Graham Allison's Bureaucratic Politics Model serves as a sophisticated and comprehensive alternative to the previous models, like that of Model 1 that he has pointed out in his article. I do give credit to Allison for showing how his model would work and explaining the paradigm of his model in detail. However, I would like to critique his notion of government action which I found troublesome. According to him, government actions are "various acts of officials of a government in exercises of governmental authority that can be perceived outside the government" (Allison and Halperin 45) and the public announcement of the decisions taken by the government would be regarded as the action by the government. The reason why he makes such an assumption that in order to explain or plan outcomes, it is important to "identify the actions of particular government that affect the outcomes, to treat these actions separately..."(Allison and Halperin 45).
When the US president publicly announces his decision to bomb North Vietnam, then it will be counted as an action by the government. But if the president privately decides to bomb North Vietnam or if a secret paper has been sent to the president by the Secretary of Defense, if they are not actions by the government then what are they and why they need to be treated separately? I have never heard the Indian PM publicly announcing in the media that his government has decided to flood the rivers, like Ravi, in Pakistan during Monsoon period. In Pakistan, everyone will identify the flooding of rivers as an action by the Indian government, regardless of the decision by the Indian PM as being public or not. Whether the decision by the Indian government to flood the rivers was made public or was taken privately will have the same outcomes, that is villagers in Pakistan would get affected, and will have the same explanations, predictions and planning of their outcomes. In my view, all the decisions taken by the government, public or private, must be counted as the government action. If the secret paper was to the US president by the Secretary of Defense, isn't the Secretary of Defense a member of US government? Whether the government announces it or privately decides, the bombings in Vietnam will have the same outcomes.
It would be very convenient to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of all the governmental decisions if they all are counted as governmental actions. For instance, what outcomes and objectives will the Indian government achieve if it decides to flood the rivers? How far would it be successful in implementing the decision to flood? If we take into account that the decision was taken privately, how would we explain and evaluate the outcome then? It would be ideal to use the same and unified methods and criteria of explaining, predicting and planning the outcomes of both the public and private decisions of the government. Obviously India wouldn't announce that it is going to take this decision as it would create an uproar in Pakistan but we still need to evaluate and explain the outcomes of the Indian government decisions that were taken privately because those private decisions will also have an impact on Pakistan and on the Indo-Pak relations.
When the US president publicly announces his decision to bomb North Vietnam, then it will be counted as an action by the government. But if the president privately decides to bomb North Vietnam or if a secret paper has been sent to the president by the Secretary of Defense, if they are not actions by the government then what are they and why they need to be treated separately? I have never heard the Indian PM publicly announcing in the media that his government has decided to flood the rivers, like Ravi, in Pakistan during Monsoon period. In Pakistan, everyone will identify the flooding of rivers as an action by the Indian government, regardless of the decision by the Indian PM as being public or not. Whether the decision by the Indian government to flood the rivers was made public or was taken privately will have the same outcomes, that is villagers in Pakistan would get affected, and will have the same explanations, predictions and planning of their outcomes. In my view, all the decisions taken by the government, public or private, must be counted as the government action. If the secret paper was to the US president by the Secretary of Defense, isn't the Secretary of Defense a member of US government? Whether the government announces it or privately decides, the bombings in Vietnam will have the same outcomes.
It would be very convenient to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of all the governmental decisions if they all are counted as governmental actions. For instance, what outcomes and objectives will the Indian government achieve if it decides to flood the rivers? How far would it be successful in implementing the decision to flood? If we take into account that the decision was taken privately, how would we explain and evaluate the outcome then? It would be ideal to use the same and unified methods and criteria of explaining, predicting and planning the outcomes of both the public and private decisions of the government. Obviously India wouldn't announce that it is going to take this decision as it would create an uproar in Pakistan but we still need to evaluate and explain the outcomes of the Indian government decisions that were taken privately because those private decisions will also have an impact on Pakistan and on the Indo-Pak relations.
Well its fine to say that all actions - good and bad, known and unknown - can be lumped under the umbrella of the government. But understanding the process behind these actions is critical and this is really what Allison and Halperin are trying to do.
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