The Black Box model of Policymaking.

         

     We all have heard the term Black Box which is generally used in several fields like science, computing, Engineering, Marketing, etc. Black Box - directly translates to 'a complex system or device whose internal workings are hidden or not readily understood'. In general, an input is fed to a particular system or process to get a desires output and that definite system or process which transforms the input to desired output is called as Black Box.

Fig: General Black Box model 

             

Let us speak about Public policy

What is Public Policy? Public policy describes the actions of the government. Usually created in response to issues brought before decision-makers, these policies come in the form of laws and regulations. 

        The goal of public policy cannot entirely be separated from its source. Both government and public policy help meet basic societal needs and obligations, decide how communities, states or nations manage resources and keep general order in society.

      Several theories and models prevail on how to approach a Public Policy or how to formulate a policy based on certain issues. The idea of models and frames that structure and provide a discourse of analysis to the policymaking process came into use in the 1970s and 1980s. So what goes in the Black Box Policy-Making?

      David Eston's "System theory" is one of the pioneering approaches to Policymaking. This theory is also popularly termed as "The Black Box model" -  a highly attractive and inclusive model of the public policymaking process. 

     The Estonian 'black box' model demands are the claims made on the political system by individuals and groups to alter some aspect of the environment. He approached the process to explore regulatory systems - their structures, constraints, and possibilities.

    In specific David Eston's Black Box model converts the demands of the society into policies. He proposed a behavioral approach and tried establishing an interconnection between Public policy, Society and Politics- Stating that politics is delimited and it is a part of the society, which is engaged in the authoritative allocation of values.

Fig: The Estonian Black box model
Source: A Framebook for Policy Analysis(1965)

           The above figure gives an idea of what Easton describes as an apolitical system. Inputs are seen as the physical social economic and political products of the environment. They are received into the political system in the form of both demands and supports.

          Demands are the claims made on the political system by individuals and groups to alter some aspect of the environment. Demands occur when individuals or groups, in response to environmental conditions, act to effect public policy.

        The environment is any condition or event defined as external to the boundaries of the political system. The supports of the apolitical system consist of the rules, laws and customs that provide a basis for the existence of the apolitical community and the authorities. The support is rendered when individuals or groups accept the decisions or laws. Supports are the symbolic or material inputs of a system (such as, obeying laws, paying taxes, or even respecting the national flag) that constitute the psychological and material resources of the system.

        At the heart of the political system are the institutions and personnel for policy-making. These include the chief executive, legislators, judges and bureaucrats. In the system’s version they translate inputs into ‘outputs. Outputs, then, are the authoritative value allocations of the political system, and these allocations constitute public policy or policies. The systems theory portrays pubic policy as an output of the political system.

         The concept of feedback indicates that public policies may have a modifying effect on the environment and the demands generated therein, and may also have an effect upon the character of the political system, Policy outputs may generate new demands and new supports or withdrawal of the old supports for the system. Feedback plays an important role in generating a suitable environment for future policy.

Now we can see that this process involves a complex system or device whose internal workings are hidden or not readily understood and that is the reason why David Eston's - Systems Theory is popularly named  "The Black Box model".

Although the model is highly influential in the pluralist tradition in political science, It comes with certain limitations that I will be registering in my next post.