Analysing Policy Arguments

Abstract

The complexity and distinctiveness of policy discourse bring a need for methods and advice in both specifying and assessing policy arguments. The study reviews, links and systematises work in three areas: (1) general advice from ‘informal logic’ on the exploration and analysis of sets of propositions that make up broad arguments; (2) commentaries on important elements and tactics in policy argumentation in particular, with special attention to aspects of ‘framing’; and (3) proposed methods to specify and appraise whole positions in policy argument, including the ‘logical framework approach’ and Fischer's ‘Logic of Policy Questions’.