Conflicts Ahead On

Abstract

Public policy is seldom made by a process that permits and encourages adequate thinking. All too often, once a problem is recognized, there is an immediate leap to a specific proposed solution. Possible disadvantages of the proposed remedy are rarely weighed against expected advantages. The remedy is made to seem simple and noncontroversial when in fact it is neither. In some cases the causes of the problem may not have been correctly identified; in others, remedies are left undeveloped. The policy proposal is frequently made on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.' What is actually just one choice out of many is presented as if it were the only choice.