Public policy midterm Flashcards
common functions of most governments (5)
- try to maintain their sovereignty
- provide public services
- create a system to preserve order
- try to socialize their youngest citizens
- collect taxes
Kraft and Furlong’s definition of public policy
what public officials within government, and by extension the citizens they represent, choose to do or not to do about public problems
the reasons for studying public policy (3)
- scientific understanding
- professional advice
- policy recommendations
the environment/contexts in which policy is made (5)
- social contexts (African American History Ban)
- economic contexts (funding)
- political contexts (mainly conservative)
- governing contexts (separation of power)
- culture contexts (mostly traditionalistic)
Weimer and Vining definition of policy analysis
client-oriented (client driven, people who are in a position to allocate resources) advice relevant to public decisions (decision oriented, trying to resolve problems rather than just conducting research) and informed by social values
the rationale for government intervention (3)
- political (social movements)
- moral/ethical
- economic
types of market failures with examples (3)
- externality (negative; pollution and positive; education)
- natural monopoly (utilities)
- information asymmetry
externality
affects third parties that aren’t accounted for in the pricing system
negative externality
affects third parties and is not compensated for it (pollution)
positive externality
benefits third parties (education)
information assymmetry
one side, either the producer or consumer, has more information than the other
types of public goods (4)
- pure private goods
- toll goods
- common pool resources
- pure public goods
pure private goods
exclusion is feasible; no joint consumption (computers, automobiles, houses)
toll goods
joint consumption; exclusion is feasible (cable TV, services, electrical utilities, toll road)
common pool resources
exclusion is not feasible; no joint consumption; tragedy of the commons (air, water, grazing, land, oceans)
pure public goods
exclusion is not feasible; joint consumption; no corporation has the incentive to provide these (national defense, public parks)
Peter’s 3 levels of policymaking
- policy choices (who is involved in making the decision or policy actors?)
- policy outputs (how do you put this policy into action?)
- policy impacts (what is the actual effect of the policy on the public?)
subgovernments
how policymaking occurs in less formal settings or venues and involves policy actors within particular issue areas (national defense)
purpose of using policy models
helps us understand what government is and isn’t focused on
elite theory
how the values and preferences of governing elites, which differ from those of the public at-large, affect public policy development
group theory
sees public policy as the product of a continuous struggle among organized interest groups (labor unions)
institutional theory
formal and legal aspects of government structure
rational choice theory
assumes that in making decisions, individuals are rational actors who seek to attain their preferences or further their self-interests (draws heavily from economics)
political systems theory
stresses the way the political system responds to demands that arise from its environment
steps of the policy process model (6)
- problem identification (defining the issue)
- agenda setting (getting problems considered by policymakers)
- policy formulation (proposed policy actions/inactions)
- policy legitimation (providing legal force to decisions)
- policy implementation (putting policy into action)
- policy evaluation (assessment of policy/programs)
problems vs. conditions
a problem is recognized as worthy of attention/action; a condition is a matter perceived as not reasonably open to human efforts to change it
types of agendas
- systemic agenda (public is aware)
- institutional agenda (issues that policymakers are giving consideration)
how an issue moves from a problem to the institutional agenda
issues achieve agenda status when problem, policy, and political streams all intersect and create a policy window