How Public Policy Decisions Are Made: A Case Study

Tchaikovsky Sounds Funny

I recall hearing this story during my childhood. I don’t know if it is true or not, but it may well be and, anyway, it makes for a great story for people interested in the details of public policy.

I was living in a small town in Connecticut which officially registered six employees within the entire town. One of those six employees was the town drunk, who was kept on the town payroll to do whatever odds and ends needed to be done. One day, he was so drunk he drove the town’s truck into the river. This merited a serious dent in his employee record. The First Selectman was so furious that he fired the town drunk.

The impact of this action meant, as observed by the Federal government, that our small town had a sudden 17% jump in unemployment in one month. The town qualified for emergency Federal economic assistance.

The story goes that the First Selectman looked at all the paperwork required by the Federal government to respond to this obvious economic crisis, and decided it was easier to just rehire the town drunk.