Systematic Thinking for Social Action

Alice M. Rivlin

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780815726456
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In January 1970 Alice M. Rivlin spoke to an audience at the University of California-Berkeley. The topic was developing a more rational approach to decisionmaking in government. If digital video, YouTube, and TED Talks had been inventions of the 1960s, Rivlin's talk would have been a viral hit. As it was, the resulting book, Systematic Thinking for Social Action, spent years on the Brookings Press bestseller list. Is is a very personal and conversational volume about the dawn of new ways of thinking about government.

As deputy assistant secretary for program coordination, and later as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1966 to 1969, Rivlin was an early advocate of systems analysis, which had been introduced by Robert McNamara at the Department of Defense as PPBS (planning-programming-budgeting-system).

While Rivlin brushes aside the jargon, she digs into the substance of systematic analysis and a 'quiet revolution in government. In an evaluation of the evaluators, she issues mixed grades, pointing out where analysts had been helpful in finding solutions and where—because of inadequate data or methods—they had been no help at all.

Systematic Thinking for Social Action offers important insights for anyone interested in working to find the smartest ways to allocate scarce funds to promote the maximum well-being of all citizens.

INDEX

Ability to cope, 41

Academic testing: cultural and linguistic biases in, 40; inadequacies of, 58, 62, 68

Accountability mechanisms, 108–11, 118–19

Aging populations. See Elderly and aging populations

Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), 14–15, 24, 51–52, 126–27n14

Alienation from society, 42

Assessment. See Academic testing

Bank Street College of Education program, 87

Bateman, Worth, 128n25

Becker-Engelmann program, 87

Behavioral studies: of higher education, 36; of income maintenance programs, 26, 28, 86

Benefit-cost analysis, 42–52; of cancer research vs. reading programs, 42–49; of dam sites, 50–51; in disease control study, 44–45; of education, 31–32, 36–37, 45–46; for income maintenance programs, 23–24, 26, 27–28; in manpower training study, 45; methods used in, 43–46; political process variables in, 48–49; usefulness of, 50–52; weaknesses of, 42–43, 46–49; of welfare programs, 52–53

Biases, in educational testing, 40

Blind populations, public assistance for, 14, 24

Bowles, Samuel S., 60

Burkhead, Jesse, 60, 61

Bushell program, 88

California, public subsidies for higher education in, 33

Campbell, Donald T., 93–94

Cancer research, benefit-cost analysis of, 42–49

Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, 36

Children: AFDC program for, 14–15, 24, 51–52, 126–27n14; allowance proposals for, 18, 19, 20, 22; and poverty, 10

Cohen, Wilbur J., 17, 21

Coleman, John R., 47, 60

Coleman Report, 11–12, 59, 60, 65

Community action programs, 74

Community control proposals, 111–14

Compensatory education programs, 67, 68–71

Computer technology: attitudes toward, 4; growth of, 8; for Medicare fraudulent claim analysis, viii; and privacy issues, 13; in surveys, 12; and tax model, 28–29

Congressional Budget Office, vii

Cost analysis. See Benefit-cost analysis

Council of Economic Advisers, 9, 10

Cultural biases, in educational testing, 40

Dam sites, benefit-cost analysis of, 50–51

Decentralization proposals, 104–11; accountability mechanisms for, 108–11; attitudes toward, 104–05; federal role in, 106–08

Decision-making process: barriers to, 39; judgment and values in, 2; PPBS approach to, 3–5; systematic analysis in, 2

Denison, Edward F., 33–34

Department of. See specific name of department

Disabled populations: lack of information on, 12; public assistance for, 14, 24

Disease...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface to the New Edition
• One - Introduction
• Two - Who Wins and who Loses?
• Three - What does the Most Good?
• Four - Producing Effective Services: What do we Know?
• Five - Can we Find Out what Works?
• Six - Accountability: What does it Mean?
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author
• Back Cover