Domestic Policy•Last time: Get Out the Vote campaigning•Today: the politics of domestic policyGOTV and Nathan Henderson-James• What did we learn from Nathan’s presentation?– Project Vote’s labor-intensive approach seems to work quite well, at an estimated cost of ~$15-$20 per voter turned out– personal contact and personalized telephone contacts are effective; depersonalized contacts are not– Are these voters “permanently” mobilized?Domestic policy• the text refers to several types of policy:– distributive: benefit allocations from a common pool of (renewable) “found” resources– regulatory: command-and-control policies governing economic and social interactions, using the police powers of the government to shape incentives– redistributive: transfers of wealth or income from members of one group to members of another groupPresidents and domestic policy• distributive policies: prez can help MCs negotiate logrolls; reversion pts usually are remote (annual bills)• regulatory policies: to what degree can the prez manage the bureaucracy and the courts?• redistributive policies: reversionary policies usually are not remote (permanent authorizations/appropriations; entitlements)Presidents and bureaucrats• What do bureaucrats want?• What do prez & Congress want vis-à-vis bureaucrats? – If prez and Congress have different interests, MCs may abdicatecontrol over parts of the bureaucracy– can MCs be held collectively responsible for macro-economic or social outcomes? Not easily. But prez can be. – blame game: MCs may prefer to position-take rather than actually try to control policy outcomes• Delegation problems: hidden info, hidden action; Madison’s dilemma• Managing delegations: – screening and selection mechanisms– contract design– monitoring and reporting requirements– institutional checksPrez management tools• Signing statements: rhetorical device to interpret legislative intent– why should anyone treat as credible statements made by the prez at this stage?• Appointment powers• Executive orders: quasi-legislative statements about leg. intent or decree-like, policy-making devices– under what conditions should bureaucrat action be shaped by
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