Abstract: A policy question is a request for a fairly stable, but modifiable authoritative line of action aimed at securing an optimal balance between different goods, all of which must be pursued, but cannot be jointly maximized. To such questions there are no purely technical solutions, a point that is revealed by the etiology of policy questions. They appear to arise from conflicts among humans over the distribution of goods, i.e., conflicts of interest. However, the deeper roots of such questions lie not in a conflict of human interests, but in the incompatibility of the actual goods that human beings seek. Policy questions ask how to allocate such goods. But this allocation is the business of politics. No policy without politics nor politics without polity.

Policy questions must be distinguished from constitutional questions, moral questions, and questions aimed at forming the set of alternatives from which policies might be selected. Finally, different facets of the policy process are distinguished -- policy analysis, formation, decision and the political analysis of policy. These never occur discretely or in fixed sequence. But they are different activities, having different theories and requiring different skills, and capacities. Together, they model what is required for that most comprehensive of all offices within our political system - - the office of citizen.

Policy Questions: Los dilemas de política o dilemas éticos reclaman una línea de acción que sea estable pero adaptable con el propósito de asegurar el óptimo balance entre diferentes fines o bienes, todos ellos deben ser perseguidos, pero no pueden realizarse o maximizarse en conjunto. Estos dilemas no tienen soluciones técnicas, aspecto que es revelado por la etiología de los dilemas de política. Surgen del conflicto entre seres humanos por la distribución de bienes, i.e. conflicto de interes. Sin embargo, las raíces profundas de tales cuestiones no recaen en los intereses humanos, sino en la incompatibilidad de los bienes que de hecho los seres humanos persiguen. Los dilemas de política se preguntan cómo asignar tales bienes. Pero esta asignación es asunto de la política. No hay política sin Política ni Política sin políticas.


Lea el documento completo en el vínculo siguiente http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v2n7.html