Public Policy Exam 2

Agenda setting

public attention focuses on a public problem

Policy formulation

policymakers take up issue, devise strategy to address problem (usually a bill)

policy implementation

staff in gov agencies make policy work, establish procedures for running programs (usually a regulation)

policy evaluation

policy analysts determine whether policy is addressing the problem and implementation is working and recommend changes

reasons to make public policy

political reasons, moral obligation, economic externality, collective good, inherent role of gov

issue attention cycle

attention, realize how difficult/expensive it is to solve, interest declines

Psuedo-issues

make constituents happy, no real consideration

focusing events

moves an issue to active agenda

extremity of effect

how extreme is damage/harm

concentration of victims of problem

regional, demographics, industry

range of people affected by problem

more people affected more likely to get attention, if too broad no one feels effects to fight for change

visibility of problem

statistical lives are anonymous, specific lives are personal

analogous

analogy to other public problems- healthcare for all

spillover

interconnected policies, one policy causes need for another

symbol connection

linking problems to important national symbols- “family values”

who sets agenda in pluralist democracy

interest groups, grassroot organizations

who sets agenda in elitist democracy

elite dominating public decision-making, influence of media

who sets agenda in state-centric

powers of bureaucratic and legislative actors, iron triangle

defining the problem

requires consensus, power dynamic, ideology v pragmatism, limited gov.

political decisions- ideological

distributive/redistributive/regulatory

political decisions- pragmatic

what can we realistically get passed in Congress?

distributive

meets the needs of various groups

who promotes distributive policies

legislators and interest groups

who benefits- distributive

members of interest groups

who pays- distributive

all taxpayers

redistributive policy

help the “have nots'“ in society

who promotes this policy- redistributive

public interest groups motivated by values

who benefits- redistributive

disadvantaged citizens

who pays- redistributive

middle-upper class taxpayers

regulatory policy

limit or control actions of individuals/groups

who promotes this policy- regulatory

public interest groups

who benefits- regulatory

public

who pays- regulatory

targeted groups

redistributive example

medicaid

distributive example

veterans benefits

regulatory example

environmental policy

regulatory focuses on

behavior, limit bad behavior

effectiveness

does it get the job done?

efficiency

does it get the job done at a reasonable cost? benefit is greater than cost

who formulates policy

only legislators can introduce a bill

policy formulation- interest groups

have valuable information, may draft legislation

policy formulation- exec branch

implementation

legitimize

to make legitimate

legitimate

to make lawful

legitimation

how much the public trusts the government, sees their actions as reasonable

majoritarian

decision made by the majority

non-majoritarian

these actors try to prove their representative nature, protects the rights of minorities

mass majoritarian

referendum

mass non-majoritarian

uprising/coup

elites majoritarian

congress/legislation

elites non-majoritarian

courts/administrative regulations

logrolling (legislative legitimation)

politicians trade support for legislation to pass what is important to their constituents

procedural legitimation (legislative legitimation)

review long legislative process

barriers to legislative legitimation

congress can’t make policy decisions, party divisions, pork barrel spending

pork barrel spending

gov funds allocated to specific projects rather than serving a national interest

administrative legitimation (legislative legitimation)

non-majoritarian, formal and informal rule making, executive orders

agency capture

agency becomes advocate for industry they regulate rather than impartial protector for public interest

judicial decisions (legislative legitimation)

non-majoritarian, judicial review

criticism of the courts

unelected, SCOTUS is politicized, activist judicial policy

popular legitimation (legislative legitimation)

popular sovereignty, referendum, direct democracy, initiative (petition and vote)

criticism of popular legitimation

low voter turnout, state-level only

difficulties in policy evaluation

goal specification, measurements, efficiency and effectiveness, targets

moving target

aim at one goal and a related problem comes forward

measurement

time span, isolate effects of program, unintended consequences

does the program fix the problem?

effective

does the program fix the problem using a REASONABLE amount of resources?

efficient

measuring efficiency

relating COSTS of efforts to RESULTS and assessing the ratio

target population for program

spread word, mode of service, voluntary participation (are there barriers to access)

policy maintenance

failure to take any action or make a decision

policy termination

rare, difficult to take a service people are used to

policy succession

replacement, consolidation, splitting

if a policy is changed the cycle

starts over again

if a policy is terminated the cycle

is replaced with a new policy or it starts over again