Policy studies assume the existence of baseline parameters – such as honest governments doing their best to create public value, publics responding in good faith, and both parties relying on a policymaking process which aligns with the public interest. In such circumstances, policy goals are expected to be produced through mechanisms in which the public can articulate its preferences and policymakers are expected to listen to what has been said in determining their governments' courses of action. 

While these conditions are found in some governments, there is evidence from around the world that much policymaking occurs without these pre-conditions and processes. Unlike situations which produce what can be thought of as 'good' public policy, 'bad' public policy is a more common outcome. How this happens and what makes for bad public policy are the subject of this report. 

The report finds there is a 'darkside' to public policy that is manifested in bad policy outcomes and bad policies. It identifies five inherent vices of policy – unpreparedness, non-learning, uncertainty, maliciousness, and non-compliance – as a constant threat to policymakers. 

The report outlines a set of management practices that can help inform policy design and curb the worst excesses of bad policy. It concludes by calling for malignity, volatility and inherent vices to be made mainstream concepts in policy analysis. If good policymaking is, at heart, a result of a shared normative commitment to values of transparency and openness and the public good, then safeguarding that commitment requires ongoing vigilance and mitigation.