Win-Win Policy For Developing and Industrial Nations: Six Examples

Abstract

Win-win policy analysis in this context can be defined as handing policy problems by finding solutions that exceed the best initial expectations of conservatives, liberals, Republicans, Democrats, or whoever are the major groups, sides, or viewpoints in the policy dispute. Win-win is also called super-optimizing or doing better than the previous best of all major groups. There are basically five steps to win-win policy analysis: 1. What are the major goals of conservatives, liberals, or other major groups who are disputing what policy should be adopted for a given policy problem? 2. What are the major alternatives of those groups for dealing with the policy problem? 3. What are the relations between each major alternative and each major goal? In their simplest form, these relations can be expressed in terms of a minus sign (relatively adverse relation) and plus sign (relative conducive relation), and a zero (neither adverse nor conducive relation). 4. What new alternative is there that might be capable of: a. achieving the conservative goals even better than the conservative alternative, and b. simultaneously capable of achieving the liberal goals even more than the liberal alternative? Whatever new alternative meets these two criteria is a win-win alternative or a super-optimum solution. 5. Is the proposed win-win alternative capable of getting over various hurdles that frequently exist. These hurdles may be political, administative, technological, legal, psychological, and economic in random order. Win-win solutions should also consider how to upgrade workers and firms that may be displaced by downsizing due to increased productivity, free trade, defense conversion, immigration, merit treatment, labor utilization, creativity, and related factors. There are various ways of facilitating ideas for win-win solutions. Some of the ways include: 1. Expand the resources available so that both liberal and conservative goals can be achieved. 2. Modify the liberal alternatives so they also achieve the conservative goals, and/or modify the conservative alternatives so they also achieve the liberal goals. 3. Redefine the problem to emphasize goals, rather than alternatives. 4. Fully combine alternatives that are not mutually exclusive. 5. Make use of a mind-stimulating matrix that shows goals on the columns, alternatives on the rows, and scores or directions of relations in the cells. Have an empty row at the bottom of the matrix for inserting words and data on possible win-win solutions.