rational comprehen-sive decision making.

A model of decision making in which it is

assumed that decision makers have nearly all information about a problem, its causes, and its solutions at their disposal, whereupon a large number of
alternatives can be weighted and the best one selected. Contrast with incrementalism and
bounded
This model is often set up as a straw man against which other models of decision
making are compared; an example of this straw man is Model I (the rational actor
model) in Graham Allison’s
Essence of Decision
.
39
The reason why the ideal rational
model is a straw man is simple: several features of the rational model render it an
unrealistic model of decision making.
First is the problem of goal consensus. Often, when a problem is identified, it
is hard to understand what goals the various proponents of policies have in mind.
Often, goals are left purposefully ambiguous so that legislation can gain passage;
it is then left to the implementers to try to figure out what the most important goals
are. Because solutions are so often tied to goals, some solutions to a problem will
foster political conflict, even if the solution seems the most “rational.” For example,
liberals might see welfare as a form of societal compassion to help less fortunate
people overcome the conditions that lead to poverty.

Another problem with the rational model is that the information-processing demands are too great for human minds in
human institutions. It is impossible to

gather all the information about a particular problem; one could spend a lifetime
and not find a final answer. Even with today’s vastly improved information storage
and retrieval systems, it is very difficult for decision makers, confronted as they are
with significant resource constraints and time pressure, to gather all the information
needed, weigh the information, and make a decision.
An additional problem with attempts at highly rational decision making comes
with the nature of information itself. Because decision makers deal with social
phenomena, and social phenomena are notoriously difficult to track and analyze,
it is difficult to find the proper information about goals, values, costs, and benefits
needed to make a rational decision. This is one of the key criticisms of
cost-benefit
analysis
(CBA). In CBA, the analyst tries to count up, often in monetary terms, the
cost of pursuing a certain policy and the benefits to be derived from it. The problem
is that the costs of an action are sometimes easier to count up than are the benefits.
For example, we might know that the cost of cleaning up a toxic waste site is $50
million, and the result is that we might reduce the rate of cancers and other illnesses
by somewhere between 2 and 10 percent. What is the benefit, in dollar terms, of
this reduction? How can we make this reduction more certain? This depends on
our calculation of how much each life is worth, which is very difficult to calculate.
Again, this does not mean we should not try to use CBA. And, as Dye makes quite
clear, we should not forget that rational analysis is also about values and preferences,
not simply about dollar costs and benefits.
40
Many of the critiques of the rational actor model suggest that rationality is so
difficult, or nearly impossible, that other models of decision making are more ac-
curate. But it is important to keep rationality in mind as, at least, a goal, if not the
realistic end. After all, if complete rationality were possible—that is, if we had
complete (or very nearly complete) access to all relevant information and that in-
formation was adequate—we would be able to make better decisions. This is why
people continue to develop information systems and analytic techniques: to move
us toward improved, more rational decision making.
 ‫في كثير من األحيان‪ ،‬عندما يتم تحديد المشكلة‪ ،‬فإنه من الصعب أن نفهم ما هي األهداف التي يضعها مختلف الجمهور‬
‫في أذهانهم‪ .‬في كثير من األحيان‪ُ ،‬ت ترك األهداف غامضة عن عمد حتى يتسنى تمرير التشريعات ومن ثم ُيترك للمنفذين‬
‫محاولة معرفة ما هي أهم األهداف‪ .‬نظًر ا ألن الحلول غالًبا ما تكون مرتبطة باألهداف‪ ،‬فإن بعض الحلول للمشكلة ستوجد‬
‫كذلك تعزيز الصراع السياسي‪.‬‬
‫ألنه من المستحيل جمع كافة المعلومات حول مشكلة معينة؛ حتى مع تخزين المعلومات المحسن بشكل كبير‬
‫اليوم وأنظمة االسترجاع‪ ،‬فإنه من الصعب جًد ا على صناع القرار مواجهتها كما هي مع قيود كبيرة على‬
‫الموارد وضغط الوقت‪ ،‬لجمع كل المعلومات لالزمة‪ ،‬واتخاذ القرار‪.‬‬