Keeping Up with the Joneses (and the Ginis!)
This statistical measure, commonly used in economics and policy analysis, quantifies the distribution of resources or outcomes across a population, with higher values indicating greater inequality.
What is the Gini Coefficient?
Interest groups often seek to influence policy by providing this to policymakers, which can range from technical data to anecdotal accounts.
What is information?
This theory suggests that policymaking is often less about rational decision-making and more about a process of bargaining, compromise, and adaptation among actors with competing interests.
What is incrementalism?
Policy design can influence how citizens perceive and react to administrative burdens, with those viewed as more deserving often associated with higher levels of burden and those viewed as less deserving with lower levels.
What is social construction of target populations?
According to John Kingdon, these individuals play a crucial role in coupling the problem, policy, and political streams to create windows of opportunity for policy change.
What are policy entrepreneurs?
This concept refers to the spread of policy ideas or practices from one jurisdiction to another.
What is Policy Diffusion?
The influence of interest groups in rulemaking might be particularly strong at this stage of the process, as it occurs just before a proposed rule becomes final.
What is OMB Final Rule review?7
This process in rulemaking gives interest groups the opportunity to shape the details of proposed rules before they are finalized.
What is the notice and comment period?
Policymakers might use this tactic to manipulate public opinion by highlighting certain aspects of an issue while downplaying others, often appealing to emotions rather than evidence.
What is framing?
Kingdon argues that policymakers and the public often pay attention to a small set of issues at any given time.
What is the agenda?
Explain how the policy entrepreneur theory, as articulated in the sources, can be used to predict which local governments are most likely to adopt innovations championed by professional associations.
What is the relationship between executive hiring practices, professional networks, and policy innovation?
These types of organizations are likely to have a greater capacity for effective lobbying because they possess more resources, expertise, and connections.
What are well-resourced organizations (businesses or industry groups)?
This type of meeting gives interest groups direct access to regulators to discuss proposed rules, potentially giving them an advantage over groups that rely solely on public comments.
What is an ex parte meeting?
The design of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), as a submerged form of social provision, raises questions about how citizens perceive its role in providing benefits and whether it enhances their civic engagement.
What is the submerged state?
Kingdon suggests that these events can act as catalysts for bringing attention to certain problems and creating opportunities for policy change.
What are focusing events?
This specific type of policy diffusion occurs when jurisdictions adopt policies to avoid losing economic advantages to their neighbors.
What is Economic Competition Diffusion?
Interest groups may use this form of lobbying to signal grassroots support for their position to swing voters or to mobilize their base.
What is targeted issue advertising?
This government agency reviews proposed regulations before they are finalized.
What is the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)?
The way policies are designed and implemented can have unintended consequences for citizens’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, creating feedback loops that affect future policy choices.
What are policy feedback effects?
Kingdon uses this term to describe the idea that policy change often occurs in small, incremental steps rather than through sweeping, comprehensive reforms.
What is incrementalism?
Distinguish between social learning and economic competition as mechanisms of policy diffusion, providing examples from the sources to illustrate each concept.
ocial learning diffusion occurs when policymakers in one jurisdiction learn about a policy from other jurisdictions and decide to adopt a similar one, such as with the spread of antismoking policies.10111213 Economic competition diffusion occurs when policymakers feel pressure to adopt policies that are similar to other jurisdictions for fear of losing business or residents, such as with the adoption of Indian gaming compacts.714
Explain how interest groups might adjust their lobbying strategies during different stages of the legislative process, drawing on examples from the sources.
What are stage-specific lobbying strategies, such as targeting swing voters during key votes, mobilizing allies during early stages, and providing information during committee hearings?
Researchers face this methodological challenge when using event studies to analyze the impact of lobbying on regulations: It can be difficult to isolate the effects of lobbying from other factors that might affect regulatory outcomes.
What are confounding factors and the problem of causal inference?
Negative constructions of target populations can contribute to the prominence of this type of policy in the United States.
What are punitive policies?
While acknowledging the importance of incrementalism, Kingdon also recognizes that policy change can be punctuated by periods of more dramatic shifts. Explain how focusing events and the coupling of streams might contribute to these moments of non-incremental change.
What is punctuated equilibrium, wherein policy change is characterized by long periods of stability interspersed with moments of rapid transformation?