Conflict of Multiple Interests in Cost‐Benefit Analysis

Most analytical techniques assign no weight to political factors even though they may have the strongest explanatory power of all variables considered. As they are generally practised, these techniques have the extraordinary deficiency of obscuring the problem of conflict of multiple interests. It is assumed that incorporating political values and weights would destroy the essential objectivity of analysis. This argument ignores the fact that policy analysis must be made relevant to the political process and that this relevance can be achieved in a manner which does not strip it of its potential value to the decision makers, but may even enhance it. Develops some possible methods of incorporating political feasibility into evaluation.