Public Policy Flashcards

Flashcards for Public Policy concepts

Policy

Statement of intent, principle, or protocol to guide decisions and actions to achieve a certain goal.

Public Policy

Whatever governments choose to do or not to do.

Constituent Policy

Creation of new institutions or mechanisms for public welfare.

Distributive Policy

Transfer of the yields of policy—goods/services to specific constituents.

Redistributive Policy

Adjustment and re-configuration of the yields of policy within and among different groups.

Regulatory Policy

Expansion of limitation of the behavior of identity categories.

Substantive Policy

General welfare and development of society.

State

A set of institutions that have the highest power over a specific area. These institutions include the government (national and local), police, military, courts, and other public organizations.

State Intervention

The government influences private actions through rules and policies.

Estatist

The state is the prime initiator and actor, and all other sectors of the society assume only a supplemental role.

Minimalist

The state is for minimum state intervention in the economy.

Merit Goods

Goods that are beneficial to individuals and society, but tend to be under-consumed if left to the free market.

Demerit Goods

Goods that are harmful to individuals and society, but tend to be over-consumed if left to the free market.

Public Goods

Things that everyone benefits from, but the free market either cannot or does not want to provide.

Rivalry

What one person consumes cannot be consumed by anyone else.

Excludability

Some particular persons have an exclusive control over a good or service.

Congestibility

When the (marginal social) cost of consumption becomes high beyond some level of consumption.

Private Goods

Rivalrous and excludable.

Toll/Quasi Goods

Non-rivalrous but excludable.

Common Pool

Rivalrous but non-excludable.

Pure Public Goods

Non-rivalrous and non-excludable.

Externality

An effect of an activity that impacts others who did not choose to be involved. It can be positive or negative.

Natural Monopoly

A single company dominates an industry because it can produce goods or services more cheaply than any competitor.

Information Asymmetry

Sellers have more information about a product than buyers, leading to unfair transactions.

Paradox of Voting

Elections may not always lead to fair or logical outcomes.

Tyranny of the Majority

Policies may favor the majority while harming minorities.

Political Public Policy Process

Based on different perspectives, opinions, agendas, and interests of the actors of the state.

Policy Demands

Claims made upon by public officials by other actors, private or officials, in the political system for action or inaction on some perceived problem.

Policy Decision

Decision by officials that authorize or gives direction and content to public policy actions, e.g. decision to enact a law or administrative order.

Policy Statement

Formal expression or articulation of public policies. Eg. AO, EO, RA

Policy Output

Pertains to tangible manifestations of public policies; done by government in pursuance of policy decisions and statements. Simple what government does e.g taxes collected, roads constructed, schools created.

Policy Outcomes

Consequences for society, intended or unintended that flow from the action or inaction by the government.

Elite-Mass Theory

Public policy is determined by the views of the elites carried by the public officials and agencies that are instruments of the elite as well.

Group Theory

Interaction among groups is the central fact of politics.

System Model

Relies on concepts of information theory (feedback, input, output) and conceives the process of policy-making as being essentially cyclical.

Institutionalist Model

Government institutions are the only ones authorized to determine, formulate, and implement policies.

Neo-Institutionalist Model

Policy as arenas of power. It categorizes public policies into policy subsystems (Distributive, Redistributive, Regulatory, Constituent)

Streams and Windows Model

Policy as an intellectual process of interactions between and among the Problem, Policy, and Political Streams.

Game Theory

Policy as rational choice in competitive situations.

Rational Comprehensive Model

Policy as Efficient Goal Achievement. It expects policy outputs to be rational.

Incremental Model

Policy as variations of the past. It views public policy as a continuation of past government activities with only incremental modifications.

Mixed Scanning

Policy as a mix of rationalism and incrementalism.

Strategic Planning

Policy as a guided strategy; concrete manifestation of the mix of incremental and rational resources in policy-making.

Unitary Mind (Allison’s Model)

Views actions and decisions as at least intendedly rational, purposive, calculated, goal-oriented, and the unitary purpose model.

Organizational Proccess (Allison’s Model)

Process and pluralist model; views actions as outputs of large organizations which have particular tasks or functions.

Bureaucratic Politics (Allison’s Model)

The bargaining model.

Hierarchy of Public Policy in the PH Government

1. Constitution

2. Legislative Enactment

3. Executive Decisions

4. Judicial Pronouncements

5. Agency Decisions, Programs & Projects

   1. Rules & Regulations of Activities

Good Policy/Good Politics

Beneficial to both public and policymakers.

Good Policy/Bad Politics

Beneficial but unpopular.

Bad Policy/Good Politics

Popular but ineffective; short-term only.

5 Ways Elected Bodies Make Policies

1. Lawmaking - By Congress and President (signature).

2. Budget Process - GAA, bills that need funding.

3. Rule Making - it takes years to pass a law.

4. Oversight - Evaluation and judgement on a specific problem.

5. Sunset Option - giving the policy a chance either to re-enact (if effective) or amend (if fails).

1. no definitive formulation

2. no stopping rule

3. not true or false, but good or bad

4. no immediate and no ultimate test of solution'

5. one-shot operation

6. do not have an enumerable set or potential solutions nor a well-described set of permissible operations

7. essentially unique

8. symptom of another problem

9. the way it is described determines its possible solutions

10. planner has no right to be wrong

10 Characteristics of a Wicked Problem

State Intervention Forms

1. encourage industries

2. prescribe rules

3. discourage negative actions

4. prohibit crimes

Group theorists

David Truman (Governmental Process) & Earl Latham (The Group Basis of Politics)

The System’s model is diagrammed through the simplified version of ____ idea of system described at great length in his article published in _____ year ____.

1. Easton

2. “An Approach to the Analysis of Political Systems”

3. World Politics

4. 1957

They are the proponents of Neo-institutionalist model

Theodore Lowi, Randall Ripley, Robert Salisbury & John Heinz, and Dean Schooler Jr.

He conceptualized the Streams and Windows Model

John Kingdon

They provided a summary of the elite theory.

According to them: society is divided into the few who have power (elite) and the manny who do not have (masses).

Thomas Dye and Harmon Zeigler in '“The Irony of Democracy" (1975)

Equilibrium

Represents a balance which contending parties constantly strive to tip in their favor.

[In Inremental model] “Decision makers di not review the whole range of existing & proposed alternatives.

Charles Lindblom

[In Mixed Scanning): Not exactly as rationalist and not constricting as incrementalist.

Etzioni

4 Building blocks of policy (ALAD)

1. Authority

2. Legitimacy

3. Accountability

4. Discursive social interaction

Instruments of Public Policy (LSMT)

1. Law

2. Services

3. Money

4. Tax