2 What would be the disadvantages of pure rationality in government decision-making?

Governments globally are concerned about the ways in which public policy decisions are taken and are often placed in a dilemma between making the best use of public funds through rational decision-

making and the need to maintain the popular support of the public through consensus seeking decision-making.

Policy models help to promote a better understanding of the nature of policy. If policy-makers pursued and were capable of complete rationality they would produce ‘perfect’ policies. However, most policy-

makers are not capable of complete rationality, and many have developed more incremental approaches to policy-making. A useful approach to policy models is to divide them into three types:

a. Ideal Type This does not exist in real life, but can help understanding and explanation by exploring underlying ideas or concepts (such as ‘rationality’).

b. Descriptive Model This relates to a real-life situation, and its purposes are those of description, exploration and understanding.

c. Prescriptive Model This relates to what is desirable. It is concerned with what ought to be rather than with what is.

Most policy theorists employ models which emphasize the process of policy making and the cyclical nature of that process over time. Some models are prescriptive, some are descriptive. Certain theorists use a ‘mixed model’ which combines both descriptive and prescriptive elements. Simon’s approach is to consider rationality as a prescriptive idea but then to argue that more policy makers should move towards the rational policy model.