ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the nature of policy problems, describes the process of structuring these problems, examines relationships among policy models, and describes different methods of problem structuring. Problem structuring is a central guidance system that affects the success of other phases of policy analysis. Analysts seem to fail more often because they solve the wrong problem than because they get the wrong solution to the right problem. Policy issues involve disagreements about actual or potential courses of action. Policy issues may be classified according to a hierarchy of types: major, secondary, functional, and minor. Problem structuring has four interrelated phases: problem search, problem delineation, problem specification, and problem sensing. The chapter shows that one of the most important challenges facing policy analysts is to reduce the likelihood of a Type III error: defining the wrong problem.
