KAY 392 PUBLIC POLICY SUMMARY SLIDES WHAT IS PUBLIC POLICY? What - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

KAY 392

PUBLIC POLICY SUMMARY SLIDES

WHAT IS PUBLIC POLICY?

• What

governments choose to do or choose not to do.

• An analytical

and cyclical problem‐solving and decision‐making process

– Multi‐disciplinary, multi‐method, problem‐focused and action‐oriented.

• Minimize or

Maximize something

– Decrease what is too much, increase what is too little.

• Speaking

truth to power

– In pluralist democracies, speaking truths to powers

• Policy

sciences

• f democracy‐Lasswell

Public Policy

• Problems

– Public and private

• Public

policy is about the solution

• f public

problems.

• Types
• f Agendas

– Systemic Agenda – Institutional Agenda

Actors in Public Policy

• List
• f Actors

– Government

• Levels: International, National, Regional, Local
• Powers: Executive, Legislative

and Judiciary

– Private sector

• Same

levels

– International

• rganizations

– Non‐governmental

• rganizations

– Communities – Individuals in a market – Other Actors: Political parties

• Legitimacy
• f Actors

Politics and Policy

• How

much government we want

• r

need in making decisions for us?

– Pendulum swings from more government to less government (more market) and the

• ther

way around.

• Market failure

and government failure

• Alternatives

to government and markets

– Etzioni and communitarianism – De Tocqueville and the power

• f associations/NGOs

Philosophical Approaches to Government

• Need

for government

– For maintaining the law and

• rder‐

Thomas Hobbes

• “Homo

homini lupus”

– Private sector preference‐Adam Smith

• The

invisible hand

• f the

market

– Civil society/Associations‐ Alexis De Tocqueville

Market Failures

• Need

for Government Intervention

• Externalities
• Public

Goods

• Monopolies
• Imperfect

Information

Where did public policy come from?‐1

• Explanation

1: Since the emergence

• f
• rganized

societies

– After the division

• f labor

regarding the rulers and the ruled, rulers needed advice.

• Knowledge

is power.

• Advisors

beginning from ancient China, Egypt and India

• Wazir: the
• nes

who help carry the load

• Oral and

written advice.

– No real data collecton and analysis – Mostly experience‐based

Where did public policy come from?‐2

• Explanation

2: Late 1700s, Early 1800s

– French Revolution – Enlightenment – Industrial Revolution

• Migration

to cities and urbanization

– How to solve the problems

• f urbanization?
• Crime, education, health, infrastructure…
• Systematic

data collection and simple data analysis

Where did public policy come from?‐3

• Explanation

3‐ During and After teh second World War, in the US and its allies

– Systematic data collection and complicated data analysis

• Statistics, mathematical

models, operations research…

– Uses spread into the civilian domain after the War

How did public policy emerge?

Explanation Data Collection Data Analysis Policy is Based On Explanation 1: Since the emergence

• f
• rganized

societies Almost none Almost none Mostly experience transmission Explanation 2: Since the Industrial Revolution Systematic data collection No Complicated analysis Scientific analysis Explanation 3: During and After teh second World War, in the US and its allies Systematic data collection Statistics, mathematical models,

• perations

research Scientific analysis

Public Policy in Turkey

• Windows of Opportunity

(Akdoğan, 2011)

– 1924‐Ministry

• f Education

report – 1950s to1965‐ Foreign social scientists’ empirical research efforts about Turkey – 1961‐ Establishment

• f the

State Planning Organization – 1975‐ Formation

• f the

Turkish Operations Research Society – 2002‐ Law Number 5018 on Public Finance Administration and Control Act

Analysis of the Policy Process

• A. Analysis of Policy
• 1. Analysis of policy determination

– How policy is made; why,when & for whom?

• 2. Analysis of policy content

– How policy developed, from which frameworks?

• 3. Policy monitoring & evaluation

– Policy goals & impacts

Analysis of the Policy Process

• B. Analysis for Policy
• 4. Information for policy

– Detailed research & advice

• 5. Policy advocacy

– Research & arguments that affect policy agenda

STAGES IN PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS

Advantages of the Stages

• An artificial view of the policy‐making
• It reduces complexity to a more manageable

form

• Provides us with tidy, neat steps that follow

each other

Criticisms of the stagist model

• It does not provide any causal explanation of how

policy moves from one stage to another

• It can not be tested on an empirical basis
• It is a top‐down approach, and fails to take account
• f all the actors
• It ignores multiple levels of government and

interacting actors

Source: Davis, “Influencing PP through Research”

Public Opinion & Public Policy

• Observations on the character and

importance of the public voice from ancient times:

– “Vox populi, vox dei” (Alcuin) – “Publica Voce” (Machiavelli)

What is Public Opinion?

Although it is an old concept, it is first defined in the 18th Century Britain as:

• An identifiable body of views held by a

defined group to whose opinions government attached a standing and significance.

Public Opinion & Public Policy

• Which comes first?

– Public policy or public opinion?

• Policy agenda is set by the interplay of public
• pinion and public power.

– How is public opinion shaped by power? – Shaping of public concerns, priorities and attitudes

Interplay between the Media and Agenda (Mayer)

Which comes first? (Chicken‐egg?)

• Unidirectional

– Media influencing the public agenda

• Multidirectional

– The policy agenda of the government influencing media coverage and public opinion

Public Opinion & Public Policy

• In a democracy, public policy is a function of

public opinion.

– Policy demand determines policy supply

• Public opinion is to the political market what

consumer demand is to the economic market.

What is Public Opinion?

• In the Post‐Second World War Era, the

introduction of techniques to make empirical, quasi‐scientific measurements of public opinion on issues... led to the analysis

• f the impact of opinion on the political

agenda.

Agenda Setting (McCombs & Shaw)

• The media has a key role in agenda setting,

that is, in the power to determine what topics are discussed.

• The more attention that is given to an issue,

the more does the public regard it as being a high agenda item.

Media attention

• n issues

High Low

Source: Parsons, 1995: 113.

I ssues considered more important by the public I ssues considered less important by the public

The I mpact of Media Attention on the Public Agenda

Factors Determining Response

• Policy makers’

response to new stories/media coverage is influenced by:

– The relationship of journalists to policy‐making elites and vice versa – The timing of the publication – Interest group pressures – Costs and benefits of problems and solutions, etc.

• 3. Realizing costs of

significant progress

• 4. Gradual decline
• f public interest
• 5. Post-problem stage
• 1. Pre-problem stage
• 2. Alarmed Discovery

Euphoric Enthusiasm

Downs’ I ssue Attention Cycle

Source: Parsons, 1995: 115

I ssues as having highs and lows, ons and offs...

Downs’ Issue Attention Cycle

1.Pre‐Problem Stage: Experts and policy‐makers may be aware of the problem, and knowledge may have been produced, but there is negligible public interest.

Downs’ Issue Attention Cycle

• 2. Alarmed Discovery and Euphoric (Joyful)

Enthusiasm Stage: The issue is recognized as a problem, prompted by a disaster and event, which focuses concern and leads to demands for government action

Downs’ Issue Attention Cycle

3.Counting the Costs and Benefits Stage: Policy makers and the public become aware of what progress will cost. 4.Decline of public interest in issue 5.Post‐Problem Stage: The issue slips down the public agenda. New issues replace the environment in public opinion and policy agendas.

Systemic and Institutional Agenda (Cobb & Elder)

• Systemic Agenda

– All issues commonly perceived by members

• f a political

community as meriting public attention of public authorities – Shared concern of a sizeable portion of the public

• Institutional Agenda

– Explicitly up for active and serious consideration by decision‐makers – May be an old item which is up for regular review or is of periodic concern; or it may be a new item.

Factors that Affect Transfer

• Degree of specificity (‐)

– The more ambiguous the issue, the easier it will be exposed to a larger population

• Scope of social significance (+)
• Temporal relevance (+)

– The higher the long‐term relevance, the easier it will be exposed to a larger population

• Degree of complexity (‐)

– The more non‐technical the issue, the easier it will be exposed to a larger population

• Categorical precedence (‐)

– The more an issue lacks a clear precedence, the easier it will be exposed to a larger population

Issue Triggers (Cobb & Elder)

• Internal Triggers

– Natural catastrophes – Unanticipated human events – Technological changes – Imbalance or bias in the distribution of resources – Ecological change

• External Triggers

– Act of war – Innovations in weapons technology – International conflict – Patterns of world alignment

Policy Implementation

Source: Parsons, 1995: 461-473.

Implementation: Definitions

• Studying implementation is studying change

– How does change occur? – Study of the political system inside and outside the organization – What motivates implementors?

Source: Davis, “Influencing PP through Research”

Implementation

• An important stage in the policy process
• Task of translating policy intentions into
• utcomes
• Involves participation by a number of

stakeholders

• Reflects intention of governments to act

Examples

• f policy implementation

Policy Possible implementation scenarios Electricity available to all citizens

• 1. Creation of a public enterprise (direct

provision)

• 2. State regulation of private companies

Cleaner water

• 1. Ban
• f using certain products (regulation)
• 2. Possibility to buy the “right”

to pollute (market creation) Prevention of heart disease

• 1. Advertising in the media
• 2. More hours for physical activities in schools

(standard‐setting)

Implementation: Definitions

• Policy‐making does not come to an end once a policy

is set out or approved.

– Policy is being made as it is being administered and administered as it is being made. – Black‐Box Model

• What is happening between input and output?
• Problems of implementation were rarely analyzed.

– Bureaucrats are not just neutral public servants

• Lipsky’s book entitled Street‐level Bureaucrats (1980) has

been viewed as the leading challenge to the top‐down model of policy implementation models and the starting point of bottom‐up model.

Michael Lipsky’s street‐level bureaucracy model

• Lipsky “argue(s) that public policy is not best understood

as made in legislatures or top‐floor suites of high ranking administrators, because in important ways it is actually made in the crowded offices and daily encounters in street‐level workers.”

• And “the street‐level bureaucrats, the routines they

establish, and the devices they invent to cope with uncertainties and work pressures, effectively become the public policies they carry out.” (Lipsky, 1993, p. 382)

Michael Lipsky’s street‐level bureaucracy model

• Lipsky underlines that in implementing policy at street level,

front‐line workers are confronted with conflict and

• ambiguities. These may include

– Inadequate resource and unsatisfactory working condition, e.g. large classes for teachers, huge caseloads for social workers, dangerous and hostile neighborhood for police

• fficers.

– Unpredictable, uncooperative, skeptical clients – Unclear and ambiguous job specification and guidelines.

Michael Lipsky’s street‐level bureaucracy model

• Confronted with these inadequacies and uncertainties,

street‐level bureaucrats derive coping strategies

• r even

survival strategies to deal with the unaccommodating working situations.

• Lipsky point out that in daily “client‐processing” routines,

street‐level bureaucrats in fact have considerable amount

• f powers and discretions at their disposal, which may

lead to substantial deviations from, if not complete alterations of, official and top‐down policy specifications.

Michael Lipsky’s street‐level bureaucracy model

Implementation as a Political Game

• Conflict is not dysfunctional

– On the contrary, it is essential in acquiring and maintaining power

• Deal‐making is acceptable

– Bargaining and persuasion under conditions of uncertainty – Actors are trying to win as much control as possible

• Groups and individuals seek to maximize their power and

influence during implementation

– Self‐interested people playing games – Bardach, “The Implementation Game” Book (1977)

• Blurring of boundaries between politics and bureaucracy

PUBLIC POLICY AND GLOBALIZATION

Source: Bonser et al., 2000. Chapter 6

Globalization

• A process of integration and interdependence
• Old wine in new bottles?

– Merchants, crusades, explorers, colonialism? – Wider embrace of democracy and free markets – Changes in transportation and communication technologies – Fragmentation of the production processes

CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 334‐323 BC

Marco Polo’s Travels, 1271‐1297

Route of Marco Polo, Circa 1271-1297 CE

Globalization

• The next step after nation‐states?

– Regional trading blocks and alliances

• EU, NAFTA, Pacific Rim (ASEAN)
• Free Trade/ Easier flow of people and capital?
• Better quality with less prices?
• Increased competition and restructuring

From the European Economic Community … to the European Union …

Joined 1972

Denmark, Ireland, UK

Joined 1972

Denmark, Ireland, UK

Joined 1995

Austria, Finland, Sweden

Joined 1995

Austria, Finland, Sweden

EEC Core Group 1957

Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg

EEC Core Group 1957

Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg

Joined 1981

Greece

Joined 1981

Greece

Joined 1986

Portugal, Spain

Joined 1986

Portugal, Spain

Joining 2004

Cyprus, Czech Rep., Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Malta, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia

Joining after 2006

Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey

Joining 2004

Cyprus, Czech Rep., Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Malta, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia

Joining after 2006

Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey

Global Institutions

• Economical:

– WB, IMF, WTO

• Political:

– International Court of Human Rights, etc.

• Social:

– Global brands: Similar consumption patterns?

How opening up new markets affects people's lives here and abroad?

Critics charge that:

• Globalization only benefits

corporations that relocate factories in countries with cheap labor and weak environmental laws

• Worsening working

conditions abroad

• Polluting the environment
• Threatening American jobs

Proponents say:

• Transformation of the

manufacturing industry

• Free trade is the key to

improving living and working conditions in developing countries

• Creating high‐paying jobs in

the U.S.

• Protecting the global

environment.

Global Issues

• Productive vs. Speculative Capital

– Global Financial Crisis

• Nation‐less multinational corporations
• Global warming
• International Criminal Court
• Controlling population growth
• Global Organized Crime and Terrorism
• One global language?

Global comparisons

• http://www.eurunion.org/profile/EUUSStats.h

tm

• http://www.eurunion.org/profile/facts.htm