Systems Analysis in Public Policy by Ida R. Hoos

Voices Revived

Systems Analysis in Public Policy A Critique, Revised Edition

by Ida R. Hoos (Author)
November 2018
Originally published 1972
First Edition
Paperback
$39.95, £34.00
Title Details

Rights: Available worldwide
Pages: 358
ISBN: 9780520304093
Trim Size: 5.5 x 8.25

Request an Exam or Desk Copy Recommend to Your Library (PDF) RightsLink Rights and Permissions Read an Excerpt

About the Book About the Author Reviews Table of Contents Related Books

About the Book

Systems analysis, which is also called cost/benefit analysis, the planning-programming-budgeting system, risk analysis, and technology assessment, has become the major planning and policy tool of government at all levels. Indeed, it is still gathering momentum in addressing the uncertainties associated with everything from the safety of nuclear energy to the effects of microelectronics. Examining this phenomenon critically, Ida R. Hoos reviews systems analytic techniques in their own circumscribed, simulated world and in the real one, drawing on a wide range of studies in health, education, welfare, crime, and many other areas of public concern, and giving special attention to information systems and databanks. In a new introduction and a new final chapter, Hoos expands her 1972 discussion to consider the ways in which systems analysis, now dominant, governs our present and determines our future. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.

About the Author

Ida R. Hoos was a researcher and writer in the Sociology Department at the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

"Systems analysis has become one of America's big businesses. This book challenges with critical professional insight its mystique, methods, and products. The result is a highly readable, provocative treatise which should be of value to anyone who practices systems analysis, buys it, or simply is interested in finding out how much real truth there is in one of America's most fashionable and profitable intellectual games." --A. Alan Post, Legislative Analyst, California Legislature

“A superb book.”—Contemporary Sociology

“Offers a number of valuable insights into the applications of systems analysis in public policy. It provides a needed antidote to some of the more extreme claims of what the systems approach can accomplish.”—Monthly Labor Review

“A tremendously useful essay. . . . Hoos has provided a long overdue evaluation of these promises.”—Worldview

“The only adequate book-length critique of the systems approach to policy decision.”—Perspective

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Past as Prologue
Reason for the Retrospective,
Systems Analysis as Dominant Paradigm,
Economics and Cost/Benefit Analysis,
Optimization and the Decline of the Business World,
The Case of the Costly Mini-Dollar,
The Cost of Cost/Beneht Analysis,

I. Survey and Perspective,
Focus of Research,

2. Systems Approach in Theoretical Perspective,
Definitions of "System,"
Systems Analysis, Systems Engineering, and Systems Management,
General System Theory,
In Sociology,
In Psychology,
In Economics.
General System Theory as Synergy,

3. Systems Approach in Practical Perspective,
Tactical Development of the Techniques,
The Pentagon as Paragon,
The Techniques at Work in the Civilian Sector,
Social Indicators,
National Goals,

4. Systems Analysis as Technological Transfer,
The "Man on the Moon" Magic,
The Doleful Dialectic,
Language as Expediter,
Economic and Political Factors in the Transfer,
Validity of Reasons and Assumptions Underlying the Transfer,
The Process of Technological Transfer,

5. The Techniques at Work in Waste Management and
Supersonic Transport,
Methodology, Methods, and Models,
Objectives Defined and Redefined,
Cost-Benefit Analysis for War and Peace,
Waste Management,
Supersonic Transport,

6. The Techniques at Work in Education and Health,
The Systems Approach to Education,
Education Planning and Manpower Needs,
The Goals of Education,
Program Performance in Education,
Students' Grades as Indices,
Technological Devices and Education,
Implications of PPBS in Education,
Costs, Benefits, and Performance of Health Programs,
Doctors and Data Systems,
Analysis of Costs and Benefits of Health Care,
Health Service Efficiency in Britain,
Effectiveness of Disease Control Programs in the U.S.,
Health Programs for the Poor,

7. Management Information Systems,
Management of Information,
Information Systems as Part of the Rational Planning Process,
The Matter of Facts,
Information Systems and Public Welfare,
Information Systems and Land Use,
Information Systems and Crime,
Information Systems and the Invasion of Privacy,

8. Futurology and the Future of Systems Analysis,
Forecasting the Future through Systems Techniques,
The State-of-the-Art of Futurology,
Systems Analysis in Social Perspective,

9. Imprint and Implications of Systems Methodology,
Introduction,
Cost/Effectiveness in Education,
Technology as "Open Sesame" to Efficiency in Education,
Technology as Model-Maker,
Star Wars and Space Wars: Game and Reality,
State of the Nation's Health,
Cost/ Effectiveness in the Delivery of Health Care,
Information Technology and Health,
Public Health Policy Administration and Analysis,
Risk and Benefit in Public Health Policy,
Risk Analysis.
Assessment of Nuclear Risks,
Safe Radiation Standards,
The Safety Image,
Methodology of Risk Analysis,
Technology Assessment,
Assessment of Information Technology,
Worklife-Employment, Unemployment, and Employability,
Private Life-Information Technology as Intruder,
Quality of Life,

Index