Public Policy Introduction
Describe Public Policy from Cairney or Goldsmith
Cairney: the sum total of government action, from signals of intent to the final outcomes.
Goldsmith: the deliberate harnessing by government of institutions (whether public or private, formal or informal) to address collective action problems).
Collective Action Problem
A situation in which individuals pursuing their rational self-interest without coordination produce a worse outcome for themselves as individuals than the utility they would achieve through coordination (Mancur Olson - Logic of Collective Action). Members of a group wont act in common objectives unless there is coercion or incentive is offered individually on the condition that they help bear the costs and burdens involved in the achievement of the group objective.
What are the attributes of a focusing event?
Sudden, relatively uncommon, can be reasonably defined as harmful or revealing the possibility of potentially greater future harms; has harms that are concentrated in a particular geographical area, known to policymakers and public (Birkland).
Francis Perkins
Witnessed Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, became executive secretary for the Committee on Safety in New York, and longest serving U.S. labor secretary in history (1933-1945).
What are the major challenges when implementing a policy?
Ambiguity/vague language, communication and coordination problems (within and across agencies), administrative burden (who bears the costs of compliance), and discretion over enforcement.
Framing, Also provide an example.
Framing’ is a metaphor to describe the ways in which we understand, and use language selectively to portray, policy problems. Issues can be framed to make them appear "technical" and relevant only to experts, or linked to wider social values to heighten participation.
What are examples of collective action problem and how they are being addressed?
Climate Change (i.e., carbon taxes), Overfishing (i.e., fishing quotas), Labor Disputes (i.e., unions).
Agenda Universe (Birkland)
Decision Agenda (groups that oppose change seek to block issues from advancing on the agenda), Institutional Agenda (discussed in a policymaking institution), Systemic (discussed broadly as a problem, such as in the media) Agenda.
Deborah Stone
Symbolic Devices in Politics: narratives with heroes and villains, problems and solutions.
Change: stories of decline (i.e., stymied progress), stories of rising and progress.
Power: stories of control, including helplessness, conspiracy story, blame the victim story.
Policy Drift and Policy Capture
Drift occurs when a policy or institution is not updated to reflect changing external circumstances, and this lack of updating causes the outcomes of the policy or institution to shift—sometimes dramatically.
Capture: When narrow interests take control of public serving government bodies (i.e., special interest influence). Statutory Capture: lobbyists shaping the lawmaking process, Agency Capture, and Cultural Capture (i.e., group identification, status, and relationship networks).
Partisan Framing to Persuade and Nonpartisan Framing for Deliberation
Framing to persuade: defining an issue to one's advantage in the hopes of getting an audience to do what you want to do.
Framing for deliberation: help citizens sort through competing frames, arguments, and policies.
Who are the key members of a policy community?
Elected politicians with key roles (i.e., committee assignments).
Appointed agency heads and top civil servants
Economic interest groups
Policy advocacy groups.
What are system 1 and system 2
System 1: operates automatically and quickly with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. Example: detecting hostility in a voice, completing the phrase "bread and..". System 2: allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it. Example: parallel parking, maintain a faster walking speed than normal, filling out a tax form.
Douglass North
Institutions: humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction. Rules rather than organizations.
“Institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interaction. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions, and codes of conduct), and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights).”
What are some ways to define the public interest?
Utilitarian, public opinion, scientific, public administration, and cynics.
Problem Stream, Policy Stream, -> Policy Window <- Politics Stream -> Policy Output. What is this model?
Multiple Streams Framework
What are Wicked Problems?
Difficult to define, Multi-causal and interconnected with numerous actors across society), rife with possible unintended consequences, and no clear solution.
Prospect Theory
Instead of treating the fear of loss and thrill of gain equally, most humans fear losses more than we seek gains.
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky
Co founder of the field of behavioral economics, developed the idea of prospect theory(human feel the pain of losses more intensely than the pleasure of gains), heuristics (mental shortcuts), and system 1 and System 2. Nobel Prize winner in 2002.
What is policy success?
1. Perceived as a success.
2. Policy persists or grows stronger.
3. Solves the problem as intended
4. Addresses the core underlying problem.
Goldsmith's Preferred Stages Model
Problem Definition -> Agenda Setting -> Policy Design -> Policy Enactment -> Implementation -> Evaluation
What are the broad rationales for public policy intervention?
Market failure (i.e., externalities), Social Failure (i.e., urban renewal), and Government Failure (i.e., Hanoi Rat Massacre).
Bounded rationality and Incrementalism
Bounded rationality: policymakers have multiple, often unclear, objectives which are difficult to rank in any meaningful way. Time limits, cognitive limits.
Incrementalism: the practical effect of bounded rationality. Organizations use simplifying strategies, such as limiting policy analysis to a small number of policy choices which diverge incrementally from the status quo (based on the argument that it is better to analyse a few issues comprehensively than seek comprehensive coverage of all issues). They use trial and error
Michael Lipsky
Street-level bureaucracies: “These are the schools, police and welfare departments, lower courts, legal services offices, and other agencies whose workers interact with and have wide discretion over the dispensation of benefits or the allocation of public sanctions". Discretion is a critical dimension of public workers.
Fog of enactment
Policies that have not been implemented widely elsewhere, major reforms that involve complex rules, technical policy domains, and policy areas that have overlapping jurisdictions.