On Doing Critical Policy Analysis

Abstract

In my comments on this fine collection of critical policy analyses, I want to do a number of things. I shall point to the general conceptual and social orientation and commitments that provide the foundation for such research. I will then describe a number of contributions that these papers make. And finally, I shall suggest a number of areas where additional critical investigations could make a significant contribution to our understanding. I hope that I will be forgiven if, at times, I refer to my own work. But many of the arguments I will make in this essay require much more detailed treatments, ones in which I have engaged elsewhere. Thus, these references to my own lengthier analyses may serve as a shorthand pointer to the larger discussions.