Statute 1, Statute 2, Statute 3 and so on, with the last statute in the range
designated, using standard mathematical notation, as Statute n. A legislature,
however, also has the option not to pass a statute and to leave things as they
are; this can be represented by Statute 0. Thus the complete range of statutes
consists of Statutes 0-n.
Each statute causes an effect. Or to be precise, at this stage each statute
is
predicted to cause an identified effect, but it is convenient to abbreviate this to
say just that a statute ‘causes’ an effect. Thus, using this shorthand, Statute 0
causes Effect 0, Statute 1 causes Effect 1, Statute 2 causes Effect 2 and so on.
(Obviously Effect 0 represents ‘things as they now are’ being the effect that
Statute 0 causes.) Collectively, Statutes 0-n will cause Effects 0-n. These
options can be conveniently set out in a table in the following way:
Statutes
Effects
Statute 0
Effect 0
Statute 1
Effect 1
Statute 2
Effect 2
Statute n
Effect n
Figure 10.1 Statutes and Effects
Step 2: Evaluating the Options
To evaluate each option a rational legislature first determines the net benefit of
each option. To do this it calculates the net benefit of each effect. The net
benefit of Effect 0 is labelled Net Benefit 0, the net benefit of Effect 1 is
labelled Net Benefit 1 and so on. Collectively, it can be said that Effects 0-n
yield Net Benefits 0-n.
The table of options set out above can now be extended in the following way
to incorporate these net benefits:
Statutes
Effects
Net Benefits
Statute 0
Effect 0
Net Benefit 0
Statute 1
Effect 1
Net Benefit 1
Statute 2
Effect 2
Net Benefit 2
Statute n
Effect n
Net Benefit n
Figure 10.2 Statutes, Effects and Net Benefits
Step 3: Choosing an Option
In principle, enacting a statute by reference to policy is a simple task
and
follows from the reasoning process in Step 2. Assume for the following
explanation and illustration that a statute, that we designate as Statute X,
causes Effect X that yields Net Benefit X.
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