There Are No Policymakers
by David R. Garcia
In the academic literature, “policy-maker” is an ill-defined word that is often applied to all policy actors, meaning it is effectively misapplied because it does not account for meaningful distinctions between different policy actors. In a policy environment, there are two clearly defined positions - politicians and professional staff and each serve different roles in policymaking. Politicians are public-facing, communicate a general message to a general audience, and must consider electoral implications to stay in office. There is also another important and underappreciated characteristic about politicians that is particularly relevant to those interested in influencing policy through research. Politicians are education research and policy novices - by design - and become generalists, at best. In this commentary, I apply the research on how novices become experts to help academics leverage their strengths as educators to teach novice politicians and engage in policy without becoming “political.”