PUP 3002 01 Exam 1 Study Guide Chapter 1 Public Policy Models What are the expected benefits of studying public policy o Accountability Whose interests are being served Consent of the governed What that policy is trying to address o Efficiency gains o Equity policy delivery Cost less but provide more both is preferred Who is getting the benefits and how they will be carried out among all communities Not all communities are affected by policies the same way because of socioeconomics Incremental taxation affects the rich more and minority protections affect certain ethnicities more than others What are the major areas of the policymaking process o The Stages model Proposed by Harold Laswell 51 considered imperfect o A set of heuristic mental shortcuts pathways to policy making Problem and Solution identification How are policy problems and solutions defined Unsupported view that problem definition and solution definition are linear and unidirectional Identify stakeholders those affected by policy problem Policy Demands the pressures placed upon elected leaders and policy makers that change the costs of their inaction Credible action a promised or threatened action that the action s target believes will be carried out with high probability Policy entrepreneurs Kingdon continually at work in the policy world attempting to define redefine shape reshape policy issues problems Dominant policy image the image that most citizens think of when a phrase or policy is mentioned Agenda Setting The processes by which formal institutional centers of power will take up and potentially act on a policy solution Agendas derive much momentum from key institutional actors External institutional actors also shape the agenda o Interest groups NGOs etc External shocks Policy Formulation Gormley 84 discusses salience and technical complexity Who is getting involved Who are decision makers and who is looking over it o Salience the number of citizens that are likely to be affected by the policy in a significant way o Technical complexity the level of knowledge needed to understand a policy area Hearing room politics high salience which is attractive and low complexity Operating room politics both high salience and complexity Board room politics low salience high complexity Street level politics both low salience and complexity Alternative Formulation like choice Most policies solutions are drawn from a set of competing alternatives Elected officials Whose ideals are considered Policy advocated and private organizations subsidize with information The electoral tactic focuses on advocating for or against specific candidates Policy Selection The legislative tactic more common focuses on rhetoric and analysis to convince legislators of a group s position Cost Benefit Analysis which policy gets the most bang for the buck o Identify list all benefits and costs in a common numeric apply discount rate how the benefit diminishes overtime find the sum and choose policy with highest gains Includes a combo of political affiliation political capture their specific electorate and getting it right They must consider policy effectiveness cost technical and political feasibility Policy Implementation Any activity related to carrying out the duly passed policy o The bureaucracy engages in rule making preliminary then enforces the rules regulations provides services to clientele Relies on non elected government officials Policy Evaluation Policy evaluation is the systematic investigation of the effects of a policy on its intended social target prior to action How much of the original problem was solved This process should be policy neutral Program evaluation is the systematic evaluation of the effects of the program on its intended social target once enacted Do policy problems always precede policy solutions No solutions can come first How do political interests place items on the policy agenda for consideration Why do some policy issues never seem to make it on the agenda o Agenda setting o Advocacy Coalition Theory Groups of people that have a certain set of ideas and they work to keep something on off the agenda o Policy setting change actual policy change Why do some policies register little change over lengthy periods only to then give way to a rapid burst of o Policy Window when an opportunity arises to merge policy solutions with policy problems sparking an What are the critical features of a theoretical model of public policy o A model of public policy is a simplified representation of the causal relationships that link any number of policy inputs with a policy output of interest o They do not attempt to explain all aspects of the policy process Causal Relationships o A relationship between an input independent X variable and an output dependent Y variable where an outcome variable has changed due to an exposure to an input variable The dependent is what is being explained and the independent is what is causing the change o Types of causality Necessary a condition that is necessary for something else to occur i e To be elected into congress Y you must be 25 X Not all 25 year olds are in congress Without X Y cannot occur but just because X occurs does not mean Y does Sunlight if necessary for a rose to bloom Sufficient A condition that in the presence of which something else will always occur i e when it rains x there will be puddles Y Y always happens when X is present But there can be other explanations of Y Being a male is sufficient for being a father Necessary Sufficient A condition in whose absence the event will not occur and in whose presence the event must occur i e When there is fire X there is smoke Y Without fire there is no smoke o Conditionally causal exists when the effect of one variable X on Y is moderated by the effected of o Causality is important in identifying the mechanism of WHY and HOW X affects Y Correlation is not another variable Z causation o Measures of Causality Deterministic If X then always Y Probabilistic If X then Y is likely What makes a good model X may not lead to Y because of random chance i e stealing leads to being arrested o Multivariate Has more than 1 variable causes o Probabilistic factors are likely to impact our outputs of interests o Parsimonious they seek to explain much with very few moving parts o Generalizable They can apply to a larger population o Falsifiable they can be tested by other people to further strengthen the conclusions o Clear and logically consistent
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