1. Define the Problem
YOUR FIRST PROBLEM DEFINITION is a crucial step. It gives you (I) a
reason for doing all the work necessary to complete the project and (2) a sense
of direction for your evidence-gathering activity. And in the last phases of the
policy analysis, your final problem definition will probably help you structure
how you teff your story.
Usually, the raw material for your initial problem definition comes from
your client and derives from the ordinary language of debate and discussion in
the client's political environment, language I call generically issue rhetoric. This
rhetoric may be narrowly confined to a seemingly technical problem or broadly
located in a controversy of wide social interest. In either case, you have to get
beneath the rhetoric to define a problem that is analytically manageable and that
makes sense in light of the political and institutional means available for mitigat-
ing it