Chapter Overview

This chapter deals with the ethical and moral bases of decision-making and looks at what decision makers must think about when they are considering policies. The chapter first examines the concepts of "justice" and "efficiency" as two broad characteristics that state policies should have. The different types of justice and the difficulty of determining what exactly is "just" is explored. The chapter then looks at the difficulties in dealing with efficiency due to the difficulty of determining the costs or benefits of a policy. Next, the chapter looks at different modes of decision-making (incremental vs. radical; market vs. governmental authority) and explores the advantages and disadvantages of each. The chapter ends with an examination of four policy questions, looking at the sorts of issues policy makers must consider when dealing with them.

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