Chapter 10 discusses competing theories of decision making that can be applied to the public sector. Each approach addresses the information that decision makers use in reaching their judgments and how political values affect decisions. The rational approach holds efficiency as the highest value and desires to get the greatest return on investment. The public-choice approach attempts to substitute market-like forces for other incentives that could distort decisions, introducing increased privatization measures to the public sector. The bargaining approach argues that it makes the most sense to conduct limited analysis and then to bargain out a decision that can attract political support. It introduces the concept of incrementalism, making small changes and correcting errors that might creep in with the emphasis on immediate problems and not the larger goals to be reached. The participative approach calls at the most general level for participation by those who will be affected by the decisions. The discussion around this approach introduces the NIMBY phenomenon with its strong pressure to keep certain programs “not in my backyard.”      

No approach is a panacea to the problem of making decisions. Although these approaches offer valuable insights, they share problems: the enormous uncertainty surrounding complex issues, bureaucratic pathologies that distort and block the flow of important information, and recurrent crises that deny the luxury of lengthy consideration.