Study Guide Exam One Chapter 1 4 Chapter One Public Policy Models The scientific analysis of government activity including laws regulations and funding priorities and its influence on society What is the gov t doing what impact is it having upon its citizens and how efficient and effective are its programs Government action designed to address the demands of a set of citizens to resolve a social issue Public Policy Why Study Public Policy Accountability Consent of the Governed the foundation of democracy almost requires an understanding of what the government is doing in the name of the governed This lead to three critical steps in assessing governmental action 1 We must understand the process by which policy choice sets are determined or shaped 2 We must assess the precise trade offs that any policy choice represents relative to another 3 We must be able to communicate the information revealed by each of the prior tasks in a clear Are the resources time and energy of a program delivering the greatest policy outcomes for a given level of objective manner Efficiency Gains resources Equity The Policy Making Process Problem and Solution Identification Enacting government actions equally across all variables ethnicity wealth layout etc The process of defining a social problem and policy makers determining how to respond to the problem if at all Identification of an issue that disturbs the people and leads them to call for governmental intervention Stakeholders o A set of individuals whose interests are at stake or affected by a given policy Within any problem there may be subsets of individuals those who are helped and those who are hurt by the problem and the proposed policy solution o Pressures placed upon elected leaders and policymakers that change the cost of their inaction o A promised or threatened action that the action s target believes will be carried out with a Policy Demands Credible Action high probability Policy Entrepreneur o Individuals that advocate organize or attempt to define a policy problem or solution Agenda Setting solution The process by which formal institutional centers of power will take up and potentially act on a policy Government recognition that a problem is worthy of consideration for governmental innervation President interest groups crisis and natural disasters all influence agenda setting Factors that shape policy agendas Preferences of formal actors o what the president legislature mayor wants Actors external to formal institutions o What interest groups want Advocacy coalitions interest groups are policy subsystems that consist of a variety of interest including actors within administrative agencies legislature committees etc they share policy beliefs and coordinate their activities in attempting to achieve similar policy goals External Shocks maker s agenda o Factors sometimes not directly related to a certain problem that interferes with a policy For example resources being put towards fighting with ISIS can interfere with a removal of troops from the Middle East Policy Formulation Who is really getting involved in this Who are the decision makers who are offering advice Creating appropriate course of action Who pays attention is based on Salience and Technical Complexity o Complexity knowledge often technical required to make informed decisions on issues o Salience the number of people affected by a policy decision Alternative Formulation Policy solutions selected from a set of competing alternatives Whose ideas are considered Policy advocates Private organizations subsidize government effort by providing information Policy Selection Political actors decided based on political affiliation donors their electorate getting it right Getting it right often entails a cost benefit analysis o Cost benefit analysis determines which policy provides the greatest benefits for the given cost how much bank you get for your stuff Steps List all the benefits Identifying the project Assign value cost to the benefits in a common metric generally dollar amounts Apply discount rate Sum costs and benefits Choose policy whose gains most outweigh costs Policy Implementation Rulemaking regulation and clientele service Relies on non elected government officials the bureaucracy Implementation is any activity related to carrying out a duly passed policy Policy evaluation is the systematic investigation of the effects of a policy on its intended social target once Policy Evaluation Models of Public Policy enacted A model of public policy is a simplified representation of the casual relationships that link any number of policy inputs with a policy output of interest Models do not attempt to explain all aspects of the policy process Rather the goal of the policy scholar is to use careful logical construction of theoretical arguments to understand the most important elements of the causal process Positing a Casual Relationship Causal Relationship relationship between an input variable and an output variable where an outcome variable has changed due to an exposure to an input variable Input Variable Independent Variable X What is doing the causing Output Variable Dependent Variable Y What is being explained Manipulate one variable to see results Randomize to ensure there is not a bias Policy scholars attempt to posit causal relationships not simply associations Identify the mechanism Why exactly does X leads to Y Why is that We try to isolate causal relationships to see how things work Types of Causality Policy analysts often speak of causal relationships as being three fundamental types condition Necessary Condition A necessary condition is one that is necessary for something else to occur o Y does not happen unless X is present o If X is not present Y will not happen o But if X is present Y may or may not happen o X is required for Y to occur Example X Being 25 years old Y Being elected to congress To be elected to congress you must be 25 Not all 25 year olds are members of congress Being 25 is a necessary condition to be in congress but is not sufficient because not every 35 year old is in congress Sufficient Condition A sufficient condition is one in the presence of which something else will always occur o Y always happens when X is present o If Y did not happen X was not present o But if Y did happen X may or may not have been present o If X is present Y will occur Example X Rain Y Puddle When it rains there will be puddles Other things can cause puddles dropping a
View Full Document
Unlocking...