New development: Scarcity, policy gambles, and ‘one-shot bias’—training civil servants to speak truth to power
Allocating scarce resources to meet policy objectives incurs opportunity costs. A vital element of ‘speaking truth to power’ thus involves officials advising ministers on the opportunity costs of high-risk ‘pet projects’. In democracies, the brevity of ministerial office can produce ‘one-shot bias’—...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Formato: | Journal article |
| Idioma: | English |
| Publicado: |
Routledge
2020
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| _version_ | 1826281832331608064 |
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| author | Elston, TW Bevan, G |
| author_facet | Elston, TW Bevan, G |
| author_sort | Elston, TW |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Allocating scarce resources to meet policy objectives incurs opportunity costs. A vital element of ‘speaking truth to power’ thus involves officials advising ministers on the opportunity costs of high-risk ‘pet projects’. In democracies, the brevity of ministerial office can produce ‘one-shot bias’—radical policy-making that deploys ministers’ time-limited powers to the full, yet risks producing significant opportunity costs for public service organizations. Examples include the UK’s recent social security, healthcare and European policies. Training in the economics of organization, development of new techniques for coping with uncertainty in opportunity-cost estimates, and stronger incentives for decision-makers to consider ‘benefits foregone’ by their actions could all provide greater protection against the downsides of one-shot bias. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:34:44Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:81047b37-5425-42a9-9d77-e3de3c93313b |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:34:44Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Routledge |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:81047b37-5425-42a9-9d77-e3de3c93313b2022-03-26T21:27:26ZNew development: Scarcity, policy gambles, and ‘one-shot bias’—training civil servants to speak truth to powerJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:81047b37-5425-42a9-9d77-e3de3c93313bEnglishSymplectic ElementsRoutledge2020Elston, TWBevan, GAllocating scarce resources to meet policy objectives incurs opportunity costs. A vital element of ‘speaking truth to power’ thus involves officials advising ministers on the opportunity costs of high-risk ‘pet projects’. In democracies, the brevity of ministerial office can produce ‘one-shot bias’—radical policy-making that deploys ministers’ time-limited powers to the full, yet risks producing significant opportunity costs for public service organizations. Examples include the UK’s recent social security, healthcare and European policies. Training in the economics of organization, development of new techniques for coping with uncertainty in opportunity-cost estimates, and stronger incentives for decision-makers to consider ‘benefits foregone’ by their actions could all provide greater protection against the downsides of one-shot bias. |
| spellingShingle | Elston, TW Bevan, G New development: Scarcity, policy gambles, and ‘one-shot bias’—training civil servants to speak truth to power |
| title | New development: Scarcity, policy gambles, and ‘one-shot bias’—training civil servants to speak truth to power |
| title_full | New development: Scarcity, policy gambles, and ‘one-shot bias’—training civil servants to speak truth to power |
| title_fullStr | New development: Scarcity, policy gambles, and ‘one-shot bias’—training civil servants to speak truth to power |
| title_full_unstemmed | New development: Scarcity, policy gambles, and ‘one-shot bias’—training civil servants to speak truth to power |
| title_short | New development: Scarcity, policy gambles, and ‘one-shot bias’—training civil servants to speak truth to power |
| title_sort | new development scarcity policy gambles and one shot bias training civil servants to speak truth to power |
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