IN AN ideal world, policy is designed in a linear fashion; a problem is identified, possible solutions are found and then tested for unintended consequences, before the policy is finalised and implemented. In reality, the process is often more along the lines of what Michael Cohen et al described in their 1972 paper, A Garbage Can Model of Organisational Choice, as "organised anarchy". Their basic thesis was that policy decisions are the result of happenstance rather than a consequence of an ordered and rational process.The garbage can model describes the policy process as "a collection of choices looking for problems, issues and feelings looking for decision situations in which they might be aired, solutions looking for issues to which they might be the answer, and decision makers looking for work".In other words, there are many problems and solutions available to policy makers at any given time, but the way in which a particular solution gets attached to a particular problem is la...
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