Public policy-making mostly faces challenges in choosing the right and best model. Policymakers develop disputes on various models through their ideas and theories. Policymakers and economists mostly dispute the models of rational decision-making and incremental decision-making. Both these models have their own shortcomings and flaws. One is better than the other in one aspect, and the other is better in some other perspective. These models have their own respective roles in shaping public policies.
Despite of the fact that both models have positive aspects, economists disputably argument on each model. Before going into the depth of the both models, first of all discuss their originations and their respective characteristics. One can easily distinguish them both easily looking at their characteristics. Because these both models vary each other to a greater extent.
When discussing the rational decision-making model, we consider the rational decision-making process. In which a pruritic approach toward decision-making is strongly considered. This implies that the whole community’s desires and wants are known by the government or policymakers and that these wants are calculateable and can be replaced by other alternatives by policymakers while making policies. The other aspect of the rational decision-making model is that it Denies the community’s involvement in any decision-making. That means all community decisions must be taken without participating or knowing the community’s will. It focuses on efficiency achievement and net benefit. The rational model affirms that society’s values are known and can be compensated with alternatives while making policies. This concept of the rational model is closely related to the interchangeable efficiency concept. This means that the public can transfer their preferences from one good to another whenever they want. The rational model also considers all social, political, and economic values. Furthermore, rational decision-making assumes that all decisions must be based on logical and rational reasoning. This logical reasoning consists of four steps. The following four steps govern every decision-making under the domain of the rational model.
1) Defining the goals,
2) Identifying the alternatives to achieving the goals,
3) Assessing the potential outcomings,
4) Selection of the option that appears most feasible.
On the other hand, the incremental model favors repetitive and purist-based decision-making procedures. This model favors the policy-making procedure in a fragmented form; small and logical steps must be taken to finalize the policy. It counts every small step in policy formulation. Unlike the rational decision-making process, it appreciates community involvement, while the rational model is a centralized model that rejects community involvement in decision-making. The economist Lind Loom proposed the incremental model in an attempt to respond to the imperfections of the rational model. Through this model, Lind Loom stated how to construct a public policy and the nature of a successful public policy. In incremental model ends and means are intimately intertwined, we almost knows our means of contemplating. Besides that, few means are considered, unlike the rational model. The assumption here is that managers have limited time and resources. The degree of logic and rationality is less than the rational model. The rational model has a centerline approach, whilst the incremental model has a pruritic approach in policy-making procedures. Where community involvement in policy formulation is considered, in centralized form, there is no such involvement in policy making. The concept of interchangeable efficiency is discussed in the rational model, whereas the incremental model denies such interchangeability.
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