Decision Analysis and Political Processes

Abstract

Decision analysis has been with us for at least half a century. Over that time it has developed from a theoretical paradigm for individual rational choice to a practical tool for individuals, small groups and 'unitary' organisations, which helps them towards a sound decision-making mindful of the behavioural characteristics of individuals and group dynamics. Decision analysis has also shown its worth in the context of stakeholder engagement and public participation. The time is right for it to be more widely used in making societal decisions. However, to achieve that we need to realise that in many circumstances it will only be one input to the political process that leads to the actual decision. Recognising that suggests that our community of decision analysts needs to deconstruct our paradigm and attend more to communicating the result of the analysis in comparison with other inputs to the societal decision.

Multi‐criteria decision analysis for environmental remediation: Benefits, challenges, and recommended practices

“…The first is that MCDA is simply a tool and framework to integrate other analytics methods, revealing the impacts of uncertainties and making values and preferences more explicit. The second is that its greatest value may be as one input to the political process that will lead to the actual decision (French & Argyris, ). And the third is that as an analytical method it can support any decision‐making process.…”

“…French and Argyris () recognize and call for the development of and research into methods for soliciting input from and discussing the implications of decision analysis with lay stakeholders in the public. A number of suggestions are provided in Section 6 of this paper.…”

“…Decision analysts need to continue to seek ways to incorporate these methods into the decision analysis process. According to French and Argyris (), decision analysis has been at the forefront of a movement to encourage stakeholder engagement, through workshops and other methods, but at the same time they acknowledge that more research is required about what represents best practices for stakeholder engagement. This includes methods not only of obtaining information on the values, objectives, and preferences of the stakeholders but of the meaning of decision analysis results.…”

“…Nor does it suggest that remediation decisions should be made solely on the basis of MCDA. Rather, MCDA is offered as a tool to support understanding of the issues, a way of informing debate, and the political process leading to the ultimate decision (French & Argyris, ).…”

The Future of Health Is Self-Production and Co-Creation Based on Apomediative Decision Support

“…A bottom-up approach of bringing the person’s decisions into the formulation of the policy goals, through preference-sensitive support that uses the best available estimates of multi-criterial effectiveness, is the way forward. MCDA-based decision support is as valuable at the group policy-level as at the individual decision one [ 24 ].…”