| Popis: |
This chapter analyses policy analytical methods in Belgian policy work. Government wide synoptic policy analytical tools have now and again attracted champions in Belgium’s governments. This was the case with PPBS in the late 1960s in the federal government, and with efficiency analysis and strategic planning in the 1990s in the Flemish government. Yet, they never survived the bureau-political games they engendered. At a lower level of ambition and within the dynamics of separate policy sectors, a plethora of formal analytical methods have been deployed, in both the ex ante and ex post stages of the policy cycle. These include quantitative methods such as cost-benefit-analysis and forecasting as well as qualitative methods such as Delphi, foresight, and impact analyses of different kinds. This chapter discusses the variation in formal analytical methods against the background of three trends: sectoral policy professionalisation, evidence-based policy, and the Europeanisation of policy analytical work. |
