Study Guide Exam 1 Introduction to Public Policy NOTE You are expected to know both the definitions of the terms below as well as how they have been applied in this course Some exam questions may simply be definitional the majority however will test your ability to apply these terms to the study of public policy Chapter 2 The Policy Process Public Policy The scientific analysis of government activity including laws regulations and finding priorities and its influence on society Government action designed to address the demands of a set of citizens to resolve a social issue o Social issue prioritizing o Citizen demands winners and losers o Government action Symbolic action may be geared toward appeasing certain interests seeking government resolution of an issue and yet be very likely to have only minimal effects on the issue or Purposeful action may have a high probability of meaningful impact on a social issue Social Problems o Receive government attention whereas social issues do not o Public policy is a correction to social problems o Something that a set of citizens is looking to the government to solve or not o These issues facing society part of public policy is deciding if the o These influence government policy determining what does and does not get solve government should interfere done and what is a priority Public policy in Democracies vs Autocracies o Autocracies only concerned with a few people dictator decides policy democracies are concerned with the public how policy is presented what is concerned about etc citizens influence policy Accountability Consent of the Governed but may be difficult to enact when the public doesn t understand what the government is doing in their name so how society and governments chose policies then has 3 critical tasks understand the process by which policy choice sets are determined or shaped assess the precise trade offs that any policy choice represents relative to another be able to communicate the information revealed by each of the prior tasks in a clear objective manner Asking the public these questions o Are you being served o If not who is and why o Studying this scientifically what is the mechanism that leads to representation The Government Accountability Office GAO independent 1 nongovernment agency that examines how the federal government manages taxpayer dollars The GAO at the direction of congressional committees can evaluate and audit federal agencies to determine how well they are administering government programs Nongovernment entities provide this function as well Taxpayers for Common Sense is a non partisan non government organization that watches over federal tax expenditures and publicizes what they determine to be wasteful Efficiency whether the resources time and energy of a program are delivering the greatest policy outcomes for a given level of resources Example performance review initiated by the Clinton administration in 1993 and 1994 At conclusion of each evaluation window congress would communicate with agency officials to relay their relative performance Efficiency gains ask How well are current policies addressing the problem Equity equitable policy delivery a government should deliver the benefits of a policy evenly across all committees Asks Are policy solutions being applied equally Are certain segments getting unequal distribution of the policy The Policy Making Process o 1 Problem and Solution Identification The process of defining a social problem and policy makers determining how to respond to the problem if at all How do social issues become defined as social problems Once social issues have been defined as social problems how are solutions to those problems identified Connecting problems to solutions o 2 Agenda Setting The process by which formal institutional centers of power will take up and potentially act on a policy solution 3 institutions executive legislative the courts Advocacy Coalitions more likely shape policy agendas policy subsystems that consist of a variety of interests including actors within administrative agencies legislative committees researches policy analysts etc Factors that shape policy agendas 1 Preferences of Formal Actors 2 Actors External to Formal Institutions Advocacy Coalitions 3 External Shocks o 3 Policy Formulation policy areas and incentives for action 2 o 4 Alternative Formulation Policy solutions are drawn from a set of competing alternatives elected officials pick a choice Simply being in the room is important because any possible policy outcome must come from these groups so being there to give an input is one step ahead of any other alternative o 5 Policy Selection Political actors making the big choice driven by both political and policy concerns o 6 Implementation any activity relate to carrying out a duly passed policy and policy that had been passed by both houses of the legislature and signed by the chief executive Implementation activities may consist of a variety of activities but there are three basic services that most agencies fulfill for their political principles rulemaking regulation clientele service o 7 Evaluation the systematic investigation of the effects of a policy on its intended social target once enacted How much of the original problem really get solved Process should be policy neutral Stakeholders o Find in step 1 of policymaking process o At the core of any policy area exists a set of individuals whose interests are at stake or affected by a given policy o Within stakeholders may be a subset of individuals who will be affected differently by a policy problem or a proposed policy solution o To secure these individual benefits however individuals must represent themselves as collective interests Policy Demands o Find in step 1 of policymaking process o The demands exerted by stakeholders on the political actors o Pressures placed upon elected leaders and policy makers that change the cost of their inaction Credible Action 3 o Find in step 1 of policymaking process o The mechanism by which demands pressure leaders carrots sticks o A promised or threatened action that the action s target believes will be carried out with a high probability Policy Entrepreneur problem or solution o Any individual that advocates organizes or attempts to define a policy o They are willing to exert time effort have a stake in the solution and have the ability to link their preferred solution to the problem of others o Find them in step 1 of the policy
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