Part I. The Eightfold Path
Define the Problem
It gives you (1) A reason for doing all work necessary to
complete the project. (2) A sense of direction for your evidence-gathering
activity. (3) In the last phase of the policy analysis, your final problem definition
will probably help you structure how you tell your story.
Some issues may connote more than one problem. Depending on the audience, for example, “teenage pregnancy” might connote sexual immorality, the blighting of young people’s and their children’s life chances, exploitation of taxpayers, and social disintegration. Usually you will want to determine a primary problem focus; otherwise you will find that the analysis gets out of hand