Public Policy Midterm

public policy

government action that responds to public problems

• what government does at all levels

public problems

issues that are not being solved by the free market or individuals themselves

courses of action

• laws 

• regulations 

• programs

Why have policies?

to promote and protect the public goods 

why study public policy?

• improve citizens’ ability to participate and make choices

• improve citizens’ ability to influence policy decisions

• more informed arguments and analyses

ways government might act

• give tax breaks or place taxes

• subsidize (government paying for things)

• regulate

• educate (PSA)

• offer direct services

• set up market incentives

addressing private problems 

• Individuals and corporations act individually 

• There is little coordination or thought about public well-being

• people have liberty to pursue their own interests  

addressing public/government problems

• Governments can set policies that require people and organizations to act collectively

• the focus is on public well-being

• people must comply with the law

Reasons why the government will take action

• When the public decides that private action is not enough

• the problem has become too severe or widespread

• political reasons

• moral or ethical reasons

• economic reasons: market failure

Four types of market failures

• monopolies

• externalities

• information failures

• provision of public or collective good 

monopolies 

one entity has too much control over the market 

externalities

• effects external to a transaction

• negative: third party harmed by a transaction (pollution)

• Positive: third-party benefits from a transaction (education)

information failures

• incomplete information

• consumers are unable to make some decisions on their own due to complexities

• can be a difficult problem for complex items that are difficult to understand (purchasing health insurance, privatizing social security)

provisions of public or collective good 

• free market transactions might harm things we all use or enjoy 

• e.g., wetlands, clean air, beautiful places 

• government protections cover the jointly consumed or collective resource

public goods

non-excludable and non-rivalrous

• In most situations, the market will not provide these goods; it is a burden on the government

Five steps in constructing public policy

• agenda setting

• policy formation

• decision making

• implementation

• policy evaluation

agenda setting 

• when the government decides what problems it wants to address 

• there are endless amounts of problems that could be addressed, there must be prioritization 

• trying to frame issues in the right way so that it can be recognized and addressed properly

systematic agenda

the full range of problems and issues that could be addressed

institutional agenda

the list of issues that are being prioritized and will be addressed

Four models on how a problem can get on the agenda

• outside initiation

• inside initiation

• mobilization

• consolidation

outside initiation

outside groups rally public support to pressure the government to act

inside initiation 

• outside groups lobbying government actors themselves

• often private meetings 

mobilization

• When the government itself is trying to mobilize an issue on the agenda

• seeking public support and it influence on other parts of the government

consolidation

• The government decides to move an issue from the systematic agenda to the institutional and address it

• national emergencies

low profile agenda methods 

inside initiation and mobilization 

high-profile agenda methods

outside initiation and consolidation

convergence theory

As countries’ economies continue to grow, they end up addressing the same public issues

• education, health, global protection, social security

policy formation

• policy makers think of possible solutions to issues

• multiple ways of understanding the problem, which affects how the government moves forward

• assessing possible solutions and narrowing paths of action

  • morals and ethics

  • cost

The iron triangle 

made up of 

• relevant subcommittees of Congress 

• relevant beurocratic agency 

• relevant civil-society interest group 

cannot be broken into, blocking outside influence 

is now outdated 

Policy Networks

• groups of people that work in different places that all specialize in a given policy area, working together to form policy

• interest groups, government actors, business personnel, etc.

• much more democratic system

• happens at both the federal and state level

decision making

• when the government decides on how they will be addressing an issue

• could just be doing nothing

• involves the fewest number of participants

formal rules 

things that are written down and must be followed 

• law

informal rules

rules that are not in writing, but we all know we should be following the precedent 

rational decision making

• Looking at an array of models and choosing the one that is the most efficient

• meets the goal, at the lowest cost, with the least externalities

• cost-benefit analysis

• Peredo optimality

bounded rationality decision making

• Most people do not have the cognitive abilities to meet the criteria of the rational choice model

• We can’t predict everything

• Cost and benefit analysis is limited

Garbage can decision making 

• Decision-making is ad hoc and chaotic 

• political considerations

• What is most convenient and politically expedient

Environmental and monetary decision making

must be rooted in scientific evidence

policy implementation

• policy has been chosen

• Federal and state bureaucracies are key actors and are tasked with implementing the laws that are passed

• policy instruments get flushed out

administrative law 

What the bureaucracies decide 

two general approaches to policy implementation

• top-down

• bottom-up

top-down implementation

• whatever authority is making the decision dictates the terms of the implementation

• defined by the legislature

• little discretion at lower levels

bottom-up implementation 

• gives more authority to the lower-level bureaucracies 

principle agent theory

The agent is meant to execute the will of the principle

Policy evaluation

• after a policy has been implemented

• is the policy addressing the issue?

• assess the extent to which a policy is meeting its core goal and to assess its other outputs

• can be done through the judicial system, the political system, or literally anywhere

5 Steps to the Policy Analysis Process 

• define and analyze the problem 

• construct policy alternatives 

• develop evaluation criteria 

• assess policy alternatives 

• draw conclusions 

components of problem analysis

• define the problem

• operationalize or measure it

• document the extent/magnitude

• consider possible causes

• Set goals for policy outcome

• develop alternative ways to address it

Understanding the problem

look at sources such as newspapers, news stations, websites, social media, thinktanks, or sector-specific sources

Define the problem

• be objective 

• frame the problem: construct a definition and limit the scope of the problem 

• politics 

determine how to measure the problem

• develop operational measures

• evidence or data to provide hard evidence of the problem

document the extent or magnitude

• Use the operational measures

• descriptive data showing problem characteristics

• Who’s affected? How much? In what ways? Is there a trend?

What is causing the problem?

• what are the root causes of the problem? (proximate cause)

• research backwards 

proximate causes 

• increase the complexity of the issue 

• policies that can impact root causes will be more effective 

• may be harder to sell 

researching backwards

• what contributes to the problem?

• where does it start?

evaluating the quality of information?

• who produced the information?

• what is the bias of the source?

• how objective is the information (more than one side presented)?

• transparency of methods: author’s name, sources, other information shared

• date

Secondary information sources 

• government agency sites 

• census '

• FedStats 

• Women’s Health Data 

• Crime Statistics

• Think Tanks 

Primary Sources

• New research collected to study the issue

• surveys, observations, interviews

Policy outcomes that need to be attained (setting goals)

• reduce the number of people with undocumented status

• improve highway safety

• reduce binge drinking by college students

• reduce accidents caused by distracted driving

constructing alternatives 

• many instruments available 

• policymakers can use traditional or new and creative approaches 

• consider how the approach

evaluative criteria

• standards on which you will make comparisons

• key aspects or factors to examine

• apply the same criteria for a given policy problem for which alternatives are proposed

• several criteria are commonly used for every decision

possible criteria

• equity

• liberty/freedom

• political feasibility

• social acceptability

• administrative feasibility

• technical feasibility

why are criteria used?

• Policy decisions are complicated

• The criteria help actors focus on what is important and organize their thinking

• leads to better decisions

Evaluative criteria 

• different decisions have different criteria 

• The criteria should relate well to the decision 

• the situation/context has an influence 

• Decision criteria should be operational measures or indicators 

• Objective and measurable

Effectiveness

• did the policy work?

• does the policy alternative reach its outcome goal?

efficiency

• effectiveness relative to costs

• efficiency is highly valued in the United States

• efficient policy works well at a low cost

Equity 

• fairness in the distribution of costs, benefits, and risks across the population 

• important when redistributed policies are proposed 

• process vs. outcome equity 

political feasibility

will politicians support the alternative?

social acceptability

will the public support the proposal?

technical feasibility

are the technologies available to implement the policy

administrative feasibility 

can it be implemented and managed well?

methods used to study the alternative

• economics

• decision analysis

• ethics

cost-benefit analysis

• financial savings compared to the cost

• estimate all costs of a policy alternative

• estimate all financial benefits (revenues/savings)

• for every dollar invested, we save “blank” amount of money

cost-effective analysis 

• same as cost/benefit; don’t monetize benefits 

• Cost-effectiveness of options to

  • reduce binge drinking, education campaign, regulating bars/taverns, funding treatment programs

Risk assessment 

• identify, estimate, and evaluate physical risk to citizens 

• Risk evaluation and risk management 

• helps to choose a policy alternative

• goal: reduce risks to the environment, society

forecasting

projections of what might happen if we choose this alternative

impact assessment

similar approach

• environmental impact studies

• Predict the consequences of adopting a policy

implementation analysis 

study how policy was implemented, not outcomes 

program evaluation

• Applied research to measure policy outcomes

• graving field of work in the public sector

Cultural schools 

• Some societies are more skeptical about government than others 

• limits the possibilities of government 

families of nations

• groups of countries whose cultural and historical similarities produce similar policy making dynamics and, sometimes, similar policy decisions

Anglo-American Countries

• emphasizes the individual, serves as a brake on government expansion

Scandinavian family

collectivist, supports government expansion 

German family

• Federalists, corporatist (in between on government expansion)

• When policies are made, the private sector is given a formal role (more connection)

Latin Family

• support for central government, counter-balanced by family norms (in between on government expansion)

Public opinion approach

• government influenced by more immediate public opinion

• considerable majorities support government expansion in certain areas

  • (Health care, environment, care for the elderly)

Public opinion contradiction

wants the government to increase spending on certain areas, yet says the government needs to decrease spending in general

The Economic School

• Studies the effect of short-term and long-term economic change 

short term economic change

• if the economy is growing, policymakers might seek to expand government

  • growth generates optimism about a society’s ability to solve problems

• if the economy is declining, governments must borrow money in order to continue spending

  • generates pessimism about the effectiveness of government solutions

Keynesianism

• argues that during economic downturns, governments should actively intervene through fiscal policy (spending and taxation) and monetary policy (interest rates and money supply)

• The government should save money during good economic times 

long term economic change 

• Overall wealth can promote government expansion 

  • stimulates the belief that poverty can be eliminated

convergence theory

• Wealth allows greater spending on social issues

• Makes sense when comparing industrialized and developing economies

• great variation in social spending across industrialized countries 

industrialized countries dealing with graying factors

A rise in the percentage of retirees reduces government revenue and increases demand for government-sponsored programs

government interconnectedness

global economy constrains actions of domestic policy makers

Political school

• politics has been underemphasized in policy studies 

• parties matter 

unified government

One-party control of the executive and legislative branches allows for more rapid and sweeping policy change

overloaded government

parties will push for an expansion of government services and tax cuts in order to appeal to different constituencies, in so doing so creating budgetary issues

interest group politics 

• pluralism and corporatism

• groups compete for influence 

• influence on groups depends on size and money 

• groups have an institutionalized seat at the bargaining table 

Institutional school

• focus on rules

• Federal governments have a harder time engaging in reform

• Presidential systems provide more veto points

• internal and informal rules matter

institution 

• the rules of the game in a society 

• rules can be informal and unwritten or written down and explicitly detailed 

• can evolve organically 

• not organizations: they are invisible 

bundles of rules

• webs or networks of rules about what is permitted, required, or forbidden

• Rules have consequences

• Rules help reduce uncertainty and make interactions more predictable

differences that rules can make

• executive and legislative branches cooperate

• The filibuster empowers legislative minorities and individuals

• CBO allows for weighing costs and benefits

• reconciliation leads to overpowering roadblocks

• lobbying helps to make voices heard