Making Policies presentation

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Title: Making Policies

1
Making Policies
Legislative Structures The Quiz is not today..
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Previous class illustrated the importance of
Executive (FDR) Legislative (Dem Congress) and
Judicial (SC) Branches.
Todays Making Policies Important to
understanding the inter-relations of the New Deal
and for (next 3) future classes on knowledge and
interests influencing (sociological) social
welfare policy.

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Question

What factors make it difficult (or easy) to pass
social welfare legislation?

What does passing legislation entail?

Perception/definition What is the problem?
Agenda Setting How is agenda status achieved?
Formulation What is the Proposed Solution? Who
supports it and how is support maintained?
Budgeting How Much Money is Provided? Is it
Enough?
Implementation Who administers the program? Do
they command Support?
Evaluation/Adjustment/termination What changes
need to be implemented?

Source Rahm 200435
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Who are the major players?
Official (this class)
vs
Informal (future classes)

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(No Transcript)
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NATIONAL STRUCTURE

EXECUTIVE BRANCH
Headed by President and Vice President
Elected by popular vote (through electoral
college)
Four-year term
Limit of two terms
President has a personal staff
President chooses Cabinet Secretaries
Executive agencies under President
Mix of political appointees and career executives

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NATIONAL STRUCTURE

JUDICIAL BRANCH (COURTS)
Supreme Court
9 justices
Serve without limit
U.S. Court of Appeals
12 regional courts
Hear appeals from district courts and federal
agencies
District Courts
94 trial courts for civil and criminal matters
Federal justices and judges appointed by
President with senate approval

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Court Decisions

Judicial review
Since Marbury vs. Madison 1803
Supreme courts authority to review acts of other
branches of government and invalidate them if
they are determined to be unconstitutional
Initial New Deal acts struck down

Source Rahm 200443

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Court Decisions

Restrictions on judicial policy involvement
Courts do not set their own agendas
Cases are brought to them, but Supreme Court can
choose which to hear
Test cases- policy advocates carefully select
what case to try in hope that court will rule in
their favor
Venue shopping- litigants attempt to gain a
hearing in a sympathetic court
Courts Have No Power over implementation
Must rely on others to implement the decision.

Source Rahm 200443

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NATIONAL STRUCTURE

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH (CONGRESS)
House of Representatives
members allocated by population
435
2-year terms
Senate
2 members per state
6-year terms (1/3 elected every 2 years)
Organized by committee
Party control (currently Republican)

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http//frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi
?dbname2002_government_manualdocid189864tx_xxx-
3.pdf
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http//frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi
?dbname2002_government_manualdocid189864tx_xxx-
3.pdf
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http//www.senate.gov/
http//www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/e_one_s
ection_no_teasers/org_chart.htm
http//www.house.gov/
http//www.house.gov/house/orgs_pub_hse_ldr_www.ht
ml

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HOW FEDERAL LAWS ARE MADE

A bill is the form in which most legislation is
introduced. In short, a bill must be approved by
both the House and the Senate and signed by the
President.
Once signed, it is a law.
Bills may originate in the House or Senate, and
are numbered consecutively throughout a Congress.
In each chamber, the bill goes through
approximately the same stages. In some cases,
the bill may be introduced in both chambers at
the same time. Each will have a different bill
number. However, eventually the same bill will
have to pass both chambers.

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HOW FEDERAL LAWS ARE MADE

1. A bill is introduced in the House and/or
Senate.
2. The bill is assigned to a committee.
3. The committee usually refers the bill to a
subcommittee for study, hearings, revision, and/
or approval.
4. The subcommittee sends the bill back to the
full committee, which may amend or rewrite the
bill.
5. The full committee decides whether to "kill"
the bill or send it to the floor of its chamber
for approval. (In the House, the bill usually
goes to the Rules Committee to grant a "rule"
governing debate.)

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HOW FEDERAL LAWS ARE MADE

6. The leaders of the chamber then schedule the
bill for debate and vote.
7. The bill is debated, amendments offered and
voted on, and a final vote is taken. If
different versions of the bill are passed in each
chamber, a conference committee, composed of
members of each chamber, will work out the
differences. The bill is returned to each
chamber for a vote on the revised bill.
8. The President signs or vetoes the bill. If
signed, the bill becomes a law if vetoed, each
chamber must approve the bill by a two-thirds
majority for it to become law.

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(No Transcript)
20
http//www.cbp.org/2003/HR4.TANF.pdf
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School House Rock
Im Just a Bill

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Conference Committee

The Leadership of the House and Senate appoint
Committee members. The rule for Conference
Committee is
a majority of the members representing the House
and
a majority of the members representing the Senate
must agree to the bill before it can be reported
out of Conference
After Conference Committee reports out its
legislation, then the bill must be approved by
both the Chambers again before being sent to the
President.

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Downs "Issue-Attention Cycle"

a systematic cycle" influences public attitudes
and behavior concerning most key domestic
problems.
Each of these problems suddenly leaps into
prominence, remains there for a short time, and
then - -though still largely unresolved -
gradually fades from the center of public
attention.
rooted both in the nature of certain domestic
problems and in the way major communications
media interact with the public

Up and Down With Ecology The "Issue-Attention
Cycle. The Public Interest, Volume 28 (Summer
1972), pp. 38-50. It was most recently
republished in Anthony Downs, Political Theory
and Public Choice (Northampton, Mass. Edward
Elgar, 1998), pp. 100-112. http//www.anthonydowns
.com/upanddown.htm
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Downs "Issue-Attention Cycle"

Why Useful?
provides in-sights into whether public attention
is likely to remain sufficiently focused upon any
given issue to generate enough political pressure
to cause effective change.

1. The pre-problem stage.
some highly undesirable social condition exists
but has not yet captured much public attention.
I.e. racism, poverty, and malnutrition in the
United States.
2. Alarmed discovery and euphoric enthusiasm.
public suddenly becomes both aware of and alarmed
about the evils of a particular problem.
enthusiasm about society's ability to "solve this
problem" or "do something effective" within a
relatively short time.
outlook is rooted in the great American tradition
of optimistically viewing most obstacles to
social progress as external to the structure of
society itself.

3. Realizing the cost of significant progress.
gradually spreading realization that the cost of
"solving" the problem is very high indeed.
a great deal of money and major sacrifices by
large groups in the population.
part of the problem results from arrangements
that are providing significant benefits to
someone - often to millions.
Ex. most upper-middle-class whites value
geographic separation from poor people and
blacks. Hence any equality of access to the
advantages of suburban living for the poor and
for blacks cannot be achieved without some
sacrifice by middle-class whites of the
"benefits" of separation.

4. Gradual decline of intense public interest.
As more and more people realize how difficult,
and how costly to themselves, a solution to the
problem would be
a. just get discouraged.
b. feel positively threatened by thinking about
the problem so suppress such thoughts.
c. become bored by the issue.
some combination of these feelings.

5. The post-problem stage.
issue that has been replaced at the center of
public concern moves into a prolonged limbo - a
twilight realm of lesser attention or sporadic
recurrences of interest.
Ex. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) created
during the "War on Poverty." Though poverty has
now faded somewhat as a central public issue,
many of these programs have experienced
significant success, even though funded at a far
lower level than would be necessary to reduce
poverty decisively.

Why does Media Shift to new problem? (Page 4 )
American Public looses interest (Boring to
audience)
Need audience for Ratings ? advertisements
Advertisements ? profit the bottom line
Therefore
American Public ? forces media to shift?

Wed
Values and Helping Conundrums

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