This article seeks to critique and extend recent work in the policy sciences, by Maor in particular, on disproportionate policy making—including policy overreaction and underreaction. While the disproportionate policy making thesis does help address assumptions that something is amiss in the policy process by capturing an imbalance between policy problems and the interventions to address them, we argue that it does not pay sufficient attention to politics. We present a heuristic which includes political perception of both programme and political threats. Our core argument is that much of what is considered disproportionate policy making, can in fact also be considered proportionate politics. Our analysis paves the way for a more holistic and political understanding of policy dynamics.

本文旨在批评和扩展最近在政策科学领域的工作，尤其是 Maor 在不成比例的政策制定方面的工作——包括政策反应过度和反应不足。虽然不成比例的政策制定论文通过捕捉政策问题和解决这些问题的干预措施之间的不平衡确实有助于解决政策过程中出现问题的假设，但我们认为它没有对政治给予足够的关注。我们提出了一种启发式方法，其中包括对计划和政治威胁的政治看法。我们的核心论点是，许多被认为是不相称的政策制定，实际上也可以被视为相称的政治。我们的分析为对政策动态进行更全面和政治性的理解铺平了道路。