Assignment 5

Article#1

“Johann Höchtl, Peter Parycek & Ralph Schöllhammer (2016) Big data in the policy cycle:
Policy decision making in the digital era, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic
Commerce, 26:1-2, 147-169,DOI: 10.1080/10919392.2015.1125187”

The article “Big data in the policy cycle: Policy decision making in the digital era” aims to build
a link between theories of public administration and the field of e-governance which goes outside
the service-delivery line which is dominating the current e-government studies. The study
suggests how the public policy decisions could be made on the basis of Big Data and
“Information and Communication Technologies” while incorporating them in the policy cycle.
The authors stated that in the continuous political and technological changes in the era of Big
Data, it remains a neglected topic. We have seen the use of e-governance and e-government
terms in the policy delivery, but often you will listen these terms in policy formation.

The authors explored the topic of governance in the digital age, where they talked about “the role
of ICT in the development of political systems” with respect to the policy making process. As
the digitization has increased massively, and we are going to a “data-driven society” it is
important for the policy makers to adopt these new developments for better and improved policy
making. They further talked about the opportunities and challenges the policy makers could face
while using Big Data in the policy making process. While discussing the opportunities Big Data
will speed up the whole policy making process from information gathering to evaluation and
producing quick reports. On the challenging side the issues of privacy and data protection comes
in place. With the above information a revised policy cycle was mentioned where discussion on
every step was given priority. The paper was concluded with the thoughts that the inclusion of
Big Data and ICT will speed up the decision making and implementation processes, and it will
lead us to make better and on timely decision that will benefit the citizens at large.

The article provided an in-depth view of the use of Big Data and ICT in policy making, and how
it can transform the policy process. Having said this, the article has provided very little attention
to the data privacy and protection when it comes to using the data for policy making purposes,
and also a question could be raised on the reliability of that data. They have also given very little
attention to the bureaucratic hurdles in government sector when it comes to bringing change in
the existing system.

Article#2

“Daniell, K.A., Morton, A. and Insua, D.R., 2016. Policy analysis and policy analytics. Annals of
Operations Research, 236(1), pp.1-13.”

The paper titled “Policy Analysis and Policy Analytics” reviews the new field called policy
analytics and how it may help in speeding up public policy making. It seeks the current and
future possibilities of analytics which can be used in problem solving, decision processes and
public policy making. The paper highlighted the role which policy analytics is already playing in
fields including national security, social services, medical emergency planning energy planning,
government finance allocation, fire and police services, public opinion, urban transport and
planning and defense. The authors identified the major challenges associated with policy
analytics, which is the balance between substantial and robust analysis with sincere public
expectations when it comes to its application. A clear line has been drawn to differentiate how
analytics has been utilized in business and in public sector, where according to authors is more
challenging while making decisions due to multiple stakeholder’s involvement. The paper
narrated some key studies on the subject and its tendency towards a more public feedback and
data driven oriented policy stages that is built on democratic principles. The authors assume that
policy analytics has huge potential and can be very helpful in policy decision making. The rich
data and recorded information can help policy makers make smart decision based on objectivity
which will bring substantial improvement in the policy making realm. It will help wiping out any
bias by policy makers with the help of rich data, which will bring transparency and increase
participation. The paper was concluded with the thoughts that policy analytics is evolving, which
will enhance and speed up policy making process with the help of innovative techniques.

Conclusively the paper provided a comprehensive outlook of transforming policy decision

making with the assistance of policy analytics. However, the authors remained heedless to many
issues related to data, such as the ethical considerations, security and privacy of the data. The
data can be manipulated and violated for personal gains.
Ideally you should answer the following questions in- your critique of the article/study:
• What is the main purpose of the article?
• What is (are) the key question(s)?
• What is the most important information?
• What is (are) the main conclusion(s)?
• What is (are) the main assumption(s)?
• What is (are) the main implication(s)?
• What is (are) the shortcoming(s)?