Public Policy - ALL

Policy implementation (process)

translating policy decisions into actions

translation policy decisions into actions by

allocation funding
distribution responsibilities
Assigning personnell
designing rules of procedure
plan for monitoring and enforcement

Policy formulation - Actors and activities (examples)

civil servants
street-level public officials
agencies and inspectors
coordination groups
non-governmental actors and organizations
judicial and quasi-judicial organs who policy and enforce proper implementation

Policy formulation - civil servants

operationalizing the decision and designing the implementation system

Policy formulation - street level public officials

who actually implement the policy

Policy formulation - agencies and inspectors

monitor the implementation

Policy formulation - coordination groups

coordinate among the different actors

Policy formulation - non-government actors and organizations

monitor the implementation

Policy formulation - judicial and quasi-judicial organs

policy and enforce proper implementation

Example Quasi-judicial organ

ombudsman

Implementation and politics

Policy implementation is another battlefield for politics
not necessarily a technical issue

Policy formulation - a battlefield for politics

actors who lost previous rounds (formulation) can make up
continuing and refunding programs requires negotiations and approval 

Implementation and politics - Implementation is

split between different authorities
each with their own organizational interests and culture

Discretion

leeway actors have to do things their way, within the boundaries of what the rules stipulate (or they are stopped)

Who has discretion

civil servants

Hierarchy of rules

Institutional norms > national constitutions > general laws > specific laws > government regulations > ministerial ordinances > organizational rules of procedures and standard operation practices

Sources of discretion

1) Deliberate
2) Other

Source of discretion - Deliberate

Decisions made “on time” or “may” do smth

Source of discretion - Other

-Vague language
-Very general rules
- Conflicting rules
-Unclear enforcement responsibilities

Dilemmas of discretion

has both positive and negative consequences

Discretion - Positive consequences

Local context
efficient use of local resources

Discretion - Negative consequences

can be biased, pure translation of goals
might pursue their own interest
corruption

Implantation beyond the government (actors)

Independent agencies and regulatory commissions
NGO
Public-private partnerships
Cooperation with the target groups themselves

Two perspectives of implementation design

1) Bottom up 
2) Top down

Implementation - bottom up perspective

Implementation by civil servants who are on the frontline
discretion is key

Possible Problem- bottom up perspective

Environment of street level bureaucrats cannot be reduced to programmatic rules
careful judgments are important (not just rule following)

How to influence in the bottom up perspective

1) Complexity of the work environment
2) Comping mechanisms

Bottom up perspective - complexity of the work environment

-Insufficient tools
- Demand surpasses supply
- Ambiguousness of goals 
- Measuring of success is difficult 
- non-voluntary clients

Bottom up perspective - coping mechanisms

-simplifying the work environment = routines
- changing own expectations of the work
- adaptation of the opinion on clients

Implementation - top down perspective

-develop generalizable policy advice
- belief that constant recognizable patterns of behavior across different policy areas exist
- prescriptive (what you should do)
- concentrate on variables that can be manipulated on the central level

Successful implementation - top down perspective

-Make goals clear and consistent
- minimize the number of actors
- limit the amount of change necessary
- place implementation responsibilities with sympathetic agencies

Critique - top down

Takes decisions-making as starting point
fails to consider actions taken in the formulation phase
fails to consider the political aspect, multiplicity of different goals and strategies (political actors with different expectations)

Critique - bottom up

criticized for breaking the policy-making norm
in democratic system policy control should be exercised by actors that are accountable to sovereign voters
criticized for overemphasizing the level of local autonomy

Top down vs bottom up policy implementation

-clear rules vs discretion
- formal laws vs soft law
- government agencies vs partnerships
- clear objectives and sufficient resources vs commitment and skills of street-level bureaucrats 

Matland 1995

Synthesizing the implementation literature
(under which condition are what variables important and why)

Evaluating policy success - top down

measures success in terms of specific outcomes tied directly to the statutes that are source of the program

Evaluating policy success - bottom up

prefer a much broader evaluation, in which a program leading to positive effects I labeled successful

What decides which (top down/bottum up) is more useful and appropriate

the statute

Evaluation policy success- when policy goals are explicit

success is loyal to prescribed goals

Evaluation policy success- when policy goals are not explicit

more general, societal norms and values come into play

What variables are important to explaining explicit and non-explicit goals

1) policy conflict
2) policy ambiguity

Policy conflict (Matland 1995)

interdepvendece of actors, incompatibility of objectives and zero-sum element; when more than one organization sees policy as directly relevant to its interest = incongruous views of actors

Policy ambiguity (Matland 1995)

ambiguity of goals and ambiguity of means, may also be due to lack of technological solutions

Goal conflict and ambiguity (correlation)

negatively correlated; the clearer the goals the more likely they are to lead to conflict 

Principal-agent models

conceptualize relationships between (political) principles and (administrative) agents

Principal-agent model can answer question such as

-Do multiple principles exercise more control over the agent
- under what circumstances do agents receive more discretion 
- what is the best strategy for the principal to monitor the agent

Policy tools and implementation

1) Substantive policy tools
2) Procedural policy tools

Substantive policy tools

level of state activity from (low) voluntary to compulsory (high)

Procedural policy tools

level of state manipulation form management (low) to restructuring (high)

Implementation styles

1) typical ways of doing policy and preferred instruments
2) capacity to enact and implement changes

Conditions that obstruct and implementation process

-mission-related (goals are too vague)
- support related ( lack of bureaucratic and political support)
- capacity related (financial and Human Resources, institutional set up, network capacity)

Environment and context issues for policy implementation

-degree of political and policy stability
-degree of environmental turbulence
-openness of policy process
-degree of public-sector decentralization

The Program stream

includes norms, precedents and standard procedures

Prinzipal-agent relationship

the principal is dependent on the goodwill of the agent to further his or her interests when it may not be in the interest of the agent to do so

Policy formulation (process)

generating options on what to do about a public problem

During policy formulation, options are

identified
refined
formalized

Policy formulation - between what stages

follows agenda setting and comes before actual decision making

During policy formulation

the range of possible policy options is narrowed down
and the merits and risks of these are explored

Policy formulation - groups

can compete and cooperate in the process
there are always winners and losers

Phases of policy formulation

-appraisal
-dialogue
-formulation
-consolidation

Phases of policy formulation - appraisal

identify and consider evidence

Phases of policy formulation - dialogue

consolidation with actors

Phases of policy formulation - formulation

weigh options and draft proposals

Phases of policy formulation - consolidation

incorporate feedback, reframe

Policy formulation is shaped

by political institutions and governance structures

Policy formulation - constraints

substantive
procedural
temporal

Policy formulation - substantive constraints

what is technically feasible and what is possible given existing capacities (eg for monitoring policy implementation)

Policy formulation - procedural constraints

what is political feasible, given the institutions and the distribution of power among the relevant actors

Policy formulation - temporal constraints

can refer to both substantive and procedural constraints

Policy tools (instruments)

means and devices that governments use when implementing policies
technique of social intervention

Types of policy Tools (Hood 1986)

-Information (Nodality)
- Legal powers (Authority)
- Money (Treasury)
- Organizations

Types of policy Tools (Hood 1986) - Nodality

collect and release information, advice, advertisement, inquiries

Types of policy Tools (Hood 1986) - Authority

comand-and-control, self-regulation, standard-setting, delegated regulation; advisory committees

Types of policy Tools (Hood 1986) - Treasure

Grants, loans, user charges, taxes, funding for org-s

Types of policy Tools (Hood 1986) - Organizations

Direct provision of services, reorganizations, market creation

Information and nudging

not only what information to provide but also how to provide it

Nudging

subtle changes in the way information is provided can change behavior
(framing of potential loses or wins)

Information and nudging - political perspective

design and provision of information is also political
(label on food)
can reinforce social inequalities

Regulations

prescriptions by the government that must be complied with by the target

Regulation - examples

rules, standards, permits, prohibitions, laws, executive orders, ordinances

Regulation - types of targets

economic (production targets) or social issues (not crossing the red light)

Regulation - Advantages

less information and money needed
easier to forbid than to encourage
clarity and predictability: easier to coordinate

Regulation - Disadvantages

-Infringe on freedoms
- distort private activities and economic relations
- can inhibit innovation and progress
- inflexible

Delegated self-regulation

voluntary self-regulation by the target actors themselves
(under explicit permission and perhaps monitoring of governments)

Delegated self-regulation - Pro

industries have local knowledge= better at regulating than government without special knowledge
less resources used for government

Delegated self-regulation - Con

can lead to monopolizing and entrance barriers
industries might use loop holes, etc.

Using markets and auctions - Pro

government doesn’t need to know every private information (aggregate and supervise)
can make use of market mechanisms

Using markets and auctions - Con

speculation, high enforcement costs, not suitable for every good

Information Campaigns - Pro

easy to implement
cost efficient

Information Campaign - Con

might not lead to policy change
suggestions only

Treasury - Pro

often most effective (other than laws)
directly influence policy subjects

Treasury - Con

needs political support
difficult to implement
cost intensive
big impact into peoples lives

Direct Provision - Pro

easy to establish (low information)
resources often in government already present
avoid discussion, negotiation in contrast to indirect provision

Direct provisions - Con

inflexibility of bureaucracy
might promote political meddling
inefficiency due to not being subject to market mechanisms

Quango

quasi autonomous non government organizations

What is public policy ? (short sentence)

anything a government chooses to do or not to do

What is public policy? (long sentence)

A set of interrelated decisions taken by a political actor or group of actors concerning the selection of goals and the means of achieving them within a specified situation where those decisions should, in principle, be within the power of those actors to achieve

The triad

1) Polity
2) Politics
3) Policy

Polity

political structures (institutions, laws)