Threats to effective policy-making arising from ubiquitous circumstances of complexity and uncertainty are often taken as reasons to eschew both the attacking of social problems through public policy and cogitation, such as policy analysis, in the policy process. It is suggested here that, as complexity and uncertainty increase, more cogitation is required, not less; but it is crucial that cogitation be of the appropriate sort. Greater use should be made of policy design, as opposed to methods emphasising selection among prespecified alternatives. The required design task varies with the level of difficulty – defined by complexity, uncertainty, and lack of feedback – in any case at hand. A taxonomy of levels of difficulty is developed, together with a preliminary outline of the design task required at each level.

The ability to forecast and evaluate the impact of selective financial assistance is crucial to the formulation of effective policies of selective industrial intervention. A survey of institutions and methodology across the three countries reveals inadequacies in the quality and the extent of governments’ appraisal of industrial assistance measures. The principal problems of quantitative appraisal are identified and discussed and suggestions are made for improvements in the procedures and methods of appraisal, with the purpose of improving the formulation and the implementation of policies of selective industrial assistance.

This article relates two developing themes in planning theory and practice in government: the proliferation in recent years in Britain of policy planning systems and the concern in a number of countries with processes of implementation. The growth of policy planning systems can be analysed from a number of perspectives: (1) procedural planning theory; (2) interorganisational theory and (3) the theory of fiscal crisis. The paper discusses five major factors which shape the implementation process in relation to policy planning systems: (1) the policy message; (2) the multiplicity of agents; (3) perspectives and ideologies; (4) resources; (5) the politics of planning.

This paper examines policy planning systems in British central-local government relations, and in particular the formal, structured relationship in the local transport policy sector, as a means of exploring the impact in intergovernmental relations of the form of linkage between institutions. This impact is analysed in terms of central government's ability to use the planning system to promote policy processes and promote and regulate policy content in the locality. The use of specific and block grants by central government as a potential instrument of control in relation to policy planning systems is discussed. An examination of limiting cases reveals the importance of local resources in minimising central government influence through the policy planning system, and suggests that institutions will seek to restructure the form of linkage or underlying resources when they see themselves loosing advantage to others.