Marketing Public Policy ― Complexity, Hurts and Minefields

Policy analysts and policy planners should start from the premise that obstacles, uncertainties and surprises are inevitable features of policy making. All public policies should be treated as complex problems, from the outset. Complexity theorists maintain that complex policies are ill-defined and ambiguous. There is often little consensus about what the problem is, let alone how to resolve it. Into the complexity, wicked problem fray, this book introduces the role of communication scholars and practitioners whose models and practices have focused on people, process, opinion and behaviour as causes for organisational complexity. Communication practice is to provide ideas on how to navigate, diagnose, and interpret issues with a view to get the public to change behaviour or opinion.

From the case studies in the book, we see despite rationally excellent macro- and micro-planning of policies to win the hearts and minds of its citizens, public polices descend into hurts and minefields. The case studies are drawn from China, Indonesia, India, USA, UK and Europe to show that policy making is always a complex issue in any country, whatever the political structures, whether western democracies or communism.

Basskaran Nair is currently Adjunct Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and author of the books Primer in Public Relations in Singapore and From Main Street to Cyber Street: Changes in the Practice of Communication, covering marketing communication, investor relations, media relations, and issues management.