Addressing Ambiguous Public Policy

Newswise — In "Ambiguity and Choice in Public Policy," UAB political scientist Nikolaos Zahariadis, Ph.D., examines policymaking when policymakers' goals or beliefs are unclear and inconsistent. "Policymakers often don't know what they want, yet they still make decisions." Manipulation, the bending of ideas, processes and beliefs to get what one wants out of the policy process is key to understanding the dynamics of policymaking in conditions of ambiguity. Though not addressed in the book, Zahariadis points to the war in Iraq in which the U.S. government presented several reasons for military action. "First it was weapons of mass destruction, then Saddam, then Iraq's liberation. Rational policymaking involves formulating policies in response to specific problems. With Iraq, we had the reverse." .