Public Policy Analysis: Water and Sewers for McElrath Park

Abstract

FTER A TWENTY YEAR eclipse, the study of policy making has revived as a respectable concern of political science. A manifestation of the new fashion is a spate of American politics textbooks with policy making as their focus.' These texts are not catalogs of the functions and policies of American governments; instead they purport to offer insights and tools for policy analysis. They are sprinkled liberally with generalizations and tentative propositions about the variables which determine how values are allocated by the American political system. These generalizations may be classified in three categories with reference to their purported utility: explanatory propositions, analytical tools useful for the individual in making his policy choices, and criteria appropriate to some policy areas. Analysis of specific policy controversies, the case method, appears to be exceptionally appropriate for teaching about public policy. How much validity and utility does the variegated assortment of policy propositions have? There are abundant reasons for skepticism. How much do undergraduates comprehend these generalizations, usually framed in esoteric terms at a high level of abstraction? Rote memorization of them is worthless. Therefore careful analysis of specific policy controversies may be the best route toward three objectives: elucidation of the propositions, testing their validity and utility, and acquisition of policy analysis skill. The McElrath Park controversy may be viewed as a laboratory case for considering the relevance of propositions from the public policy literature, and for testing the utility of some prominent policy criteria of public finance literature. The prolonged agitation of the residents of the McElrath and Skeels allotments, two urban ghettos adjacent to Ravenna, Ohio, for construction of sewers and water lines is a minature case of the politics of race and poverty. Its isolation and vest-pocket scale makes it exceptionally manageable for the study of the dynamics of policy making. Of course, a case does not prove or disprove the policy propositions, because they are only probabilistic generalizations