PPG: Public Policy: A New Introduction - Chapter 3

The Context for Policy-Making: Central Institutions and Actors

Reader’s Guide

Policy choices are significantly impacted by two fundamental elements:
- Polity: This refers to the established institutional arrangements and organizational structures that define a political system, encompassing its constitution, governmental branches, and administrative bodies.
- Politics: This refers to the dynamic processes, behaviors, interactions, and power struggles involved in the actual policy-making, including negotiation, bargaining, and public discourse.
The primary purpose of this chapter is to:
- Provide a comprehensive overview of the principal central institutions and key actors that are actively involved in the intricate process of policy-making.
- Establish analytical frameworks and conceptual tools necessary for a deeper understanding of how these institutions and actors operate and interact within the political landscape.
Definitions of essential key terms:
- Institutions: These are the formal and informal rules, norms, and conventions that structure interactions and dictate the choices individuals and groups make within specific institutional settings, thereby shaping political actions and policy outcomes.
- Actors: These are the individuals, groups, or organizations who are actively engaged and involved in the policy processes, and whose distinct preferences, interests, and strategic actions collectively shape and influence the ultimate policy outcomes.

Institutional Framework

The constitution serves as the foundational and supreme institution within any political system, playing a crucial role in establishing and protecting the fundamental principles and operational framework of the government.
Components of Political Institutions:
- Horizontal Division of Power: This involves the separation of governmental authority and responsibilities among distinct and often interdependent branches, specifically the executive (which implements policy), the legislature (which creates laws), and the judiciary (which interprets laws).
- Vertical Division of Power: This determines the fundamental structure of the state, defining how governmental power is distributed across different territorial levels. It classifies states as either:
  - Unitary: Characterized by a single, centralized authority where the national government holds ultimate power and lower administrative divisions derive their authority from it.
  - Federal: Characterized by a sharing of power and sovereignty among various levels of governance, typically a national government and regional or sates governments, each with defined spheres of autonomy.
Additional influential institutions include the electoral system, which dictates how political representatives are chosen, and the specific party system, which describes the dynamics and number of political parties.
There is a growing and undeniable influence of supranational (e.g., European Union) and intergovernmental institutions (e.g., United Nations, World Trade Organization) on domestic policy-making processes, often setting international norms and imposing constraints or opportunities on national governments.

Key Policy-Making Actors

The central and most influential actors involved in policy-making processes typically include:
- The Executive (e.g., President, Prime Minister, Cabinet)
- The Legislature (e.g., Parliament, Congress)
- The Judiciary (e.g., Supreme Courts, Constitutional Courts)
- Bureaucracies (e.g., public administration, government agencies)
- Political Parties (e.g., Democratic Party, Republican Party)
- Interest Groups (e.g., labor unions, business associations, environmental groups)
- Experts (e.g., academics, policy analysts, scientific advisors)

Introduction to Institutions and Actors

Public policy outcomes are profoundly affected by numerous interacting factors, with polity (institutional structures) and politics (dynamic processes) being the two paramount considerations.
An overview of institutions, utilizing Douglass C. North's widely recognized definitions:
- Formal Rules: These are the explicitly written and legally established regulations, laws, constitutions, and procedures that govern political action and interactions within a society.
- Informal Constraints: These encompass the unwritten, culturally embedded social norms, conventions, traditions, and codes of conduct that significantly influence human behavior and decision-making within political systems.
- Enforcement of Rules: This refers to the mechanisms and systems in place to ensure compliance with both formal and informal rules, establishing a clear correlation between the stated institutional objectives and the actual choices and behaviors of individuals.
The institutional focus within this context mainly emphasizes formal rules that are intrinsically linked with specific organizations and state structures.
The distinction and relationship between Institutions versus Actors:
- Institutions effectively define and establish the boundaries, rules of engagement, and strategic opportunities within which actors operate, thereby transforming their individual or collective preferences into tangible public policy.
- It is crucially important to distinguish between collective actors (such as governments, which are comprised of individual actors) and their dual roles as both active participants (actors) and the very frameworks (institutions) within which policy is made.

National Institutions: Defining Political Game Rules

Constitutions and Constitutional Courts

A Constitution represents the supreme set of fundamental laws and foundational principles that govern the operation, structure, and powers of a state, serving as the blueprint for its political system.
- Flexible constitutions (e.g., that of the United Kingdom) can be modified relatively easily through standard legislative majorities, making them adaptable to changing political circumstances.
- Rigid constitutions (e.g., those of the USA, Canada) require super-majorities or more complex, special procedures for amendments, making them harder to change.
Rigid constitutions are integral to preventing short-term political conflicts or transient majorities from unilaterally altering fundamental rights, structural arrangements, or core democratic principles, thus ensuring stability and constitutional protection.
The constitution fundamentally defines the degree of centralization of power within a state, clearly establishing whether its governance structure is unitary (centralized) or federal (decentralized and shared), as exemplified by Australia’s Federal Constitution which explicitly distributes powers between its national government and individual states.

Judicial Review

The protection and enforcement of the constitution are primarily achieved via the mechanism of judicial review, which can manifest in several forms:
- Abstract Reviews: These involve the examination and assessment of the constitutionality of legislative proposals or laws before their official enactment, often initiated by political entities rather than individual cases.
- Concrete Reviews: These are judicial evaluations of the constitutionality of existing laws or governmental actions, initiated during the course of actual litigation or court proceedings based on specific constitutional questions raised by parties.
- Constitutional Complaints: These are legal avenues brought directly by individuals who claim that their fundamental rights or constitutional liberties have been violated by governmental actions or laws, particularly after all standard judicial remedies at lower courts have been exhausted.

Division of Powers

Based on Montesquieu’s seminal principles, the division of powers functions through the horizontal differentiation of governmental authority among three distinct, yet interacting, branches:
- Executive: This branch is primarily responsible for the implementation, administration, and often the formulation of public policy, directing the day-to-day governance of the state.
- Legislature: This branch is primarily responsible for the deliberation, creation, and enactment of laws, representing the popular will and overseeing the executive.
- Judiciary: This branch is tasked with interpreting laws, ensuring their consistent application, and upholding justice, possessing the authority to check the powers of both the executive and legislative branches.
Variations in specific government types include:
- Parliamentary systems: Executive (Cabinet) is derived from and accountable to the legislature.
- Presidential systems: Executive (President) is separately elected and independent of the legislature.
- Semi-presidential systems: Features both a president and a prime minister who share executive power.
- Semi-parliamentary systems: A hybrid system, combining elements of both parliamentary and presidential systems, though less common.

Electoral Institutions and Party Systems

Electoral Institutions

Electoral institutions are absolutely central to the functioning of democracies, as they fundamentally influence who gains governmental power through various system categories, including:
- Majoritarian Systems: In these systems, candidates win by securing a plurality (the most votes, not necessarily a majority) within single-member districts (e.g., first-past-the-post systems). This often leads to a two-party dominance.
- Proportional Representation (PR): In these systems, seats in the legislature are allocated to political parties in proportion to the total number of votes they receive nationwide or within multi-member constituencies, aiming for a more accurate reflection of voter preferences.
The specific type of electoral system profoundly influences the development and nature of party systems, a relationship notably analyzed through Duverger’s classifications.

Party System Classifications

Different types of party systems describe the configuration and dynamics of political parties within a state:
- Dominant-Party System: Characterized by one political party consistently holding a majority of seats in the legislature and maintaining governmental power for extended durations, often despite fair elections.
- Two-Party System: Defined by the presence of two major political parties that principally compete for and dominate the political landscape, with power typically alternating between them (e.g., USA).
- Multiparty System: Involves more than two significant parties participating in elections and often gaining representation, typically necessitating the formation of coalition governments to achieve legislative majorities.
- Bipolar System: While multiple parties may exist, they tend to organize themselves into two stable, overarching alliances or blocs, creating a dynamic that functionally resembles a two-party system in terms of primary electoral competition.
The nature of party systems has significant effects on public policy-making processes:
- Systems with fewer dominant parties (e.g., two-party systems) can adapt more quickly to emerging policy challenges due to the reduced need for extensive consensus-building.
- Multiparty systems, conversely, often require complex and extended negotiations to form coalitions and achieve broad consensus, potentially leading to slower policy adoption but often more inclusive outcomes.

Intergovernmental Organizations: Global Public Policy

Types of Organizations

Two primary types of international organizations exert influence on global public policy:
- Supranational Organizations: These organizations possess a level of authority that can supersede the sovereignty of their individual member states, meaning member states agree to cede some national decision-making power to the organization (e.g., the European Union, which has its own legislative and judicial bodies).
- Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs): These organizations primarily maintain the full sovereignty of their member states and involve cooperative governance initiatives where decisions are typically made by consensus or agreement among member states, rather than by an independent authority (e.g., the United Nations, the World Trade Organization).

United Nations System

The United Nations (UN) was established with the fundamental mandates of preserving international peace and security, fostering friendly relations among nations, and advancing global human rights and developmental goals.
The UN structure includes several principal organs:
- General Assembly: This is the main deliberative, policy-making, and representative organ of the UN, comprising all 193 member states, each with one vote, discussing a wide range of international issues.
- Security Council: This organ holds primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, with 15 members (5 permanent with veto power) and the authority to impose sanctions or authorize military action.
Various UN agencies significantly influence national policies through several mechanisms:
- Disseminating vital information and promoting best practices across different policy domains.
- Providing international benchmarks and standards on public programs, encouraging member states to align domestic policies with global goals (e.g., the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change).

World Trade Organization (WTO)

The World Trade Organization (WTO) aims to foster and enhance free trade among its member nations by negotiating and administering a comprehensive system of binding international trade agreements and rules.
Its main activities include:
- Trade policy reviews: Regularly scrutinizing the trade policies and practices of member states to ensure transparency and compliance with WTO agreements.
- Resolving disputes: Providing a formal, structured mechanism for member states to address and resolve trade disputes through negotiation, mediation, or adjudications by panels and an Appellate Body.
- These activities have a direct and often profound impact on member states’ domestic economic and trade policies, compelling them to adjust national regulations to adhere to international trade norms.

Key Actors in Policy-Making

Types of Actors

Policy-making involves a diverse range of actors, broadly categorized into:
- Public Actors: These primarily include official governmental institutions and their personnel, such as the Executive (e.g., President, Prime Minister, Cabinet), the Legislature (e.g., Parliament, Congress), the Judiciary (e.g., Courts), and Bureaucracy (e.g., civil servants, administrative agencies). These actors are often sourced from or significantly influenced by political parties.
- Private Actors: These consist of interested individuals, non-governmental organizations, corporations, and various other groups that operate outside of direct governmental control but actively participate in the political process, helping to shape and influence public policy through advocacy, lobbying, and public discourse.

Interest Groups

Interest groups are highly fragmented by their specific purpose and objectives:
- Private Interest Groups: These organizations primarily advocate for the specific economic interests or professional concerns of their distinct members. Examples include business associations (e.g., chambers of commerce), labor unions, and professional organizations (e.g., medical associations), all seeking to influence policies that directly benefit their constituents.
- Public Interest Groups: These organizations strive to effect broader societal goals and collective benefits that extend beyond the immediate interests of their own members. Examples include environmental protection groups, human rights organizations, and consumer advocacy groups, which aim to influence policies for the general public good.

Conclusion

This overview has summarized key insights regarding the central role of institutions and diverse actors in profoundly affecting the process and outcomes of policy-making within national and international contexts.
Future chapters will undertake a deeper exploration into the complex interactions among these various actors and delve into specific theoretical concepts that underpin the study of policy-making.