04. Policy making, public administration and bureaucracy

Public Policy

The sum of gov. activities, whether acting directly or through agents, which have an influence and impact on the life of citizens

Public policy is considered a field of applied political science in assistance of what?

Decision-makers

What does the science of public policy analyze?

The outputs of politics and governance

what are 3 examples of non-decision/inflation that are considered part of public policy? 

Transfer of decision, Urevieled objectives, fake/pretended actions to hide gov. impotence

List five types of public policy actors 

1, Institutions and organizations of public administration, 2,political parties, 3, media and the public, 4, lobbyists/interest organizations/preasure groups and other stakeholders, 5, advisers and experts (NGOs and activist)

what are the 4 phases of the policy cycle?

1, agenda setting, issues and initiatives 2, decision (s), policy formulation 3, Action, implementation, 4, evaluation, (re)assessment and maintenance

What is a key question regarding Agenda setting in policy making

openness: community interest vs. private interest

What are 2 forms of governance that undermine consistency?

“Firefighting mode”, Political strategic

Policy tools (6)

1, Regulatory, monitoring tools , 2, taxation, 3, financial tools (subsidies) 4, services (gov., private) , 5, information, 6,campaigns

theories of decision-making (4)

1, Incremental models, 2, Bureaucratic Organization Models, 3, Garbage can model, 4, Rational actor model

Rational actor model 

F: Individuals maximize utility

W: difficult to apply to groups, ignore psychological/emotional/social factors, affected by inaccurate information, bounded rationality

bounded rationality

ppl (and organizations are rational only within the limits of their information constrains and their cognitive limitations

Incremental models

F: decisions made through small adjustments, efforts to minimize risk from false information, well-suited for pluralist democracies

W: discourages innovation, conservative, day-to-day problems, no explanation for major changes

Bureaucratic organization models

F: organizational process (decisions on the culture, values) + Bureaucratic policies (decisions from bargaining and content among actors) 

W: pays little attention to political leadership, ignores external pressures (economic, ideological, etc) 

Garbage can model

F: assumes: organizations are not perfect. problems, objectives and solutios are thrown in and mix → outcome depend on what was available

W:most organiztions need rules, exludes proactiveness

Public administration

civil servants and public officials

elements of public administration

state administration: ministries, institutions, local governments

Public administration, main functionsn(5)

1, Implementation of law, 2. preparing reports, advising decision makers, 3, drafting bills, 4, managing administration, 5, aggregating interest

source of influene of public administration

special knowledge, long-term continuity/stability

Max Weber: ideal type bureaucracy 

Bureaucratization is the pillar of rational-legal legitimacy 

Weber’s ideal bureaucracy characteristics

1, hierarchy of authority, 2, formal rules and regulations 3, formal selection process 4, division of labor and specialization 5, impersonality in interpersonal relations

what is the risk of unchecked bureaucratic power?

it can undermine the principle of representative and responsive governments

3 forms of political controlo over b. 

1, political accountability, 2, politicization of the civil service, counter-bureaucracy 

Protected/independent pattern in public administration

eg UK, institutionalized guarantees of independence, meritocratic promotions

Oppennes pater of public administration

eg USA, politicized administration, political consideration overrules professional preferences