Deliberative policy analysis: towards a methodological orientation

Deliberative policy analysis (DPA) has become a new branch of post-positivist policy inquiry since the release of a book edited by Hajer and Wagenaar fifteen years ago. The status quo of this field, however, is not satisfactory. Particularly, there is apparent shortage of exploration on how to apply DPA to generate insights for policy making. This article undertakes a critical revisit of DPA’s development and to explore the road ahead, especially through the lens of practice. It starts with a brief review of DPA study, mainly focusing on its characteristics, suitable context, and functions. The next section discusses three challenges facing the emerging field: how to render the DPA approach more operable, the absence of “analysis,” and the lack of purposeful and designed pilot practice. It proceeds to argue that the research on DPA will likely take a methodological turn, and offers several considerations for future study: understanding and framing DPA from a practice-oriented perspective, underscoring the importance of DPA’s consulting function, taking a procedural perspective and incorporating consensus building into the process, providing organizational solutions for practicing DPA, and conducting purposeful pilot practices with prior DPA design.