Policy Formation Flashcards
• Public Policy
• Public Policy
➢ What public officials within government, and by extension the citizens they represent, choose to do or not to do about public problems.
➢ A purposive course of action that an individual or group consistently follows in dealing with a problem.
▪ Public Problems
• Conditions the public widely perceives to be unacceptable and that therefore require intervention.
• Government
• Government
➢ Institution and political processes through which public policy choices are made.
• Politics
• Politics
➢ The exercise of power in society or in specific decisions over public policy.
• Policy Analysis
• Policy Analysis
➢ Deconstructing an object of study
➢ Breaking it down into its basic elements to understand it better.
• Political Culture
• Political Culture
➢ Widely held values, beliefs, and attitudes, such as trust and confidence in government and the political process, or the lack thereof.
➢ Commitments to individualism, property rights, freedom, pragmatism, or practicality, equality, and similar values, some of which are distinctly American.
• Reason for Government Involvement
• Reason for Government Involvement
➢ Political Reasons
▪ Example: Brown vs. Board of Education
➢ Moral or Ethical Reasons
▪ Government action is seen as the right thing to do even without public pressure.
▪ Example: Social security to take care of the elderly, disabled, orphaned children.
➢ Economics & Market Failures
• Reason for Government Involvement ➢ Economics & Market Failures
▪ Market Failure – when the private market is not efficient.
• Reason for Government Involvement ➢ Economics & Market Failures
▪ Market Failure – when the private market is not efficient.
• Reason for Government Involvement
➢ Economics & Market Failures
▪ Market Failure – when the private market is not efficient.
• 4 Types
➢ Economics & Market Failures
▪ Market Failure – when the private market is not efficient.
• 4 Types
❖ Existence of monopolies and oligopolies
▪ When one or several person or companies dominate the market and can control the price of a product or service
❖ Externalities
▪ Decisions and actions of those involved in the market exchange that affect other parties, either negatively or positively.
• Negative Externalities: Pollution
• Positive Externalities: Higher Education
❖ Information failure
▪ To have perfect competition, willing buyers and sellers must have all of the information needed to enter into a transaction or exchange.
❖ Inability to provide for the public (collective good)
▪ The ability to exclude someone from getting the good and the ability to jointly consume the good.
▪ Exclusion typically occurs through pricing.
• Reason for Government Involvement
➢ Economics & Market Failures
• Reason for Government Involvement
➢ Economics & Market Failures
▪ Pure Private Good
• A good that is private and for which there is no market failure.
❖ National Defense
❖ Public Parks
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Major reason for government’s increasing size is that American society has become more complex, and faces more challenging problems.
Public’s acceptance of business regulation.
Federalism
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Federalism
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Federalism
Federal, State, and Local
Relationship between national and state governments is called DUAL FEDERALISM.
Dual Federalism evolved into cooperative federalism
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Dual Federalism evolved into cooperative federalism
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Dual Federalism evolved into cooperative federalism
• Collaboration on policymaking between the national and state governments.
• Block Grants
Transfers of federal dollars to the states where the states have substantial discretion in how to spend the money to meet the needs of their citizens.
• Categorical Grants
Involve the transfer of federal dollars to the states, but in this case the funding must be used for specific purposes.
• Unfunded mandates
Federal requirements placed upon the state governments without funds for implementation – added stress to the relationship between the national and state governments.
• Decentralization of power
The transfer of policy authority from the federal government to the state.
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Separation of Powers
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Separation of Powers
3 branches
• Legislative
Responsible for lawmaking and budgetary responsibilities.
Appropriate funds necessary to run government programs.
Bicameral
Congress
House of Representatives
• Executive Branch
Responsible for carrying out the laws enacted by Congress.
President, Vice President, the White House staff, and the federal bureaucracy.
• Judicial Branch
Supreme Court, circuit courts of appeals, and federal district courts.
Responsible for interpreting policy decisions made by others.
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Public Opinion and Policymaking
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Public Opinion and Policymaking
Public Opinion – what the public thinks about a particular issue or set of issues at any point in time.
Interest Groups, Nonprofits, and Public Policy
• Interest groups usually have economic stake in public policy.
• Nonprofits provide goods or services but are neither private businesses nor government operated.
They attempt to influence that is important to them
• Lobbying – supplying information on their policy views or summaries of policy-related studies they or others have conducted.
• Media
The media reports information that helps to inform the citizenry about the politics of the day and the policies being debated and passed.
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Policy Subgovernments and Issue Networks
• Government Institutions and Policy Actors
Policy Subgovernments and Issue Networks
Less formal settings or venues and involves policy actors within particular issue areas, such as national defense, communications, agriculture, forestry, or energy.
Improving Policy Capacity
