Public policy

Question 1

Role of cabinet

Answer 1

A clearing house (Ratification)

An information exchange (weekly meetings ensure ministers see the bigger picture and know what their colleagues are doing)

An arbiter (forum for resolution when government agencies disagree. Particularly important around the budget)

A coordinator (provides a coherent overall direction for government)

Question 2

What is cost benefit analysis

Answer 2

The dollar terms of policy – how much will it cost? How much will we save?

The most economically efficient policy

Question 3

Negatives of cost benefit

Answer 3

presents proof but based on many assumptions leading to false accuracy

Economic efficiency prioritised over equity

Problems in valuing non-economic goods

Complexity

Anti-democratic? Dominance of policy elites

Question 4

Positive of cost benefit

Answer 4

Enables meaningful comparisons

Helps manage a program

Grounds policy in real world economics

Allows a view of whole benefits to society, not just some interest groups

Academically rigours

Can help meet legislative requirements

Question 5

Four types of policy issues

Answer 5

Production issues
Distribution issues
Consumption issues
Identity issues

Question 6

Production issues

Answer 6

creating economic wealth. Managing peaks and troughs. Macro-economic policy – GDP, External balance, price stability, unemployment

Question 7

Distribution issues

Answer 7

Sharing and distributing the wealth earned

Question 8

Consumption issues

Answer 8

How we organise our material life – environmental impact, quality of life

Question 9

Identity issues

Answer 9

concerned with how a population defines itself as a nation

Question 10

Ministerial accountability

Answer 10

Ministers are answerable to parliament and the people

Minsters are accountable whether done at their personal direction, with the assistance of personal staff or outsourced.

Ministers must give direct answers when asked by parliament to explain their actions

Open to questioning by parliamentary committees and all information about actions by or on behalf of the government which parliament and public has a right to know.

Question 11

What is accountability

Answer 11

‘any mechanism that makes powerful institutions responsive to their publics’

Question 12

Structured interaction

Answer 12

No single decision maker, range of participants

Does not assume that it is a collective effort to achieve shared goals – policy is a compromise

Government and stakeholders interact to produce policy (interest groups, public opinion, NGOs)

Not intentional, not rational, far more complex.

Policy outputs reflect a broader environment.

Horizontal

Question 13

Authoritative choice

Answer 13

Intentional – Pursuing a specific government goal through identified resources

Structured – identifiable players and a recognised sequence (passage of a bill)

Political – expressing the electoral program of the executive

Authoritative – policy outcomes come from an authority

Rational and structured – you elected us to provide X and now we will do so

Policy in a vertical strand

Making decisions and testing consequences

Idealised view of how policy works

Question 14

What are the four instruments

Answer 14

Exhortation
Incentives
Provision
Regulation

Question 15

What is the role of parties

Answer 15

Ruling parties offer direction to government

Allows voters to choose between parties with different teams of leaders often with contrasting policies, this gives effect to liberal democracy

Parties are agents of political recruitment, preparing candidates for parliament

Devices of interest aggregation, they filter multitude of specific demands in packages of proposals

Question 16

What is policy

Answer 16

Policy is the instrument of governance, the decisions that direct public resources in one direction but not another. It is the outcome of the competition between ideas, interests and ideologies that impels our political system.

What government do and with what consequences – Fenna definition

Question 17

3 types of policy

Answer 17

Distributive (allocation of services or benefits to members of the community

Redistributive (the deliberate reallocation of wealth)

Regulatory (the regulation of individual or group behaviour

Question 18

Australian system of government

Answer 18

A liberal democracy

Democracy – the people are collectively sovereign through periodic election. Government should be accountable and responsive to the people it governs.

Liberalism – concerned with the rights and freedoms of the individual. Limits on what government can do, even a democratic one.

Mix of presidential and Westminster

Question 19

Powers of the PM

Answer 19

To hire and fire ministers

To set the agenda, structure and processes

Control machinery of government

Leadership of a disciplined party

Centralised control of access to media

Personal patronage

Advice from large bureaucratic machine

Question 20

Parliament in Decline

Answer 20

Proportional voting system in senate – negotiating

In Australia system – tight party discipline (stifles debate?)

Few private members bill

Too much legislation (not enough time for financial scrutiny)

Politicisation of public service

Question 21

Definition of globalism

Answer 21

It is the increasing integration of separate national economies via a burgeoning global market

Question 22

Reasons why globalisation is seen as a threat to public policy

Answer 22

Public policy subordinate to economic concerns to maintain global market share

Necessitates privatisation of public policy

diminishes autonomy of nation state via convergence of states

Question 23

Policy analysis framework

Answer 23

‘an applied endeavour which uses multiple methods of inquiry and argument to produce and transform policy relevant information that may be utilised in political settings to solve public problems’

Question 24

Cost effectiveness

Answer 24

Rather than just $$ value find other metrics such as infant mortality rates, incarceration rates etc.

Question 25

Opportunity cost

Answer 25

The next best alternative you lose when you choose one policy over another.

A zero-sum gain.

Question 26

Three broad types of policy advice

Answer 26

Strategic advice – future directions

Informational – how things are working out or not working

Operational – the process

Question 27

Three systematic factors that shape advice

Answer 27

Type of governmental system

Policy domain (Education, criminal justice)

Leadership

Question 28

Frank and fearless

Answer 28

the role of the public service is to provide ‘frank and fearless’ advice to the government

the reason that public service positions are intended to have a high level of job security; bureaucrats should not fear the loss of their jobs through the provision of critical or unpopular advice. It is also for this reason that bureaucrats are expected to be apolitical in their views