State the linkages between policy research and policy decisions

The linkages between policy research and analysis and policy decisions are complex and, often, problematic but they are even more problematic when policy knowledge is generated by researchers and analysts employed by the government of one country for use by decision makers in other governments in other countries. We will have a glimpse of it in Unit 9 of this block. The stage-based models we have just reviewed also urge policy analysts to be more sensitive to the complexities of decision making within government institutions and to the political realities of translating policy into programmes. They do not, however, tell us how to turn policy proposals into policy. The agenda-setting literature brings us much closer.