The Formation of Economic Policy: A Cognitive-Evolutionary Approach to Policy-Making

Abstract

This essay proposes a cognitive-evolutionaryapproach to economic policy making where the entire process ofpolicy-formation and implementation is analyzed as a collectiveprocess of mobilization and problem-solving that extends fromthe individual level over the level of collective decision makingto the constitutional level. In the procedural view proposed,many issues or problems of economic policy are not fully solvedbecause of four main filters or barriers that filter out certainissues while letting others through. The main task for politicalentrepreneurs is to surmount these barriers. Important aspectsof the politico-economic process are cognitive processes of perceptionand interpretation by the individual; processes of interpretation,mobilization, and negotiation at the collective level; and evolutionarydynamics at the constitutional level.—This interdisciplinaryoriented approach provides a framework that suggests new categoriesfor analyzing policy-making in a systematic way by linking thebehavior and thinking of the individual with the ongoing politicalprocess at the collective and constitutional level, and leadsto conclusions for advising politicians.