GOVT-210 Midterm

Evaluative Criteria for Policy Proposals

1) Effectiveness

• Will it work?

  • the likelihood that a proposal will achieve its stated goals

2) Efficiency

• Worth the cost?

  • what the policy achieves in relation to its cost — the balance of benefits against costs, and whether the same goal could be achieved for less

3) Equity

• Is it fair?

  • fairness in how the policy distributes its costs, benefits, and risks in both the process and results

  • Who bears the costs, and who receives the benefits — is that distribution just across groups?

4) Political Feasibility

• Can it pass?

  • the extent to which elected officials and other policy actors will accept and support the proposal enough for it to be adopted

    • legislators, interest groups, etc.

5) Social Acceptability

• Will the public accept it?

  • the extent to which the public will accept, tolerate, and comply with the policy

  • does it align with prevailing public values and norms?

6) Administrative Feasibility

• Can agencies run it?

  • the likelihood that an agency or department can implement the policy well, given its authority, staffing, funding, and capacity

7) Technical Feasibility

• Do the tools exist

  • the availability and reliability of the technology, methods, or know-how needed to put the policy into practice

8) Cost & Federal Debt Impact

• What happens to the debt?

  • whether a proposal is fiscally sustainable—its total effect on federal deficits and debt through spending, revenues, offsets, implementation costs, and interest

Policy Process

Agenda setting

• How problems are perceived and defined, command attention, and get onto the political agenda

  • ex. Health care reform rose sharply on the agenda during President Obama’s first term. Stayed high on the agenda

Policy formulation

• The design and drafting of policy goals and strategies for achieving them; often involves the use of policy analysis

  • ex. Differing perspectives regarding the building of Mexican border wall, its costs, and its effectiveness led to a series of standoffs between Trump and Congress

Policy legitimation

• The mobilization of political support and formal enactment of policies; includes justification or rationales for the policy action

  • ex. passage of health care reform in 2010 saw intense lobbying on the part of many of the effected interests. passed because Dem-supporters argued the reform plan would provide for better health coverage for most citizens

Policy Implementation

• Provision of institutional resources fo putting the program into effect within a bureaucracy

  • ex. implementation of Endangered Species Act has lagged for years because of insufficient funding, which reduced its effectiveness

Policy and program evaluation

• Measurement and assessment of policy and program effects, including success or failure

  • ex. efforts to measure the effectiveness of No Child Left Behind have produced mixed results

Policy change

• Modification of policy goals and means in light of new information or shifting political environment

  • ex. TSA PreCheck to improve screening for low-risk travelers years after 9/11.

Reason for Government Involvement in Addressing Problem

Political Reasons

• often reflect a notable shift in public opinion or the rise of a social movement pressing for action.

  • ex. Civil Rights movement to Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • ex. Federal Government increasing its involvement in consumer protection, automobile safety, and environmental protection because of rising public concern about these issues in 1960s-70s

Moral or Ethical Reasons

• certain problems and circumstances may dictate that government should be involved. In other words, government action is seen as the right thing to do even without public pressure.

• Some portion of the population or members of an organized interest group may be unwilling to witness suffering from poverty, hunger, or human rights abuses, either at home or abroad, and want the government to do something about it

  • ex. social security to ensure that elderly and disabled would not suffer from poverty

  • ex. economic sanctions on Russia

  • ex. moral imperative of health care for all as basis of Obamacare

Economics and Market Failures

• Usually would argue against government intrusion into the marketplace in most contexts. Except Market Failures, when the private market is not efficient.

  • Would argue that government intrusion into the marketplace distorts the efficiency with which a competitive market economy can allocate society’s resources

• Monopoly or Oligopoly when one or a few companies dominate the market and can control the price of a product or service

• Externalities: when two parties interact and a third party is unintentionally harmed or benefits without getting compensation or having to pay

  • ex. pollution is negative externality

  • ex. higher education benefited by society requiring degrees to work is a positive externality

• Information Failure: when a lack of information leads the consumer to suffer significant financial or personal loss, the government may step in

  • ex. FDA issuing public warnings of recalls of food items that cause sickness

• Collective Good: when the market does not serve the collective good by excluding someone from getting the good (such as by pricing) or by one person’s consumption preventing another from also consuming it

Elements That Are Helpful to Defining a Problem Before Debating the Solution

1) Describe the Condition

• What is happening—and what baseline shows the condition is undesirable?

2) Measure Scale and Trend

• How large is it, where does it occur, and how is it changing over time?

3) Identify Who is Affected

• Which groups bear the costs, risks, or unequal burdens?

4) Diagnose Root Causes

• What behaviors, incentives, institutions, or market failures drive it?

5) Establish a Public Rationale

• Why is collective action warranted—and at what level of government?

6) Write a Neutral Statement

• Define the observable gap; reserve preferred solutions for the next stage.

Instruments of Public Policy

Regulation

• Government decrees that require or prevent individuals, corporations, and other units of government to do/from doing something

  • ex. Laws enacted by the legislature

  • ex. Rules adopted by the bureaucracy

Government Management

• Implementation of services or management of resources directly to citizens

  • ex. Education, defense, public parks, fire/police

Education, Information, and Persuasion

• Education of citizens in an attempt to persuade them to behave in a certain way

  • Appeal to support relief efforts after a disaster

  • Nutrition labeling to encourage healthy eating

Taxing and spending

• The collection or expense of money to achieve policy goals

  • Social Security to support the elderly in retirement

  • Cigarette tax to discourage smoking and raise revenue for other programs

Market Mechanisms

• Use of the market to provide the public with incentives to make choices or correct problems

  • Revenue-neutral carbon tax to discourage the use of fossil fuel

  • Publication of the energy efficiency of appliances

DC Political Decision-making

Policy

• Focused on composing the most sound proposal regardless of political effect.

  • consumer impact

  • economic impact

  • geopolitical impact

  • budgetary impact

Political

• Also factors in the politics that surround the issue and how it can effect things such as your electability, whether or not the bill will pass, or if people will support your position

  • DC politics

  • State politics

  • National Politics

  • International Politics

Tactical

• Focused on getting your policy passed and the ways you could do that, such as considering a new interpretation for the legislative or constitutional basis, finding other loopholes, or figuring out whether it will be shot down in the courts

  • Legal Implications

  • Jurisdictional Factors

  • Rules of Procedure

Official Policy Actors

There are both Official and Unofficial Policy Actors

Congress

• Writes and funds the law. Committees, party leaders, and individual members shape what gets proposed and passed.

The President and the White House

• Set priorities, signs or vetoes bills, and directs the executive branch through orders and appointments

Federal Agencies

• Turn laws into rules and deliver programs day to day — the vast, expert workforce of the bureaucracy

The Federal Courts

• Interpret statutes and regulations, resolve disputes, and can strike down actions that break the law.

Unofficial Policy Actors and How They Influence Policy

Public Opinion

• The common definition of public opinion is what the public thinks about a particular issue or set of

  issues at any point in time

• Although public opinion is rarely the

  determinative influence on policymaking, it sets boundaries for public policy actions. Policymakers cross this line at their own risk

  • May be recorded with polls

Interest Groups, Nonprofits

• Most groups are involved in direct lobbying of policymakers, indirect or grassroots lobbying aimed at mobilizing the public or the group’s supporters, and public education campaigns. Some also engage in electioneering, such as endorsement and support for candidates for office, and in litigation, or challenging government action in the courts.

  • Public Interest Groups: such as NRA, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Christian Coalition of America

  • Special Interest Groups: a direct economic stake in the policy… organized labor, business groups, and professional associations: Amazon, BTR, Teamsters

• Nonprofits are organizations that “provide goods or service but are neither private businesses nor government operated”. Many nonprofits can and do operate like interest groups but there are tax implications for the types of activities that these groups can engage in

Think Tanks

• Research and Analysis, providing valuable data that informs the public policy decisions

• Bridging Academia and Government, ensuring that research influences policy

• Serve as neutral parties in policy making, allowing them to provide unbiased insights and recommendations, though some are more ideological.

Media

• The media informs the citizenry about the politics of the day and the policies debated and passed. This information helps shape public opinion regarding these policies.

  • ex. Regular expert appearances can position scholars and institutions as credible interpreters of complex events

• The media also can influence the policy agenda by the way they cover news stories and politics, perhaps noticing a story and bringing it to the public’s attention in such a way that raises its importance and sparks activity on the issue.

Policy Subgovernments / Issue Networks

• Involves policy actors within particular

  issue areas. Highly specialized, informal, less visible, less influenced by citizen values

• “Iron triangles” was another term often used to describe these arrangements because of the supposed power of their three components: congressional subcommittees, an executive agency, and an outside economic interest group

Challenges Posed to Public Policy by Government Procedures

• Dave Fisher said “everything is meant to be hard” when describing governmental decision-making.

Our government explicitly prevents a streamlined policy-making process. Values well thought-out and well discussed policies that are made up of compromises and provide for a lot of stability over a large quantity of policy.

Separation of Powers

• Purpose: Making, enforcing, and interpreting policy never rest in one set of hands. Less streamlined, harder for policy to be achieved

• Legislative makes the law

• Executive carries out the law

• Judicial Interprets the law

Federalism

• Enumerated + Implied (Article I)

  • Tax and spend for the general welfare

  • Regulate interstate and foreign commerce

  • Coin money and establish post offices

  • Declare war and support armed forced

  • Necessary + Proper

• Reserved Powers (10th Amendment)

  • Reservation: powers not delegated to the US remains with states

  • Protect public health and safety

  • Organize education and local government

  • Govern property and family

  • Administer elections within federal limits

Checks and Balances

• Congress checks the President

  • overrides vetoes, controls the budget, confirms appointees, and can investigate or impeach

• The President checks Congress

  • Vetoes bills, sets the national agenda, and acts through executive orders and agencies

• Courts check both branches

  • Judicial review lets courts overturn laws and executive actions that violate the Constitution

• Voters check everyone

  • Elections, public opinion, and free press hold all officials accountable over time

Legislative Procedures

• Filibuster

  • Bigger policies that are passed are more mutually agreeable, well debated, and not conducive to only one party's interests (at least not completely).

• Bicameral Legislature

  • Laws passed by Congress have to be identical in each house