I’ve been thinking about the concluding lecture in the introductory course on policy analysis for our master’s students in public policy. I’m pleased to report that Pierre Mendès France was kind enough to provide me with a text for my sermon:
Gouverner, c’est choisir, si difficiles que soient les choix.
“To govern is to choose, no matter how difficult the choices.”
The first part of the quotation was familiar to me, though I couldn’t have assigned it to Mendès France. But it’s the end that packs the punch. I don’t think it would be possible to express the spirit of policy analysis in fewer or better words.