Week 1

Lecture 1 notes:

• Public Policy:

  • made by government agents: authoritative and legitimate decisions

  • Comprises both positive and negative decisions: choosing to do something or not to do something about a social issue

  • constitutes conscious/intentional choices:deliberately doing something (public policy is not the same as a public scandal, an accident or unintended consequence)

  • involves trying to solve a social issue: an applied problem-solving process

• a more comprehensive definition:

  • “A set of interrelated decisions taken by a political actor or group of actors concerning the selection of goals and the means of achieving them within a specified situation where these decisions should, in principle, be within the power of those actors to achieve.” – Jenkins, 1978

• Tobacco use as a social problem solved via public policy:

  • Made by government agents:

    • Taxed

    • Age restrictions

    • Labelling laws

    • restricting advertising

  • positive and negative decisions:

    • Not illegal; could make it only government regulated or banned

  • constitutes conscious/intentional choices

    • making regulations to deter people from smoking

    • Taxes not intended to capture more revenue from selling cigarettes 

  • involves applied problem solving to a social issue

    • Has made it a less prevalent social norm

    • government engagement has changed social norms

    • transitioned from a private issue regarding individual health to a public issue about public wellbeing

• Agenda setting

  • Focusing events 

  • Lobbying

  • Media

• Willingness of government to act/ ability to act

  • Money

  • public safety

  • public perception

    • future elections

    • Partisan politics

  • distribution of power

  • Constitution/CCRF

  • time constraints

  • knowledge capacity 

  •  Private sector

• why don’t we always get good policy?

  • poorly framed problem

  • limited policy tools

  • political interests

  • time constraints

  • inter-governmental conflict

  • lack of expertise

  • interest group pressure

• policy studies vs. Policy analysis

  • policy studies explanation; trying to explain something

    • why are some policies chosen and not others?

    • why does policy stay the same or change?

    • how does institutional structure influence decision-making?

    • whose interests are served by policies?

    • what ideas structure policymaking

  • policy studies:comparison

    • why do 2+ jurisdictions (countries, provinces, municipalities) confronting similar policy problems adopt different solutions

    • how does a given policy change or stay the same over time (historical comparison)

  • Policy studies: ideas, actors, and institutions (independent variables)

    • ideas: ideologies, paradigms, norms, beliefs, cultures, religions

    • actors: interest groups, individuals, political leaders, entrepreneurs

    • institutions: constitutions, government departments, law

  • Policy analysis

    • what is the impact or outcome off a policy?

    • was it successful?

    • what is our metric of success?

Lecture 2 notes:

• Policy as a process:

  • Processes:

    • Political process

    • Decision-making process

    • Implementation process

  • inputs/outputs

    • Input: problem identification

    • Output: policies

• The policy cycle

  • Agenda setting

    • The process by which problems come to the attention of government

    • Recognizing a problem as something that merits government attention

    • Many actors (“policy universe” of all interested groups and individuals) may be involved in the process of agenda setting

    • The social issue in a given country that is determined the most urgent issue that needs to be solved through policy

    • Media plays a major role in this part of the process

    • Actors: policy universe

  • Policy formulation

    • How policy options are formulated within government

    • Various solutions to a policy problem are proposed and considered

    • There are a smaller number of actors involved (typically the “policy subsystem”)

    • Policy subsystem: the group of actors and institutions (both government and society) that are actively involved in a specific policy area. They have more knowledge of the problem area and awareness of potential solutions

    • Can be biased by political and social ideology at the time; ex. conservative and liberal governments would approach policy formulation differently

      • Also informed by evidence, may have researchers involved

    • Actors: policy subsystem (bureaucrats, elected officials, interest groups, etc.)

    • Seen on thinktanks (publishes policy briefs)

  • Decision-making

    • The process by which governments adopt a particular course of action or non-action

    • Involves selecting one of the proposed solutions to the social problem

    • Only those who are authoritative government decision-makers are involved (elected officials, bureaucrats)

      • Senate and HoC

    • Three policy option question 

  • Policy implementation

    • How governments put policies into effect

    • Figuring out how to carry out the chosen policy to address the identified social problem involves members of the policy subsystem once more

    • Actors: policy subsystem (civil society, bureaucrats, elected officials, etc.)

  • Policy evaluation

    • The process by which the results of policies are monitored and judged

    • Is the policy a success? Did it achieve the results it was meant to achieve? Should it be continued? Do we understand the policy problem differently now? Are there new problems to solve?

    • This involves the wider “policy universe” once again

    • Can be very broad within a public debate or highly technical with an expert evaluation

• Key actors involved

  • Policy universe

  • Policy subsystem

  • Authoritative government decision makers

  • Policy subsystem

  • Policy universe

• Ex. Cannabis legalization

  • Agenda setting: 2015 election

  • Policy formulation: task force on cannabis legalization and regulation

  • Decision-making: bill C-45 (the cannabis act) receives royal assent in june 2018

  • Implementation: all levels of government, private actors, regulatory bodies

  • Policy evaluation: review, monitoring, policy feedback

• Advantages of the policy cycle model:

  • Breaks down a complex process into stages that can be analyzed independently

  • Allows for comparison of policy making across multiple cases

  • Can be used for all levels of policy making from local to international levels of government

  • Permits examination of interaction between ideas, actors, and institutions at different stages of the policy process (not just government)

• Disadvantages of the policy cycle model

  • Suggest that policy-making is always linear and systematic, when it is often ad hoc and idiosyncratic

  • Decision-makers often respond to circumstances and make decisions based on ideology or self-interest

  • The cycle may not be a single loops, but interacting small loops at each stage

  • The first stage of the policy process can start anywhere, not necessarily at problem identification and agenda setting

Lecture 3 notes:

• policy success and failure as a continuum

  • policy at the success end of the continuum 

    • achieve positive political social outcomes and has a broad base of public and political support for these achievements and the associated processes and costs; and

    • manages to sustain this performance for a considerable period of time even in the face of changing circumstances

  • Policy at the failure end achieves neither

  • almost all policies fall somewhere along the continuum

    • unlikely for a policy to ever be regarded as a complete success or a complete failure

• criteria of success

  • programmatic success: produces positive social outcomes, with fair distribution of benefits

  • process success: stakeholder engagement, consideration of different policy instruments and options, appropriately funded, realistic timelines, etc.

  • Political success: high levels of political support among a wide range of stakeholders; can be measured through voting, protests, public opinion polling, etc.

  • temporal/endurance success: effectiveness of policy endure over time, political coalitions in support of the policy expand over time, narratives about the policy’s success gives legitimacy to the political system