of disciplines in order to interpret the causes and consequences of government action, in particular by focusing on the processes of policy formulation.
