transmission (Burr 1997b, 10). In this perspective, the former stance closes off sensible options and prevents public health methods from being applied to the AIDS epidemic.
Similarly, an auto safety initiative by President Clinton to increase seatbelt use from 68 to 85% by 2000 and 90% by 2005 was based on the estimated benefit of 10,000lives saved per year. But several African American lawmakers and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposed the policy initiative, because enforcement of the law would increase police harassment of minorities. In addition, States such as Washington and Colorado also opposed the proposed law because of individualist feelings that "government has no right to tell people what to do in their cars" (Brown 1998). Ideological values were clearly an important element in both drug policy and automobile safety decision making. As in most cases of policy analysis, there has to be a stage in the formulation process in which values can be traded off without degeneration into violence or chaos.
Before turning to this chapter's case, "Fighting Crime: The Case for Emptier Prisons," we need to review the larger constraints to problem defini tion. These are issues that cannot be dealt with feasibly in the short run, because they deal with institutions and interest-group pressures. Following this review, we will look at basic methods for structuring policy problems and then apply them to the case.