The Context of Public Policy

Role(s) of Government

National security, types of “membership“ (citizenship ranks), economic prosperity/structure, and basic public needs, like police, first responders, and schools.

Tragedy of Commons

constrained limited resources shared among the general population, typically with no regulations to its use; thus, harming this public resource and limiting its use.

Examples of Tragedy of Commons

U.S. grazing land, clean air and water, housing and land, fish (think over fishing)

What is done in response to the Tragedy of Commons?

Regulation through privatization or mutual coercion, which is a mutual agreement of solving an issue through government means.

What is public policy?

Government action intended to resolve an issue of public concern,

Regulatory Policy

restricts or imposes constraints over people or groups. Example: Only people with medical licenses can practice medicine.

Self-regulatory Policy

regulations imposed by non-government institutions. Typically seen with professional organizations, such as medical boards or environmental policy. They don’t really work.

Distributive Policy

allocation of resources to individuals, groups, corporations or communities Example: highways and schools

Re-distributive Policy

promote equality, or when the government allocates support from one group to another through social programs; think financial aid based on parent’s income. Example: Medicaid, SNAP, and unemployment.

Policy Costs

any burden, monetary or not, taken on if the policy is adopted. Example: health, mental/psychic, and/or freedom

Policy Benefits

• Perceptions

• Legitimacy

benefits is any satisfaction enjoyed, both monetary and not. Can be divided into perceived, as to who is receiving the benefit or cost, or legitimacy in regards to who should receive these benefits.

Opportunity Costs

forgone benefits of the path you choose

Externalities

The external costs or benefits of a policy. Negative externalities are the costs of activities put on others. While positive ones are the benefits.

Policy Context: Institutional

Government institutions and the three branches, what do these areas look like in relation to the acceptance of a certain policy?

Policy Context: Political

Basically who is on control in the executive and legislative branches, for the most part, and how those controls could work in either branches’ favor. Who is in charge now, Democrats, Republicans?

Policy Context: Economic

What can be accomplished based on the economy; when the economy is poor, then policy is made to “fix” the economy, and on the flipside, policy when the economy is good, is focused on quality of life.

Policy Context: Demographic

looking at migration, racial breakdown, and average age of the country or certain regions.

Policy Context: Ideological

Societal norms and what is currently culturally acceptable.

Types of Policy Context

Institutional, political, economic, demographic, and ideological.

Majoritarian politics

for the majority, paid by the majority. Example: Social Security, public health

Interest group politics

For a specific group, paid for by said group. Example: Cable vs. streaming, Uber vs. taxis

Client politics

typically subsidies, such as dairy, grain, meat processing and production

Entrepreneurial politics

society benefits from a small group; distributive benefits, concentrated cost. Example: consumer protection groups, seat belts and airbags in cars.

Stages of Policy Development

Problem definition, agenda setting, policy formation, policy adoption, policy implementation, and policy evaluation.

Problem Definition

1. Determining there is a problem and how it is defined.

2. Can be driven my value-laden (biased) perspectives shaped by experiences

Agenda setting

How to get on lawmaker’s agenda which can occur during or after focusing events and promoted by policy entrepreneurs.

Policy formulation

Elements of a policy are chosen based on what particular values, purposes, and interests are taken up by the legislator. The design process of a solution.

Policy adoption

1. “How a bill becomes a law” portion

   1. Congress assigns a piece of legislation to a committee

   2. Committee decides if the bill should move to the floor for deliberation, debate, and a vote.

   3. If a vote passes in both chambers of Congress, the president can sign or veto the bill. If signed, it’s now a law.

Policy implementation

1. What happens when a law goes into effect?

2. This is the “doing side” of a bill

Policy evaluation

1. measuring and assessing the effectiveness of programs and policies, this is largely based on data-driven evaluations.

   1. Was/is this policy effective?

Policy assessment

costs and benefits, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, political feasibility, social acceptability, technical feasibility, and motivated reasoning and policy assessment.