Case study of federal information policymaking process using preliminary application of an exploratory model to the paperwork reduction act of 1980.

Abstract

Information is a unique resource, unlike any other resource previously addressed by the Federal government policy making process. As presented in professional literature, information can be described as expandable, substitutable, transportable, shareable and diffusive (Cleveland 1982, 1985). The apparent failure of the Federal level policymakers to grasp the distinctions between information resources and the produced goods of the industrial economy is examined through literature investigation and a case study analysis. Both the literature and the case study suggest that neither the Federal level policy making processes nor the created policies are relevant to today's information-rich environment. Sociopolitical and economic realities of today are defined by information resources and information technologies. The characteristics of information combined with the speed of available information technologies, combine to produce a resource environment which is nonlinear, holographic and indeterminate, where complex, open systems create resources not easily valued by traditional economic methods. The institutionalized processes by which the Federal government produces policy, however, are still rooted in the linear, cause-effect, mechanistic metaphor of the industrial age. Weaknesses in the present system need to be exposed and remedial measures begun through the use of modeling and further research in the field of Federal information policy study. Case study application of Levitan's exploratory model offers preliminary delineation of Federal policy making process components and discussion of theoretical misconceptions which require further investigation.