Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the context and nature of public policy analysis as a field of study in Mexico. For that, first it explains what is to be understood by policy analysis and policy field. Second, it presents the context and nature of the study of public policies in the period 1940 to 1988 in Mexico, which, albeit an area of existing study, lacked an emphasis on the approaches of policy analysis. The third section discusses the emergence of this field in the country in the 1990s, while the fourth one deals with its development from the year 2000 up to 2015. The chapter ends presenting two main conclusions. First, it concludes that in Mexico the policy analysis field has overcome what Heidenheimer (1985) calls the “visibility” threshold. In other words, after its start 25 years ago, it is now a well-established field: it is the subject of around 20 academic programs throughout the country, as well as numerous books and articles, and it sustains many professional groups within academic associations. Second, the chapter concludes that the discipline is still not well received in many quarters in Mexico and has yet to overcome some of the challenges it has faced from its outset (Mendez, 1995), such as achieving greater theoretical coherence, producing more empirical studies and maintaining its contribution to the public good without adopting a technocratic approach.

Defining policy analysis

Policy analysis is understood here as the analysis of public policy according to the goals, approaches and objects of study of this field, in two main areas: first, “evaluative policy analysis”, which aims to present policy evaluations and proposals through the use of certain tools (for example, cost-benefit analysis); and, second, “explanatory policy analysis”, which aims to describe and explain policy agenda setting, formulation, implementation and evaluation, using a specific set of theoretical approaches.

Some policy analysis methods, approaches and objects of study were originally developed by economists or political scientists, but constitute now the corpus that gives identity to and defines policy analysis as a field of study. Policy analysis thus should be differentiated from the study of public problems or policies using other disciplines’ approaches (something that has been done since before the emergence of the policy field in the US as well as in many other countries).