Describe the policy making realities

Rational models simply do not describe policy making realities. As policy actors seldom evaluate very many alternatives for action or compare them systematically. In reality, very often it is counter-productive to clarify goals, because building a political coalition involves persuading people to accept a proposal when they might disagree on the goals to be achieved. The stages model is considered as most useful as a heuristic for identifying times and places in the policy process where different tactics for shaping policy come into play.