Political Feasibility Analysis

Political feasibility analysis assesses whether a policy option can realistically be adopted, enacted and sustained given the political environment — the actors involved, their interests and beliefs, the resources they command, and the arenas in which they act. Arnold Meltsner's classic 1972 article 'Political Feasibility and Policy Analysis' argued that analysts who attend only to economic or technical merit and ignore politics produce recommendations that are dead on arrival. By systematically appraising the political viability of options, the method helps distinguish proposals that are merely good on paper from those that can actually survive the political process.