Public Policy Midterm

Public Policy

The decisions, laws, and actions governments take to solve problems or improve society

Facts vs. Values

Objective claims about the world vs. what is good, bad, unjust, etc.

Hume’s law

You can’t derive an ‘ought’ [normative/evaluative statement] from an ‘is’ [descriptive/factual statement]

Role of ethical reflection in public policy

1. Make value commitments clear – do policy disagreements concern, facts/evidence or values? If the latter, what are the value commitments?

2. Provide tools for critically analyzing evaluative statements and balancing values and principles when conflicts arise

Market

A social system in which individuals pursue their own welfare by exchanging things with others whenever trades are mutually beneficial

The predominant model of society in contemporary policy discussions (especially in economics)

Self-interest

The idea that individuals will prioritize their own gains

Efficiency

Getting the most for the least

Pareto improvements

At least one person better off without making anyone else worse off

Pareto optimality/Pareto efficiency

Impossible to make at least one person better off without making anyone else worse off

Intrinsic value vs. instrumental value

Valuable for its own sake, or in-itself vs. valuable as a means to an end

Market failure

Commonly occurring circumstances of private cooperation wherein the conditions of perfection competition do not hold, resulting in an inefficient pattern of production and consumption

Negative externality

Negative impacts of production or consumption activities on one or more non-consenting people

Function of Pigouvian tax

To account for costs of a good or activity upon society

Equity

Equity vs. equality

Equal outcomes

Levelling down objection

There is nothing good about achieving equality through levelling down

Welfare/well-being

Liberty

Paternalism

Harm principle

The only end for which people are entitled, individually or collectively, to interfere with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection. The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

Security

Policy process/policy cycle/policy stages

Problem definition, agenda setting, policy design or formulation, legitimation or enactment, implementation, evaluation

Problem definition

What is the issue?

Agenda setting

How did the issue gain attention?

Policy design/formulation

What solutions have been proposed?

Legitimation/enactment

How was support gained?

Implementation

Who carries out the policy?

Evaluation

How would success be measured?

Law of unintended consequences

Instruments of public policy

The tool that government uses to intervene in a given problem or issue

Regulation

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

Government management

Implementation of services or management of resources directly to citizens, public education, defense, fire and police services

Education, information, and persuasion

Taxing and spending

Social security

Market mechanisms

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

Policy typologies

Distributive, redistributive, regulatory

Distributive policies

Individual programs or grants that a government provides without regard to limited resources or zero-sum situations.

Redistributive policies

Policies that provide benefits to one category of individuals at the expense of another; often reflect ideological or class conflict.

Regulatory policies

Government restriction of individual choice to keep conduct from transcending acceptable bounds. Often used in health, safety, and environmental policies

Official actor

A participant in the policy process whose involvement is motivated or mandated by his or her official position in a government agency or office

Bureaucracy

The organization that administers government through rules and procedures

Unofficial actor

A participant in the process who does not have constitutionally or legally created incentives or mandates to be a part of the process, such as experts, researchers, and reporters, all of whom are important to the policy process

Rational choice theory

People will make decisions that are in line with their personal preferences

Comprehensive rationality

The assumptions of comprehensive rationality are that a rational policymaker would:

1. Know the relevant facts.

2. Have clear and consistent preferences.

3. Identify the available alternatives.

4. Select the option that best achieves their objectives.

Bounded rationality

Rational decisions must be made in suboptimal conditions

Maximizing vs. satisficing

Finding the best possible option vs. finding an option that is good enough

Prisoner’s dilemma

Rational agents may choose an option worse for everyone for greater personal gain due to lack of information/communication

Logic of collection action

Rational actors will not work together towarads a common goal unless there are other incentives

Free-riding

Benefitting from a shared resource without contributing to the cost

Tragedy of the commons

Overuse of a shared resource, depletion

Garbage can model

Decision making in organized anarchy, realistic not ideal

Multiple streams approach

Problem stream, policy stream, and politics stream influence the policymaking process

Problem stream

Why is a condition receiving attention?

Policy stream

Is an acceptable solution available?

Politics stream

What are the political conditions, and are they favorable?

Policy window

A temporary opportunity for policy change. The window may close quickly, so advocates usually cannot design a proposal from scratch after it opens.

Policy entrepreneurs

Persistent actors who invest time and resources in advancing a policy. Policy entrepreneurs influence the process, but they do not control it.

Incrementalism

Policymakers often start with the status quo and compare a limited number of nearby alternatives.

• They cannot gather or process every relevant piece of information.

• They face limited time and political constraints.

• Familiar proposals may be easier to negotiate and implement

Punctuated equilibrium theory

Relative stability to a period of rapid, major change to relative stability

Path dependence

An earlier policy choice can reshape later choices.

Policy monopolies

A group maintaining a specific framing of a policy issue

Venue shopping

Finding a setting that gives the best chance of achieving policy goals

Policy feedback theory

Enacting a policy will shape politics, public opinion, and future policymaking

Innovation

A new policy in a jurisdiction, may already exist in other jurisdictions

Diffusion

Policy adopted in a jurisdiction, influenced by policy in another jurisdiction