The Social and Political Construction of Public Policy Problems

Let us start from a simple and common sense definition of the concept of a „problem‟: One has a problem when one experiences a gap or disparity between a moral standard and an image of a present or future state of the world. Someone who claims to be plagued by a problem, implicitly or explicitly passes a moral judgment. One uses a standard involving value or worthlessness, desirability or undesirability, to pass judgment on present or expected acts or situations (e.g. Rokeach, 1973; Frankena, 1973). Some call moral standards strictly phenomenological, subjective facts of our inner, personal lives (Hodgkinson, 1983:31–32). Life presents itself to us as a series of moments-facts-events. To these phenomena we attribute value; it is what we appreciate. Values are, to put it inelegantly but unambiguously, „in ourselves‟, not „in things out there‟. People attribute or ascribe value to things. In principle, this is a voluntary act. However, in political or administrative practice value attribution is part of social conventions, social status, bringing up and educational background, political ideology, group interest, and, ultimately, expressions of political influence and power (Safranski, 1999) 2 . Values are confronted not just as inner feelings with a