OConnor

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OConnor Sabato, Chapter 13 Social and
Economic Policy

• Presentation 13.1The Public Policy Process

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Key Topics

• Chapter introduction
• The policy-making process

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Introduction

• Governments assumption of responsibilities in
  health care in the 1960s
• The failure to provide comprehensive health care

Picture courtesy www.pbs.org.
Medicare was created in 1965.
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1a. Introduction cont.The Politics of Health Care

• The rising costs of health care for older
  Americans
• The explosion of prescription drug costs
• Two-fifths of American retirees were without
  insurance in 2002
• The importance of elderly Americans voters

Both political parties need the votes of elderly
Americans to win elections in states like
Florida, Texas, and Arizona.
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1b. Setting the Agenda for Prescription Drugs

• How an issue is defined often determines how
  government will respond to an issue
• GOP government is part of the problem health
  care should be privatized
• Democrats prescription drugs should be available
  to all needy Americans regardless of cost

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1c. Introduction cont.

• GOP-control of Congress the presidency
• Republicans hope to steal the issue from
  Democrats
• Democrats criticisms of the plan focus on the
  benefits the plan extends to pharmaceuticals
  insurance companies

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1d. The AARP Congress

• Spent 7 million on TV advertisements supporting
  the GOP plan
• AARP represents 40 million seniors
• Also major insurance provider

Does AARPs insurance interests lead them to a
conflict of interest?
Bill Novelli, CEO of AARP. Picture courtesy
www.aarp.org.
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2. What is Public Policy?

• An intentional course of action pursued by the
  institutions of government in dealing with some
  problem or matter of public concern
• Public policy as a product of predictable
  patterns of events
• Policy making usually occurs in discrete stages

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2a. Problem Recognition Definition

• Lugwig Wittgenstein Whereof we cannot speak,
  thereof we must be silent
• Until people know a problem exists, they cannot
  respond to it

Wittgenstein (1889-1951). Picture courtesy
www.islandoffreedom.com.
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2ai. Problem Recognition cont.

• The mere awareness of a problem is not enough for
  it to enter the policy-making cycle
• People need to reach a consensus that a problem
  is also one that requires a collective response
• AND, that collective response is most likely to
  be successful if government is the vehicle

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2aii. The Politics of Definition

• How an issue/problem is defined is subject to
  intense political struggle
• How a problem is defined frames which response
  will be considered appropriate
• Is drug abuse a disease or a crime?

Depending on the answer, government response will
focus either on treatment or punishment.
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2b. Agenda-Setting

• The challenge of securing a place on the
  governmental agenda
• The distinction between the systemic
  governmental agenda
• Systemic All public issues that are viewed as
  requiring governmental attention
• Governmental Changing list of issues political
  actors feel they are mandated to enact

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2c. Policy Formulation

• Crafting appropriate and acceptable policies to
  ameliorate or resolve a public problem
• The level of complexity may demand more complex
  policies
• The question of whether an issue is long-standing
  well-understood or not

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2c. Strategies of Policy Formulation
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2d. Policy Adoption

• Securing the approval of the legislative/executive
  institutions
• Requires building coalitions and mobilizing
  support
• Bargaining and compromise are necessary to secure
  support

Proposals are often watered down or modified in
the attempt to secure support. Sometimes, those
changes can result in the bill being defeated
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2e. Budgeting

• Most programs require money to be put into effect
• Policies can be nullified by chronic under
  funding (e.g. Head Start)
• The politics of funding politicians sometimes
  pull a bait and switch
• Bushs No Child Left Behind Act was under funded

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2f. Policy Implementation

• How policies are carried out
• Most policies are implemented by administrative
  agencies
• Policies are implemented by are variety of
  different techniques

Whether a policy is effectively administered
depends on whether agencies are authorized to use
the appropriate implementation techniques.
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2fi. Implementation TechniquesAuthoritative
Techniques

• Using the power of the state to restrain or
  modify peoples behavior
• The history of DUI laws illustrate the policy
  cycle culminating in the use of authoritative
  techniques
• On the federal level, consumer product safety
  regulations are an example

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2fii. Implementation TechniquesIncentive
Techniques

• Appealing to individuals personal interests
  through policy
• Example offering tax incentives to encourage
  charitable giving
• Farm subsidies help make agricultural business
  more profitable

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2fiii. Implementation TechniquesCapacity
Techniques

• Providing citizens with information, education,
  training, or resources
• People may want to work, but lack the requisite
  job skills
• Chinese proverb give a person a fish, and
  youve fed them for a day teach a person to
  fish, and they can feed themselves for a lifetime

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2fiv. Implementation TechniquesHortatory
Techniques

• Appealing to peoples better instincts
• Assumes that most people possess a basic sense of
  justice
• Hortatory policies provide citizens with
  friendly reminders to be good to another

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2fv. Smokey the BearA Federal Hortatory Campaign

• Campaign started in 1944
• Designed to encourage visitors to national parks
  to follow federal guidelines for handling
  campfires

Poster courtesy www.smokeybear.com.
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2g. Policy Evaluation

• Attempts to determine whether a policy is
  accomplishing its goals
• If a program isnt working, why?
• Inefficient administration?
• Inadequate funding?
• Poor design?

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2gi. Who Evaluates?

• Nearly everyone!
• Social scientists, congresspersons, the General
  Accounting Office, the Office of Management
  Budget
• The politics of evaluation
• Evaluation is often driven by a desire to kill
  a program
• Programs nearly always have powerful
  institutional support that protects them