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0. ID# 17110084 Name Pham Thi Lan Huong
Review Note for Classes of 180405&06
1.

What was discussed in the class

In the first class, we discussed about two worlds which are the virtual world and the real world and to
identify which world that policy, strategy belong to.
We also discussed the two aspects of strategy which are formal - logical aspect and substantive
aspect. The formal one is totally general and universal way of approach while the latter aspect focus
is more specific and focus on the issues, the substantive interest in the real world of the one who set
the strategy. The first class focused on the first aspect of strategy, the formal logical aspect, which
involve the end-means relationship and the cause-effect relationship.

In today class, we reviewed what we had learnt in Introduction to Public Policy course and discussed
about the different between learning and studying and what should be aware and pay attention to
when we want to make something we studied into our own knowledge.
2.

What have you learned? What was good for you?

In first two classes, I learn that:
i) Self-conscious, self-critical and strategic thinking is necessary in analysis. It is important to know
the true meaning of a word or a term when you using it, whether you truly understand it or not,
whether you make it clear in the sentences so that it is easy to understand. And one also need to
aware that the meaning of a term can be different in different context, with different purposes and by
different people.
ii) There are two worlds, virtual world or word world which often expressed by words and symbols
and the real world which involve actions. And it is crucial for one to distinguish these two worlds;

iii) Policy and strategy are belong to the virtual world because it is generated from idea and intention
and nothing more than word. Analysis of policy therefore also belong to the virtual world;
iv) The first step in the policy making process is identification of the policy issues (an issues become
a policy issues when it has negative impacts on citizens in a large scale on space and time, it violate


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the nation legal system and it is a universal concern of the citizens). From the class I learn that the
issues do not exist in the real world, only situations do, because some people might think a situation
is a problem while for others do not have the same opinion. Thus, the issues are identified in the
virtual world;
v) The arrow symbol in a model or diagram can has different meaning but it usually represent the
time sequence, the order of when the step in a process take place;
vi) One need to be aware of tautology in writing, try to make the sentences clear by make the words
self-explanatory and easy to understand; and
vii) citation is very important in writing.
These information are useful for me because there are things that I have never noticed before such
as the difference between virtual world and real world and the importance to be aware of the
meaning of a word when using it.
3.

What do you want more of?

I think it would be helpful if we can have an overview about what we will learn in the course and how
is the connection between the contents in this course with the Introduction with Public Policy and
Public Policy Formulation and Implementation course.
4.

Whatever else …


Review Note for Class of 180407
1.

What was discussed in the class

In today class, we discussed the model of formal-logical aspect of strategy that we learned yesterday
by answering these following questions:
i) What is the connection between end-means relationship and cause-effect relationship? (endmeans relationship is the relation between goal and idea for action while cause-effect relationship is
the relationship between real action and results);
ii) In the previous class, we learned that the implementation arrow (the arrow from idea for action to
real action) cut through the line between virtual world and real world. So what are there in each part
of the implementation that belong to the virtual world and the real world?;
iii) We learned that goal generated from situations in the real world, but is it the only source that goal
comes from?;
iv) What kinds of tools are often used to assess the situation in real world?;
v) When does the assessment take place?; and
vi) Do the real actions that we proposed always lead to the desired results?
2.

What have you learned? What was good for you?


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In today class, I learned that:
i) The cause-effect relationship is the logical support for the end-means relationship. To be more
specific, the action (in end-means relationship) is proposed to achieve the goals while the goal can
only be achieved in real world, thus, proposed action need to be implemented in real world in order
to achieve the goal by producing certain results. Therefore, the end-means relationship is not

valuable unless it have the logical support from the cause-effect relationship;
ii) The part of implementation that belong to the virtual world requires “specificity of expression”, by
which the idea for action need to be specific enough to be able to perform reality check. Usually, we
use 4W1H questions to check the specificity of the idea which are who, when, where, what and how
(to whom – question also used in some cases). In theory, the people that plan the idea for action
often be responsible for the specificity of expression. However, in reality, usually, the people that
implement the action in real world are the one take this responsibility.
The part of implementation that belong to the real world requires reality check, which means to see
whether the proposal for action are feasible to implemented in real world or not;
iii) In reality, goals are not only come from the situation in real world but also come from the order of
authorities;
iv) Indicators can be used to break the border between two worlds because it reflects the situations
in real world. We used indicators as the tool to reflect the real world, thus, if the indicators is not good
then we can get distorted view about the real world;
v) Assessment take place before the actions to make us aware of unintended results, and if bad
results might happen, is there any way to prevent, mitigate or compensate its effects; and
vi) The action that implemented is not always ensure desired resulted. It can induces intended and
unintended consequence (the side effects). So one need to aware of that when analyzing the effect
of an action.
From what I learned, the model can be revised as follow:


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3. What do you want more of?
4. Whatever else …
Regarding the exercise “write down a strategy that familiar for you”, I would like to describe a policy
that implemented in Myanmar, which is motorcycle ban policy in the case of Yangon, Myanmar.
Virtual world:
Goals: To solve the severe traffic congestion situation in Yangon, Myanmar which cause mostly by

the large number of motorcycle users.
Proposal action: Reduce motorcycle-use of citizens by implementing motorcycle demand
management in Yangon
Real world
Real action: banned motorcycle in central business districts of Yangon since 2003; provide public
transports to people as an alternative to motorcycle.
Results:
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Intended consequence: local people adjust to the life with motorcycle, they accepted

motorcycle ban, the number of people using motorcycle in Yangon decreased, and the traffic
congestion also reduced
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Unintended consequence: in the long-run, income of people increase, local people are able

to purchase car rather than motorcycle, thus the number of car increase which make the traffic
congestion increase. Therefore, the motorcycle ban policy is not really effective in the long run.
Review Note for Classes of 180409
1.
What was discussed in the class


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In today class, we discussed:
i) The meaning of the implementation arrow in the previous model;
ii) The management cycles for improved performance in effectiveness, efficiency and quality of public
policy, which focus on three types of cycles (PDS, PDCA and PDSA) and each step in these cycles.

2.
What have you learned? What was good for you?
In today class, I learned that:
i) In the model that we learned in the class, the arrow between the idea for action and the real action
is different from the two horizontal arrows in a way that this arrow illustrates the act and process of
somebody doing something while these two arrows only show logical relation. Phase 1 of
implementation (specification of expression) produces specific expression of idea of action. When
the expression is specific enough, it can be put into action.
ii) There are similarity between the three types of cycles in the class today and the policy cycle that
we had learned in public policy:
1. Identification - Plan
2. Formulation – Plan
3. Implementation – Do
4. Evaluation – Check
iii) After PDCA cycle is introduced, many people believe that the Check part is too trivial, in this part,
they can only check little of what happen. Therefore, Study part is introduced instead of Check, to
study what happen. In public area, PDCA cycle is prefer than PDSA because it fits the annual cycle
and the administrative cycle more.
iv) The concept of opportunity cost is somehow relevant to opportunity cost. By saying opportunity
cost, I means the cost (in term of physical value such as money and mentally value such as
satisfaction) that one has to give up to do something. Revealed cost is the preference of someone
that is revealed by the fact that they choose to do something instead of doing something else.
v) Double bind that involved in the checking step, include two burdens (or two bind) which are the
bad (the difference between document and reality) and the impossible task. To be more specific,
people usually based on the assumed theory on document to work so when the reality is so different
from what lied in paper, it induce difficulty to perform the task, thus, because the problem is bad, it
make it impossible to perform the task to solve the problem.
3.
What do you want more of?
4.

Whatever else …
Review Note for Classes of 180410
1.
What was discussed in the class
In the class, we discussed many things. Firstly, we discuss about the “Two world and three levels”, in
which the first two levels was mostly belong to the virtual world and the third level is in some cases
the “front line” because it is the border where the two worlds meet, and it is conducted more in the
real world. We also discussed more detail about the order of how thing work in Instruction,
Monitoring (or Reporting) and Evaluation at each level.
Secondly, we discussed the positive and normative economic. Positive view the world as how it is
while the normative view the world as how it should be.


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Thirdly, we discussed what should the arrow between the Real action and Result indicates.
According to Professor Toru, this arrow should be called “hypothesis” since the real action and result
is a cause – effect relationship and in real life it is difficult to observe or describe the result of
something, all what you thing is a result that generated from a cause is often based on your
“hypothesis”. This hypothesis arrow is supposed to take place in the future, so it is not similar to the
experience.
Finally, we also done some exercises related to text analysis and graph analysis. In those exercise
we focus on how to find actual meaning of a word in context of a sentence. How a same word used
in different sentence can imply different meanings.
2.
What have you learned? What was good for you?
Firstly, I learned that the PDCA cycle is supposed to be Plan – Do – Check, then after the checking
part, if there is no problems then there is no action required. However, if after the checking part,
some problem occurs that when the action needed to take place. Therefor in PDCA cycle, there is no
pre-supported actions.

Secondly, I learned that in the “Two world, three level”, the Evaluation part is usually operated with
the order from high level to lower level, but it can also include the outside evaluation can be
conducted at all level three levels. Meanwhile, for the other two, the Instruction is pass from the
upper level to the lower level, and the Monitoring is reported from the lower level to the upper level.
Thirdly, from the text analysis, I learned the meaning of these words in a sentence, which are “due
to”, “affect”, “prevent”, “impact” and “implication”. The first four words indicate the cause-effect
relationship, from that I can identify which part of the sentence is cause and which part is effect.
For example:
1. X happen due to Y. (X is the effect and Y is the cause)
2. X affect Y. (X is the cause, Y is the effect)
3. X prevent Y. (X is the cause, Y is the effect)
4. X has impact on Y. (X is the cause and Y is the effect).
For the word implication, for example “X implies Y” does not illustrate the end-means relation or the
cause – effect relation. This sentence means that whenever X happen Y always happens, but it does
not guarantee the otherwise.
From the graph analysis exercises, I learned the word “share” which carry a different meaning
compare to the meaning that I had learned in the past. To my recollection, share is equivalent to
proportion, which involve to the pie, X is a share of Y indicate that X is a part of Y. However, in this
example, the word “share” indicate that X is not a part of Y, and “share” here only means that it is
that ration of X to Y, that why the vertical axis is more than 100%.
I think the text analysis is quite useful for me because I learn a lot of new information related to how
to use a most appropriate word that can express my intention.
3.
What do you want more of?
I hope that Professor can clarify the difference between hypothesis and assumption because I find
that these two concepts are very similar to each other.
4.
Whatever else …



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Review Note for Classes of 180419
1.

What was discussed in the class

In today class, we discussed about the following contents:
i) The difference between hypothesis and assumption;
ii) The order between the levels in evaluation in the two worlds, three levels model;
iii) What do the horizontal arrows and the vertical arrows in the model indicates?; and
iv) What term can we use to describe a goal, which is a means of another goal? (because in the
previous lecture we only learned that there are one end-mean relation and cause-effect relation).
2.

What have you learned? What was good for you?

From the discussion, I learned that:
i) The word hypothesis is different from assumption. Assumption is considered as “something you
decided to be true”, which only focus on what this something is rather than whether it is correct or
not. This word is more of a daily term. While, hypothesis is more of technological term, and often
used in academic paper, it is “something you tentatively set to be verified”. Therefore, we usually do
not used the word prove with hypothesis because to prove something you need presumption while
verify is more neutral, it does not need presumption.
ii) There is not only one-way evaluation (from top to down level) but also 360 o evaluation, which
indicates that the evaluation generated from all directions;
iii) In the logical relation A -> B, beside the familiar expression - A is sufficient condition for B (or in
other word, A is sufficient condition for B to happen) - the opposite direction is present as B is
necessary condition for A. This expression is not used widely in daily life but it is common in logic
world;

iii) Goal can obtained from above (from boss to employees). However, it can also come from the
situation (when someone observe the situation and notice something undesirable and want to set the
goal to correct it, or simply you want to set a goal to encourage something). The vertical arrow
between the result and goal also indicate the action. For the explanation, someone must observe the
result and then compare the set out results and the observe result and the decide whether the
observed results is satisfy or not. Therefore, the horizontal arrow only reflect the logical relation and
the vertical arrow reflect the action, somebody doing something.
iv) There are two types of goals: ultimate goal (the higher goal) and intermediate goal. Something
might be a mean (in end-mean relation) in one phase but in the following phase, it can be reset as
the goal (intermediate goal). And the mean in this second phase can also be a intermediate goal in
the next phase. This process can take several steps, but in the previous model that we had learned,
it is presented simply by one arrow between two boxes (end and mean). It is important to remember


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and always aware of the ultimate goal;
v) When describe something inside the box, it is better not include any logical relation or logical
explanation, all the explanation is for whatever outside the box;
vi) There are no terms as intended or unintended goal because goals are always intended. But for
result we can classify it as intended and unintended results; and
viii) I learned a new term “price distortion” which is the factor that cause price to vary but not through
market mechanism (price control, tax policy of government). From the example, we can see that
price distortion usually bring negative impact on economic growth.
3.

What do you want more of?

Beside the theory and the logic analysis, I hope that we could analyze some existing policy. Also,
from the analysis, I hope that we can learn the common mistakes that are usually meet in policy

analysis.
4.

Whatever else …

Review Note for Classes of 180420
1.

What was discussed in the class

In today class, we discussed about the following contents:
i) The use of word, how a same word can have different meaning in different context and cultures. To
specify this, we discussed the use of these following words: evaluation and assessment, freedom
and liberty, condition;
ii) The meaning of principle in positive context and normative context;
iii) Some logic mistakes that we made in our review; and
iv) The gradient approach and deviance approach in quantitative and qualitative method.
2.

What have you learned? What was good for you?

Through the discussion, I learned that:
i) The word verify is equivalent to the term test in statistical analysis which used to test whether the
hypothesis is correct or not;
ii) In English word, the subject of evaluation is people in hierarchy while the word assessment is
often used when the objective is problems, issues and situation. In Vietnam, we do not have two
different term but instead use the same term for these two cases. The same thing happen for the two
words freedom and liberty. Therefore, we should aware and take notice of the meaning of a word in
different context and cultures;
iii) Based on the positive context, principle means the fundamental hypothesis from which the most

specific hypothesis derived. This is because the principle used to describe and explain the
relationship in the real world (the cause-effect relationship) and the relation between them explained


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by hypothesis. On the other hand, based on the normative context, principle indicates the
fundamental rules and describe how things should be;
iv) It is more professional to use the expression Cause-Effect rather than Cause-result, the term
result is supposed to use with action (action-result). Also, in the End-Means relationship, the word
means is always in the plural from. These things is some common logic mistake that I need to aware
when analysis;
v) In the gradient-deviance graph, the vertical axis reflects quantitative variable while the horizontal
axis can be quantitative or qualitative; and
vi) Take the example of the relation between level of nutrition of children and the income level of
household. From the gradient approach we can see that the level of nutrition of children is an
increasing function of household income (the higher income level, children are less likely to be under
nutrition). Based on this approach, the appropriate policy should be raising income level of
household in order to decrease the number of under nutrition children.
On the other hand, from the deviance approach, it appears that some family that have low income
level but still manage to raise their children with sufficient nutrition. Thus, from this approach, raising
income level is not necessary the best policy,
Hence, the two approach provide different viewpoint and thus induce different actions.
In reality, one can try both approach but should pay attention to which one that bring more benefit
and lower cost. In fact, the deviance approach should in many is used first because it is quick and
less risky than the gradient approach (since it only based on hypothesis, and do not consider other
factors).
I found the last part of the lecture (qualitative and quantitative method) is very interesting and useful.
Because actually in the Qualitative and Quantitative method class, I found it hard to link the
knowledge that we learned in class to analyze a policy in real life.

3.
4.

What do you want more of?
Whatever else …

Review Note for Classes of 180421
1.

What was discussed in the class

In today class, we discussed the following contents:
i) The use of words: requirement and barrier, evaluation and assessment; fundamental and
foundation;
ii) How to illustrate the vertical logic in the logical framework matrix;
iii) The horizontal logic in the logical framework matrix;
iv) The use of the terms in transportation service in the Professor’s research paper; and


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v) A fun exercise relate to the use of a same word “empower” with different meaning in two difference
articles.
2.

What have you learned? What was good for you?

In today class, I learned that:
i) About the use of words:
The word “requirement” can substitute for the word barrier in the last lecture. Barrier refers to

something that happen in real life while the word requirement more related to the virtual world.
A new expression “and/or” in the structure “Depend on the situation, A and/or B” indicates that in
some cases it requires both A and B but in some cases only A or B is needed, therefore, at least of
them is needed.
The distinction between evaluation and assessment is not always obvious that evaluation is for
people and assessment is for other cases but it can be overlapped in some situation. For example,
regarding the word perform, it can be used as something performs or something or someone
performs some tasks. In these examples, the part something or someone related to evaluation while
the part tasks related to assessment.
In the case of the words foundation and fundamental, these two words are similar and can substitute
for each other.
ii) Through the discussion, the most reasonable graph to illustrate the vertical logic of logical
framework matrix is presented below:

iii) The term demand is not appropriate in some cases, because this word indicates that whatever
supplied is ultilized or demanded. However, in the case of transportation services, not every services
that supplied are used or demanded. Therefore, in the research paper, Professor used the word user
instead of Demand.
3.

What do you want more of?

For the reading exercise, the difference between the word empowerment or empower in two articles
is that: in the first one (Microfinance initiatives empower rural women), the rural women are


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described as empowered by the microfinance aid from the authorities. To be more specific, from the
financial support the women not only can surpass the poverty but can also gain knowledge and skill

in business that help them to build sustainable and stable business. In the second article, the word
empower is used in the active form, in which the person described in the article said himself that he
feels empower.
This exercise once again emphasize the different use of a word in different contexts. From my point
of view, the word empower in the second article is more reliable because in the first one, the
empowerment of the women only based on the observation of another person.
4.

Whatever else …