Public Policy Midterm

Liberalism

• An ideology of contemporary politics

• Individuals have sovereignty, self determination, and equal rights.

• Why is the rule of law important?

  • The law controls everything, so we as people must hold individuals and the government accountable to uphold the law.

• Public Interest

  • Voting

  • Representative democracy

  • Individual liberty and private property

• Liberalism in public policy is a governance framework that prioritizes individual liberty, civil rights, equality of opportunity, and the rule of law.

  Core Principles

  • Individual Autonomy: Government exists to protect natural and civil rights (such as life, liberty, and property) and to remove obstacles like poverty, discrimination, or ignorance that restrict personal freedom.

  • Rule of Law: Public policy is constrained by a constitution and independent judiciary to prevent tyranny and arbitrary state power.

  • Consent of the Governed: Authority is derived from the people through democratic representation and majority rule.

Whose definition of public policy includes the absence of governmental intent?

Dye

Definition: Whatever government choose to do or not to do.

What is the policy implication of the 1st Amendment?

Congress can make no policies on expression, press, or religion.

What is a right under the Constitution?

Free expression

How is policy expressed?

Constitution, law, regulation, and behavior.

Definition of Technocratic

Technocracy: a system of government characterized by high reliance on a small elite of technical experts, whose decisions about public policy are more influential than the desires of citizens.

• Singapore is the most technocratic system.

Which public policy approaches draws most heavily from economics?

Public policy analysis

Who is considered the first modern theorist of public policy?

Machiavelli

• “Machiavelli argued that if we understand and plan the political actions we take in pursuit of our goals we are better prepared to seize political opportunities that arise in the normal course of political life”

  • Machiavelli → political opportunism

    • The first “modern” philosophical theorists

Public Policy analysis is…

• Normative

• Objective

• Emotional

What is a stable feature of public policy in the U.S?

Constitutional Order

What is a feature of the US constitutional order that refers to power sharing between the federal government and the states?

Federalism

• A system of government where power is divided between a central (national) government and smaller regional units, such as states or provinces

Compared to the Articles of Confederation, the 1787 Constitution centralized power in the federal government. What part of the Constitution still reserves some state sovereignty? 

10th Amendment

• "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”

  • Means that the federal government has only the powers specifically granted to it by the U.S. Constitution, and all other powers belong to the states or to the people.

  • Core Purpose: Ratified on December 15, 1791, as part of the Bill of Rights, it was added to reassure Anti-Federalists and state delegates that the new national government would not overstep its bounds or crush state sovereignty.

  • Federalism: It establishes the baseline for American federalism, meaning power is divided between the national government and individual states.

  • Reserved Powers (State Powers): Powers not listed for the federal government—such as managing local education policies, issuing driver's licenses, conducting intrastate commerce, and running local law enforcement—are reserved for the states.

The lack of a true Labor Party and suspicion of "class warfare" is an example of which element of American Political stability?

Ideological Stability

• The degree of consistency and resistance to change in an individual's or group's core political, cultural, or social beliefs over time.

• Individual Level (Belief Consistency): Measures how much a person shifts, alters, or abandons their political or philosophical worldviews as they age or encounter new events. Research shows that ideological orientations tend to solidify significantly after young adulthood.

• Extremism vs. Moderation: Studies indicate that people at the political extremes (left or right) often display higher ideological stability—meaning fewer fluctuations in their core convictions—compared to political moderates.

• Influencing Factors: Individual ideological stability is shaped by a mix of genetic predispositions, personal life experiences, and shared or distinct environmental factors.

• Refers to the enduring retention of core values and norms within a society or institution, allowing it to resist radical disruptions or chaotic restructuring.

Which Constitutional system expedites major policy reform?

Parliamentary

• A system that is a democratic form of government where the executive branch derives its democratic legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislative branch (the parliament).

  Key Characteristics

  • Fusion of Powers: The head of government (usually called a prime minister or chancellor) is chosen from within the parliament and leads the cabinet.

  • Dual Leadership: Most systems separate political power from a ceremonial role, featuring a prime minister who governs and a separate head of state (such as a monarch or a ceremonial president).

  • Votes of Confidence: The government stays in power only as long as it maintains the support ("confidence") of a majority in parliament; if it loses a confidence vote, the leader can be replaced or an election called.

  • Parliamentary Procedure: The word also refers to the formal rules and guidelines used to conduct orderly meetings and debates.

What was the justification for federalism given by James Madison in Federalist #10?

Maintained status quo (stability in power)

How can the President check the law-making power of Congress?

Veto

What does the Commerce Clause give the federal government the power to do?

Regulate interstate commerce

• Interstate Commerce = the trade, traffic, transportation, or communication of products, services, or money across state borders, or between a state and a foreign country.

The 14th Amendment is a part of …

Civil War Amendments

14th Amendment = a landmark addition to the U.S. Constitution ratified on July 9, 1868, during the Reconstruction era. It established birthright citizenship, protected civil rights, and applied the Bill of Rights to state governments.

• Section 1: Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection

  • Citizenship Clause: Grants U.S. and state citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, explicitly overturning the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling.

  • Privileges or Immunities Clause: Prohibits states from abridging the privileges or immunities of U.S. citizens.

  • Due Process Clause: Prohibits states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

  • Equal Protection Clause: Prohibits states from denying any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, forming the basis for many landmark civil rights rulings.

• Section 2: Apportionment of Representatives

  • Adjusts how members of Congress are apportioned based on population and penalizes states that deny the right to vote to adult male citizens.

• Section 3: Disqualification from Office

  • Bars any person who took an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. from holding federal or state office, unless pardoned by a two-thirds vote of Congress.

• Section 4: Public Debt Validity

  • Validates authorized public debt while declaring all debts incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States—as well as claims for the loss or emancipation of enslaved people—illegal and void.

• Section 5: Enforcement Power

  • Grants Congress the power to enforce the amendment's provisions through appropriate legislation (such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964).

FDR's "New Deal" represents which type of federalism in policy making?

Cooperative Federalism

• A model of intergovernmental relations where the national and state (or regional) governments share power, overlap functions, and collaborate jointly to administer public programs.

What is the main criticism of Easton's (1965) model of the policy process?

It treats the political system as a “black box”

• A metaphor for government processes, decisions, or institutions whose internal workings are hidden, opaque, or difficult to inspect. Observers can only see the inputs (such as public demands, data, laws, and political pressure) and the outputs (such as laws, regulations, and public services), while the actual conversion process inside the administration remains obscured

GDP is a main concern of which of the following policy environments?

Economic Environment

What is one of the effects of the relatively slow US population growth?

Aging Population

What is NOT a policy implication of demographic changes?

Recession

Which economic theory endorses government intervention to stimulate the economy?

Keynesian Economics

• Theories revolving around countries should accept budget deficits and government spending during recessions so as to stimulate the economy.

Tax deductions are also known as …

Tax expenditures

• Government payments or subsidies in the form of tax deductions or credits.

  • Not collecting a tax is similar to collecting it and spending it.

What does the "Gini coefficient" measure?

Income inequality

• The unequal distribution of income (such as wages, salaries, interest, and cash transfers) among individuals, households, or groups within a population.

Which of the following is responsible for policy outouts?

Congress

What kind of laws are drafted by the legislature?

Statute Law

• A formal written law passed by a legislative body, such as the U.S. Congress, a state legislature, or a parliament.

  Key Characteristics

  • Creation: It starts as a bill, must be approved by the legislature (e.g., both the House of Representatives and the Senate), and is signed into law by the executive (such as a president or governor). If the executive vetoes it, the legislature can sometimes override the veto with a supermajority.

  • Distinction from Common Law: Statute law is explicitly written down and enacted. It differs from common law, which is created over time through judicial decisions and court precedents rather than legislative votes.

  • Distinction from Regulations: Statutes are primary legislation. They often authorize government agencies to create detailed regulations (secondary legislation) to carry out the law.

  • Hierarchy: All statute laws must comply with higher constitutional rules. If a court finds a statute unconstitutional, it can overturn or strike it down.

The study of policy through the political motivation and actions of actors is known as:

Behavioralism

• Human motivation and behavior

Which of the following is an "unofficial actor" in policy-making? 

Interest Groups

What did the founders consider the primary policy-making branch of government?

Legislative

Which type of legislative action does NOT require the signature of the president?

Concurrent resolution

The Iran-Contra hearings were an example of which kind of legislative action?

Oversight

Which information services is an unofficial actor?

C-SPAN → Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network

Place the following stages of the legislative process in the correct order:

1. Bill introduced

2. Committee hearings

3. Conference committee

4. President signs bill

5. Bill codified in USC

6. Public comments & revision

7. Rules codified in CFR

8. Law!

The tension between the Executive and Legislative branches is

Both Institutional and Partisan

Institutional: Relating to, organized by, or characteristic of a large, established organization, society, or establishment (such as a bank, church, hospital, university, or government body).

• Key Traits: Guided by formal or informal rules, standard procedures, and long-standing norms rather than individual or temporary impulses.

• Example: An institutional policy sets standardized rules that apply to every member of a university or corporation.

Partisan: Strongly and often blindly devoted to a particular political party, faction, cause, or leader, with little willingness to compromise or see another viewpoint.

• Key Traits: One-sided loyalty, strong emotional or ideological attachment to a group, and a negative view of opponents.

• Example: A partisan vote in a legislature happens when lawmakers vote strictly along party lines rather than working across the aisle.

Who is the ranking member of Congressional committees?

Senior minority party member

What is a check on Executive power?

Impeachment

According the Max Weber's definition, what is NOT a characteristic of Bureaucracy?

Unresponsive

What is NOT characteristic of a "public good"?

Private

In what way might bureaucracies be politicized? 

Agency Capture

• A form of government failure where a public regulatory agency created to protect the general public instead serves the commercial, financial, or political interests of the specific industry or sector it is supposed to oversee.

• When capture happens, the agency shifts from acting as an independent watchdog to functioning as an advocate or protector of established firms, resulting in a net loss for society.

What established the principle of "judicial review"?

Marbury v. Madison

• Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the principle of judicial review—the power of federal courts to declare legislative and executive acts unconstitutional. [1, 2, 3]

  Background

  • Midnight Appointments: In the final days of his presidency, John Adams appointed several Federalist justices of the peace (known as "midnight judges"), including William Marbury.

  • Withheld Commission: The commissions were signed and sealed, but not delivered before Thomas Jefferson took office. Jefferson ordered his Secretary of State, James Madison, not to deliver them.

  • The Lawsuit: Marbury petitioned the Supreme Court directly to issue a writ of mandamus (a court order compelling a government official to perform a duty) under Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789.

  Ruling and Holding

  • Unanimous Decision: Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the opinion for a unanimous Court.

  • Entitled to Commission: The Court ruled that Marbury had a legal right to his commission and that withholding it was illegal.

  • Unconstitutional Statute: However, the Court ruled that Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional because it attempted to expand the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction beyond the limits set by Article III of the Constitution.

  • Denial of Order: Because the Court lacked original jurisdiction to issue the writ in this scenario, it could not force Madison to deliver the commission.

  Historical Significance

  • Judicial Review: By striking down a portion of a federal law, the Marshall Court claimed and exercised the authority to say what the law is and invalidate acts of Congress that conflict with the Constitution.

  • Checks and Balances: The decision solidified the judiciary as an independent and coequal branch of the U.S. government alongside the legislative and executive branches.

What is the Constitutional basis for the participation of unofficial actors in Public Policy?

1st Amendment

• “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of the press, or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”

  • Freedom of speech, thought, assembly, petition, and press

  • Freedom of thought = believe what you want to believe and freedom to speak what you believe or don’t believe

  • Assembly = usually first to be banned

When was the highest participation in elections in US history?

1900

What is the most common way for unofficial individuals and groups to participate in the Public Policy process?

Voting

What was Madison's argument against the undue influence of factions?

No one faction could dominate national politics.

What is NOT a source of influence for interest groups?

Elected Office

What is NOT an interest group?

GAO: General Accountability Office

Labor Unions are …

Economic interest groups

What was the main strategy of the NAACP in the Civil Rights movement?

Litigation

• Litigation is the formal process of resolving legal disputes through the state or federal court system.

  Key Stages of Litigation

  • Pleadings: The process begins when a plaintiff files a complaint outlining their claims, and the defendant is served with a summons and responds with an answer or a motion to dismiss.

  • Discovery: Both parties exchange relevant information, documents, interrogatories, and witness depositions to investigate the facts before trial.

  • Pre-Trial Motions: Attorneys file motions asking the judge to make early rulings or decide certain issues without a full trial (such as a motion for summary judgment).

  • Trial: If the case does not settle, both sides present evidence and arguments before a judge or a jury, which then issues a verdict.

  • Appeals and Enforcement: The losing party may choose to appeal legal errors to a higher court, or the winning party moves to collect the judgment.

What is the most popular source of news today?

Social Media

What is the most important function of the media in the policy process?

Agenda setting

• Agenda-setting is the process by which mass media influences public perception and political priorities by deciding which issues to highlight and how much attention to give them.

The mutually dependent relationship between interests, Congressional committees and bureaucratic agencies is known as:

Iron Triangle:

In political science, the iron triangle describes a close, mutually beneficial, and highly durable alliance between three groups that form policy around a specific issue:

• Congressional Committees and Subcommittees: Provide funding and political support to the bureaucracy, and pass legislation favorable to interest groups.

• Federal Bureaucracy (Regulatory Agencies): Execute policies for congressional committees and deliver low regulation, favors, or contracts to interest groups.

• Interest Groups and Lobbyists: Provide electoral support, campaign donations, and PAC (Political Action Committee) contributions to members of Congress, and lobby Congress on behalf of the bureaucracy.

• How It Works

  • Each corner of the triangle relies on the other two for survival and power. For example, in the military-industrial complex (a classic example), the Department of Defense (bureaucracy), the House and Senate Armed Services Committees (Congress), and defense contractors/lobbyists (interest groups) work in a closed loop to sustain defense budgets and project contracts.

Official Actors

• Constitutionally mandated public positions

• Legislators, President, Bureaucracy, Judges

Unofficial Actors

• Private or ancillary positions that influence policy process

• Experts, researchers, media, lobbyists, pollsters

• Political parties

  • Seek public office to directly shape public policy

  • Hybrid private/public

• Think Tanks

• Media

  • Traditional, social

  • Agenda setting

  • Bias

• Social Movements

  • Grassroots

  • Astroturf

  • Broad based, unstructured, non-hierarchical, spontaneous

Interest Groups

• Faction (Madison) v. + Association (Tocqueville)

• Structured, branded (Acronym; logo, tote bag), membership

  • Acronym = typically involves the letter “A” to show its an association

    • APAC

    • NAACP

• Types: Institutional v. Public Interest (*free rider)

  • Business/Corporate interest (Trade/Industry association, chambers of commerce…)

  • Labor and professional groups (unions)

  • Public interest

    • Benefits go to everyone

    • Consumer, identity, ideological, environmental, religious…

      • I.E Ducks Unlimited

      • Sierra Club

  • Single interest

  • Governmental interest groups

  • Largest are “Peak Associations”

    • Most powerful, more for its effectiveness

      • NRA & APAC

• Leverage

  • Direct

    • Knowledge/expertise

    • Lobbying

    • Money (soft & dark)

      • Not a lot of it

    • Access (PAC)

    • Lawsuits, Amicus Curiae

  • Indirect

    • Media - voter mobilization

Examples of Interest Groups

• Sierra Club

• Greenpeace USA

• National Rifle Association (NRA)

• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

4 Policy Environments

• Structural implications

• Social implications

• Economic implications

• Political implications

Legislative

• 2nd most powerful branch

• Structure 

  • 2 House: Representative and Senate

    • Bills must go through and be passed by both

• Bicameral Congress

  • House: 435 representatives of districts by population

  • Senate: 100 members, 2 per state

  • Both structured by party affiliation

    • Majority party has all leadership roles and majority vote

      • Not part of the original Constitutional structure

• Functions

  • Make statutory law (Bills)

  • Casework: constituent services

    • Outreach towards constituents

    • Not typically done by actual representatives, usually interns.

  • Oversight: hearings

  • Gather information: Constituents, General Accountability Office (GAO), Congressional Research Service (CRS)

  • Political Party Activity: not official function by ~50%

• Critiques

  • Does not represent will of the people/special interests 

  • Too partisan

  • Incumbency and age

  • Too decentralized: competing interests of constituents, interests, party, ideology, and reelection.

  • Corrupt

    • Earmarks and self dealing

  • Loss of legitimacy: district of government

  • Issue networks/policy subsystems

    • “Iron Triangle” 2.0

      • 
        

Executive

• Most powerful branch

• Advantages in policy making

  • Veto/pocket veto

  • Signing statements vs. “Congressional intent”

  • Executive orders

  • Executive leadership

    • Head of Executive Branch, state, and government and Commander in chief

    • Senior executive positions serve at pleasure of president

  • Bully pulpit

  • Agenda setting (including budget proposal)

  • Informational advantage

  • Compliant Supreme Court

  • “Imperial Presidency”? “Emergency Powers”?

Bureacracy

• A way to organize government using different offices

• Characteristics

  • Hierarchical

  • Fixed jurisdiction areas

  • Rule-based

  • Neutral competency

  • Expertise and merit

  • Non-partisan, non-political technocracy

  • Bureaucratic discretion

  • Provide public goods and services in public interest 

    • Agency mission

    • Indivisible and non-exclusive 

• Problems

  • Free rider

  • Size (the blob)

  • Expensive 

    • ~20% of GDP, some sectors 100%

  • Redundancy

  • Silo

  • Unaccountable

  • Agency capture

    • From below and above

Judicial

• Weakest of the 3 departments of power because it cannot spend or tax to encourage the citizenry to fulfill its policy goals like legislature

• Judicial Review: Interpret Constitutionality of policy

• Case by case based on standing and jurisdiction

• Lacks sword and purse

  • Legitimacy declining

  • Neutral?

• Strict Constructionism = Textualism - Originalism

• Vs. Modern Liberalism / Living Constitution

• Interpretation can change

  • Promote or obstruct policy

Neo-Institutionalism

• Organizational behavior shifting over time

Institutionalism

• Structural functionalism

The Political Environment

• States in federal system

  • Elections - partisan control of government

  • State and congress

    • Art. 1: “times, manners, and places of elections”

  • Urban/rural divide

  • Wealth

  • Education

  • Minimum wage

  • Tax burden and net tax contribution

  • States policies

    • Marriage, abortion, Medicaid, marijuana

The Economic Environment

• Gross Domestic Product - the total value of all goods and services produced in a country, usually measured in a single year.

  • Doesn’t look at environmental health or happiness

  • Just looks at the money

  • Doesn’t paint the whole picture

  • Can be easily manipulated

    • How do we measure?

      • GDP

      • GNI - Gross National Income

      • GDP/GNI per capita

      • PPP - Purchasing Power Parity

      • GDP - Gender DEvelopment Index

      • Informal economy - barter, shadow, black market (crime)

      • Inflation, wage growth, real wages

• Keynesian Economics - theories revolving around countries should accept budget deficits and government spending during recessions so as to stimulate the economy.

• Recession - two consecutive quarters (3 month periods) in which the gross domestic product declines.

• Supply Side Economics - philosophy that argues that the government should enact policies to stimulate production in the economy, not consumption.

  • Achieved through lowering taxes and government regulation.

• Budget Deficit - the difference between what a government spends and what it receives in revenue. 

  • When a government (national) runs a deficit, it must often borrow to make up the difference = increasing national debt

• National Debt - the amount of money owed to a nation’s creditors

• Transfer Payments - transfers of money from the government to individual recipients.

  • Farm subsidies, disaster relief, and various social welfare programs.

• Tax Expenditures - government payments or subsidies in the form of tax deductions or credits.

  • Not collecting a tax is similar to collecting it and spending it.

• Unemployment Rate - a statistic generated by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows what proportion of a nation’s, a state’s, or a region’s workers are out of work.

The Social Environment

• Demographic changes

• Age

  • Sustainability of health care

  • Social security 

• Gender

  • Voting, pay equity professions, education, trans

  • Paternity and maternity leave

  • Affirmative action

• Race and Ethnicity

  • Poverty, environmental racism, homeownership

  • Immigration

  • Disparities in income, housing, employment, and education

  • Affirmative action

• Intersectionality

The Structural Environment

• The institutions, rules, and organizational arrangements that shape how the government operates and makes policies.

  • Ex. The separation of powers requires different branches of government to perform different functions and limits how power is exercised.Roles and responsibilities of governments at multiple levels

• Stability

  • Ideological - Liberalism (classical and modern)

  • Political - constitutional structures and rules

  • Policy - most policies sustain, slow transition, bureaucratic lag, status quo

  • Power - peaceful transition, rule of law

• Fragmentation

  • Separation of powers - between and within branches

  • Federalism

  • Factions and competing interests

Policy Process

• Stages:

  • Identification

  • Agenda Setting

  • Formulation

  • Adoption/Legitimation

  • Implementation

  • Evaluation

Black Box

A metaphor for institutional processes, decision-making mechanisms, or internal operations whose inner workings are hidden, opaque, or poorly understood. Observers only see the inputs (such as demands, public pressures, resources, or legal mandates) and the outputs (such as laws, regulations, or public services), while the actual conversion process inside the government machinery remains obscured

Budget Deficit

When a government's total spending exceeds its total revenue over a specific period, typically a fiscal year.

Key Concepts

• How it works: When money going out (such as spending on defense, Social Security, and healthcare) is higher than money coming in (such as taxes and fees), the government operates in the red.

• Financing the gap: To cover a deficit, the government borrows money by issuing securities like U.S. Treasury bonds and bills.

• National debt vs. deficit: The deficit is the annual shortfall for a single year, while the National Deficit Overview explains that the national debt is the cumulative total of all past deficits and surpluses combined with accumulated interest.

Case Law

Is the body of law created by judges through written and oral decisions in court cases, rather than laws written by legislative bodies or executive agencies.

Core Concepts

• Precedent: Past court decisions that serve as an authority or guide for deciding future cases with similar facts or legal questions.

• Stare Decisis: A Latin phrase meaning "let the decision stand." This core legal principle requires lower courts to follow binding precedents set by higher courts in their jurisdiction.

• Binding vs. Persuasive Authority:

  • Binding authority must be followed by a court (such as a U.S. Supreme Court ruling or a higher appellate court ruling within the same state/circuit).

  • Persuasive authority comes from another jurisdiction or a lower court and may influence a judge's decision, even though the judge is not strictly required to follow it.

Demographer

A social scientist who studies human populations, including their size, composition, distribution, and changes over time.

What Demographers Do

• Track core processes: Measure and analyze birth rates (fertility), death rates (mortality), aging, and migration (immigration and emigration).

• Collect and clean data: Gather information from sources like the census, vital statistics, registries, and large-scale surveys.

• Use statistical tools: Apply software programs (such as R, SAS, SPSS, or Python) and mathematical models to project future population trends.

• Advise decision-makers: Help governments, urban planners, public health agencies, and private companies anticipate shifts in housing, labor markets, schools, and healthcare needs.

Depression

An economic downturn (a prolonged recession).

Evaluation

The systematic, evidence-based assessment of a policy's design, implementation, outputs, outcomes, and impact to determine its merit, worth, effectiveness, and cost.

Gross Domestic Product

• Gross Domestic Product

• The total monetary value of all final goods and services produced within a country’s borders during a specific time period, often a quarter or a year.

• Commonly used to measure the size of an economy and track economic growth.

Initiative

A public policy initiative is a coordinated government effort—such as a law, program, or regulation—designed to solve a social problem, allocate resources, or change public behavior.

Input

The resources dedicated to a program or the demands and pressures from the public that enter the political system

• Examples:

  • Raw resources

  • Data demands

  • Tax revenues allocated to a public school district

  • Federal grant dollars assigned to construct a new highway

  • Legislative appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  • Policy analysts, economists, and legal experts inside a government agency

  • Public health nurses deployed to staff a community clinic

  • Scientists and researchers hired by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

  • Office buildings, computer networks, and data-tracking software

  • Wi-Fi routers and digital devices provided for public school

Legislative Intent

Legislative intent refers to the underlying purpose, goals, and meaning that lawmakers had in mind when they created, debated, and passed a statute or public policy

• Definition: It is the official objective or rationale behind a law.

• Role in Interpretation: When the text of a law is vague, ambiguous, or applied to an unexpected new situation, courts and administrators look to legislative intent to figure out how the law should be enforced.

• Policy Connection: In public policy, it establishes the problem the legislature sought to solve and the specific public values or judgments the policy promotes

Output

A direct, tangible product, service, or action delivered by the government—such as a law passed, a facility built, or people trained.

• Outputs measure what the government does (quantity and execution), rather than the long-term change it causes (which is an outcome)

• Examples:

  • Healthcare Policy

    • Number of new hospitals or clinics built

    • Number of doctors or nurses hired

    • Number of vaccine doses distributed or administered

  • Education Policy

    • Number of new schools constructed

    • Number of teachers trained or certified

    • Distribution of free school lunch kits

  • Crime Prevention & Public Safety

    • Number of police officers deployed to the streets

    • Number of CCTV surveillance cameras installed

    • Number of traffic or safety citations issued

  • Environmental & Infrastructure Policy

    • Tons of waste recycled or processed

    • Number of trees planted

    • Miles of highway paved or repaired

  • Social Welfare & Social Services

    • Number of families receiving monthly cash benefits

    • Number of child abuse investigations completed

    • Number of social welfare applications processed per day

  • Legislative & Regulatory Action

    • A newly enacted statute passed by a legislature (e.g., a minimum wage law)

    • An executive order or regulatory code issued by a government agency

National Debt

The amount of money owed to a nation’s creditors

The national debt (also known as the public debt or sovereign debt) is the total cumulative amount of money a national government owes to its creditors from past borrowing, formed by adding up annual budget deficits and subtracting any surpluses.

Core Components in Public Policy

• Gross National Debt: The total amount of money the federal government owes overall, including money it owes to itself.

• Debt Held by the Public: Money the federal government owes to outside entities—including individual investors, commercial banks, pension funds, state and local governments, the Federal Reserve, and foreign governments.

• Intragovernmental Debt: Non-marketable Treasury securities held in internal federal government accounts, such as Social Security and Medicare trust funds.

• Budget Deficits vs. Debt: A deficit is the annual shortfall when government spending exceeds tax revenue in a single fiscal year; the national debt is the running total of all those accumulated past deficits.

• Debt-to-GDP Ratio: A primary metric in public policy that compares the total amount a government owes to the size of the national economy (Gross Domestic Product) rather than looking at the dollar amount in isolation.

How Policy Drives the Debt

• Fiscal Choices: Lawmakers control spending levels (defense, entitlement programs, infrastructure) and taxation policies (income taxes, corporate rates) that determine whether the budget runs a deficit or surplus.

• Economic Shocks: Spending typically spikes and revenues drop during national emergencies, recessions, or major conflicts (such as World War II or the COVID-19 pandemic).

• The Debt Ceiling: A statutory limit set by the legislature (like the U.S. Congress) on the maximum amount of debt the Treasury can legally issue to pay its bills.

• Servicing Costs: As the debt grows, the portion of the federal budget required just to pay the annual interest on that debt increases, constraining future policy options

Policy Environment

The sum of all external and internal conditions, forces, actors, and contexts that surround, influence, and shape the creation, implementation, and evaluation of public policies

Key Components of the Policy Environment

• Internal / Domestic Factors:

  • Demographics & Geography: Population size, age distribution, urban density, climate, and natural resources.

  • Socio-Economic Variables: Income levels, education rates, occupational structures, and poverty rates.

  • Political Culture: Shared beliefs, values, and traditions regarding the role of government (e.g., individualistic vs. moralistic cultures).

• External / Systemic Factors:

  • Economic Conditions: Inflation rates, economic recessions, national debt, and market shifts.

  • Globalization & International Pressures: Transnational treaties, foreign policy demands, international financial institutions, and global public opinion.

  • Institutional & Legal Frameworks: The division of power among branches of government, constitutional rules, and bureaucratic capacity

Recession

Two consecutive quarters (3 month periods) in which the gross domestic product declines.

Referendum

The principle or practice of submitting to popular vote a measure passed on or proposed by a legislative body or by popular initiative.

Regulations

A legally binding rule or directive issued by an executive branch agency (at the federal, state, or local level) pursuant to authority granted by a legislative body.

Statute Law

A formal, written law enacted by a legislative body (such as Congress, a state legislature, or a parliament) and usually approved by an executive officer like a president or governor.

In public policy, statute law serves as primary legislation, the foundational, binding rules that create public goals, grant authority to government agencies, define penalties, and establish frameworks for social and economic regulation.

Supply-side economics

Philosophy that argues that the government should enact policies to stimulate production in the economy, not consumption.

• Achieved through lowering taxes and government regulation.

Systems thinking

An approach that views problems within complex, changing systems by focusing on element interconnections, root causes, and whole-system impacts rather than isolated symptoms.

Tax Expenditures

Government payments or subsidies in the form of tax deductions or credits.

• Not collecting a tax is similar to collecting it and spending it.

Transfer Payments

Transfers of money from the government to individual recipients.

• Farm subsidies, disaster relief, and various social welfare programs.

Unemployment Rate

A statistic generated by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows what proportion of a nation’s, a state’s, or a region’s workers are out of work.

Difference between Veto and Pocket Veto

Veto: happens when the President actively rejects a bill and returns it with formal objections to Congress within 10 days while Congress is in session.

• Congress is in session and receives the returned bill and veto message.

• Can be overridden by a 2/3s affirmative vote in both the House and the Senate.

• Must be accompanied by a formal veto message or statement explaining the President’s objections.

Pocket Veto: happens passively when the President takes no action on a bill and Congress adjourns before the 10-day window expires, making it impossible to return the bill.

• Congress has adjourned, preventing the President from returning the bill

• Cannot be overridden, Congress must reintroduce the bill as a new legislation in a later session.

• Does not require a formal veto message, simply dies in the “pocket”

Bureaucracy and Bureaucratic Discretion

Bureaucracy: the entire structured organization of unelected officials and agencies within the executive branch that implements government policies.

• A system/organization (i.e the EPA, Department of Transportation, or social services) composed of departments, offices, and workers.

• Represents the structural framework and hierarchy of the government.

Bureaucratic Discretion: the specific power/judgement-making ability granted to those officials to interpret vague laws and decide how to carry them out on a daily basis.

• A function/authority within a system

• The flexibility and independent judgement an official uses when a law is broad or leaves gaps.

• Represents the active choice-making that happens inside that framework

• Ex: Street-level social worker or a regulatory officer deciding how to strictly enforce a guideline.

Relationship: Discretion only exists inside a bureaucracy; a bureaucracy cannot function dynamically without giving its workers some level of discretion to adapt general laws to real-world situations.

Free Rider

An individual or group who benefits from a shared public good, service, or resource without paying for it or contributing to its cost and upkeep.

• Why It Happens in Public Policy

  • Self-Interest: Rational individuals prefer to keep their own money or effort while hoping others will pay.

  • Prisoner’s Dilemma Incentives: If everyone decides to stop paying, the resource disappears; however, an individual thinks their single contribution will not change the outcome.

  • Examples:

    • National defense or street lighting: Everyone enjoys safety or light regardless of whether they pay taxes.

    • Global climate agreements: A country can benefit from cleaner global air even if it refuses to reduce its own carbon emissions.

    • Public radio or community fundraising: Listeners enjoy broadcasts without donating

Appropriations Bill

Legislation that legally allocates and authorizes the actual spending of federal funds for government agencies and programs. Under U.S. law, money cannot be drawn from the Treasury without an appropriations act.

• Example:

  • The annual Defense Appropriations Act, which allocates specific billions of dollars to pay for military personnel, weapons systems, and base operations.

Authorization Bill

Legislation passed by Congress that establishes, continues, or modifies federal agencies, programs, or policies. It sets the legal framework, guidelines, and maximum spending limits for a program, but it does not actually provide the money needed to run it.

• Example:

  • The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which legally permits the military to exist, outlines defense priorities, and authorizes the creation of new military programs before funding is separately appropriated

Case Work

The direct assistance provided by members of Congress and their staff to constituents who are facing issues or disputes with federal agencies.

• Example:

  • A congressional staffer helping a local veteran navigate delays in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to receive their medical benefits, or assisting a citizen with a backlogged passport application.

Earmark

A legislative provision that directs approved federal funds to be spent on a specific, targeted project, location, or institution, often bypassing the standard competitive or objective allocation processes.

• Example:

  • A senator inserting a clause into a massive federal transportation bill that specifically dedicates $10 million to build a local bridge or community center in their home state.

Field Hearing

An official congressional committee or subcommittee meeting held outside of Washington, D.C., directly in a local community. It allows lawmakers to gather testimony from local citizens, experts, and stakeholders on an issue affecting that area.

• Example:

  • The House Committee on Natural Resources holding an official hearing in a coastal town in Louisiana to take testimony from local fishermen regarding offshore drilling regulations.

Institutionalism

A traditional approach in political science and public policy that focuses heavily on studying the formal structures, rules, legal frameworks, and organizations of government. It assumes that these established structures are the primary drivers shaping political behavior.

• Example:

  • An analysis of the U.S. government that focuses entirely on the codified constitutional separation of powers between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, arguing that this rigid structure dictates how laws are made.