Week 1 - What is Public Policy?

Question 1

What are contextual influences?

Answer 1

The factors that constitute the background of policy-making in Canada

• political culture, the constitution, social and economic characteristics, globalization and its consequences in Canada
• there is a broad consensus on fundamental political values and beliefs which is an important ingredient for political stability

Question 2

What is political culture?

Answer 2

The dominant and relatively durable beliefs and values about political life that characterize a society
- Contextual influence
Ex. Goodness and Equality

Question 3

What is identity politics?

Answer 3

Individuals adhering themselves, not ta a national regime (i.e I am Canadian), but to their social group with whom they identify (i.e I am Franco-Manitoban)
- a concern from a public policy perspective as to whether this leads to greater social fragmentation

Question 4

What is the Constitution?

Answer 4

Formal establishment of a state that describes the roles and responsibility of the regime to its citizens
- contextual influences
the fundamental law of a political system
- written or unwritten conventions

Question 5

What are the two main effects on the policy making process?

Answer 5

• Power in the hands of Cabinet

- Magnify the significance of regional division

Question 6

What is section 91 of the Charter?

Answer 6

Prescribe jurisdictional responsibilities to the federal government

• currency, trade, postal system, defence
• federal government has the authority to enter into agreements with other sovereign states, but the subject matter may fall within provincial jurisdiction

Question 7

What is section 92 of the Charter?

Answer 7

Prescribes jurisdictional responsibilities to the provincial/ territorial governments
- health, education, charities

Question 8

What is the effect of section 91 and 92 on public policy?

Answer 8

Leads to policy overlap

• shared revenue sources and high degree of administrative cooperation and executive interaction between the federal and provincial states
• federal-provincial relations in Canada involve a continuous and multi-level process of consultation and bargaining between policy-makers representing Ottawa and the provinces

Question 9

What are proximate influencers?

Answer 9

The machinery of government, political parties, interest groups, and so on whose impact on policy is more direct than is the case with contextual influences

• actors/institutions who have an impact on public policy
  includes: courts, media, public opinion, interest groups, and social movements

Question 10

What do we mean when we say Government in Retreat?

Answer 10

Been a commonplace to argue that the governments ability to influence the societies and economies in the country where they reside has been reduced due to globalization, which is not only about markets but also about information and culture which has reduced the governments ability to control the flow of information
- resulted in social and political movements

Question 11

What is Public Policy?

Answer 11

What governments choose to do or not to do

• involves conscious choices that lead to deliberate action
• important because it includes active decision-making
• includes both active and inactive decision-making

Question 12

How do we determine what actually constitutes as public policy in some field?

Answer 12

We need to look carefully at both official claims and concrete actions, and we must remember that actions often speak louder than words

Question 13

What choices are examples of public policy?

Answer 13

• the passage of law
• the spending of money
• an official speech or gesture
• even inaction can be considered public policy

Question 14

What is policy discourse?

Answer 14

An unfolding tapestry of words and symbols constructed out of the multiple definition (or denials) of a public problem, that structures thinking and action in that issue area

Question 15

What is the first line of attack in policy discourse?

Answer 15

The Media

Question 16

Why do governments have an advantage in shaping the contours of policy discourse?

Answer 16

They have guaranteed access to the public through media, they are able to tell their story through paid advertisement and through government information services directed at households and organization

Question 17

Why do we emphasize the word public?

Answer 17

For policy to be considered public and for it to have authority, it has to lie within the public sphere
- if the problem exists in the private sphere, liberal democracy would claim that they do not have the legitimacy to act in that sphere

Question 18

How can the government respond to the private sphere?

Answer 18

They can’t unless we take it out of the private sphere and bring it in to the public sphere
ex. Domestic Violence

Question 19

Are electoral pledges public policy?

Answer 19

No
- if a political party wins, they are not bound to institute the public policy they discussed throughout the election process

Question 20

Are administrative changes public policy?

Answer 20

Administrative changes are the day to day operation changes

• these do not constitute as public policy
• there are no big changes

Question 21

Are symbolic changes public policies?

Answer 21

Louis Riel Day - Symbolic Date which is why it became a holiday
- they are public policies but need to be cautious as we need to look at the situation that is playing out

Question 22

What is the public policy cycle and the steps?

Answer 22

A conceptual map to help us make sense of all the decisions that government makes day in and day out

1) Problem Identification
2) Agenda Setting
3) Problem Definition
4) Policy Formulation
5) Policy Implementation
6) Policy Evaluation

Question 23

What is problem identification in public policy?

Answer 23

The indicators that suggest something is going wrong in society or the economy that illustrates a public problem
- can be activists or public servants

Question 24

What is Agenda Setting?

Answer 24

Moving government to act on the problem that was earlier identified

• main issue is that there are too many problems but not enough space on the agenda
• the governments must establish the agenda to illustrate what they are going to do

Question 25

What are two document that are central policy frameworks for government?

Answer 25

Throne speech and the budget

Question 26

What is problem definition?

Answer 26

Once the issue at hand is on the agenda, we must now define the problem - how the problem is defined will naturally lead governments to one solution
- can be very difficult to define
- different people also promote different definitions
Ex. Poverty - are we talking about the implications or the causes etc.

Question 27

What is policy formulation?

Answer 27

Where the goals are selected

Question 28

What do governments always ask prior to policy formulation?

Answer 28

What is going on in other jurisdictions - called a jurisdictional scan
ex. Manitoba often compares to Saskatchewan

Question 29

What is policy implementation?

Answer 29

Taking the goals and putting them into practice and determining which tools will be used

ex. regulations, tax credits deduction etc.
- guided by bureaucrats but sometimes contracted out to third parties such as non-profit organizations

Question 30

What is policy evaluation?

Answer 30

Evaluating if the policy is working at correcting the problem
- what is the evidence saying about this problem, now that the public policy has been introduced?

Question 31

What is the collectivists model?

Answer 31

The essential premise is that things such as the redistribution of wealth, promoting economic growth, and protecting the weak should be - and can only be - pursued by the state

Question 32

What is the pattern of public policy?

Answer 32

1) The Scope of Public Policy
2) The Choice of Policy Instrument
3) Who Benefits and who Pays?

Question 33

30 percent of present government spending is on what?

Answer 33

Transfer payments to individuals, families and organizations
- the growth in these payments illustrates the increasing importance of the governments redistributive role in society

Question 34

How do we choose the policy instrument?

Answer 34

rarely rational as they are often influenced by how things were done in the past

Question 35

What is the most common issue when choosing a policy instrument?

Answer 35

Determining whether the goals associated with a particular instrument is worth pursuing or if there is a better more effective means
ex. Canadian culture and CBC

Question 36

What are the three main forms of regional subsidies?

Answer 36

1) Equalization payments
2) Income transfers from Ottawa to individuals in the form of EI, which is a major source of income in communities where employment opportunities tend to be seasonal
3) Federal and provincial industrial assistance programs that subsidize businesses in economically depressed regions

Question 37

What is a protected society?

Answer 37

in this society, any group with political power can persuade the state to protects its narrow interests at the publics expense
- recognized that both the privileged and the disadvantaged elements in society may be welfare recipients

Question 38

What is an argument regarding Canadian culture and public policy?

Answer 38

Does Canada have one, two or several political cultures

1) Comparison to US
2) French and English (most prevalent)
3) Distinctions between regions

Question 39

What is statist political tradition?

Answer 39

characterized by a relatively strong political executive and by a population that tends to be deferential (respected) toward those in power

Question 40

In practice, what are the two major themes?

Answer 40

Language and multiculturalism

Question 41

What is a multicultural policy?

Answer 41

Policies that are implemented to help the different cultures including the Canadian culture

• Canadian politics reflects the ethnically diverse Canadian society
  ex. There have been policies targeted at increasing the representation of visible minorities in the public service

Question 42

Cairns calls the Charter of Rights and Freedoms what?

Answer 42

A citizens constitution

Question 43

what is a central feature of Canada’s economic conditions?

Answer 43

The degree to which it is dependent on the markets outside of Canadian borders
- how do we control globalization and how do we determine what is Canadian

Question 44

What are some of the effects on policy making due to globalization?

Answer 44

1) Policy discourse has been internationalized
- The establishment of international norms and standards and their importation into domestic policy-making
Ex. NAFTA, WTO
2) Foreign Policy
- Concerned with trade, national security, international peace, environmental concerns, human rights issues, social policies, telecommunications and culture