Chapter 15 The Policy Making Process

Policy Making involves two stages Agenda setting Decision making.

THEME A - The Agenda ‑ Setting Process The most important factor affecting policy making is what goes on the political agenda. Over the last several years, the scope of what is considered legitimate for the government to do has expanded significantly.

The legitimate scope of government action Always gets larger –Changes in public's attitudes –Influence of events May be enlarged without public demand even when conditions improving Groups: a motivating force in adding new issues –May be organized (corporations) or disorganized (urban minorities) –May react to sense of relative deprivation--people's feeling that they are worse off than they expected to be Example: Riots of the 1960s –May produce an expansion of government agenda Example: New commissions and laws –May change the values and beliefs of others Example: White response to urban riots

Institutions a second force adding new issues –Major institutions: courts, bureaucracy, Senate, national media –Courts Make decisions that force action by other branches: school desegregation, abortion Change the political agenda –Bureaucracy Source of political innovation: size and expertise Thinks up problems to solve Forms alliances with senators and their staffs –Senate More activists than ever Source of presidential candidates with new ideas –Media Help place issues on political agenda Publicize those issues raised by others, such as safety standards proposed by Senate

Making a decision –Nature of issue Affects politicking Affects intensity of political conflict –Costs and benefits of proposed policy a way to understand how issue affects political power Cost: any burden, monetary or nonmonetary Benefit: any satisfaction, monetary or nonmonetary Two aspects of costs and benefits important: –Perception affects politics –People consider whether it is legitimate for a group to benefit Politics a process of settling disputes about who benefits and who ought to benefit People prefer programs that provide benefits at low cost.

A Way of Classifying and Explaining the Politics of Different Policy Issues A Way of Classifying and Explaining the Politics of Different Policy Issues

I. MAJORITARIAN POLITICS: Distributed benefits, distributed costs A. Gives benefits to large numbers. B. Distributed costs to large numbers EXAMPLES: Antitrust Legislation (Sherman Antitrust Act), Social Security

II. INTEREST GROUP POLITICS: Concentrated benefits, concentrated costs. A. Gives benefits to relatively small group. B. Cost imposed on another small group EXAMPLES: Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Board), Taft Hartley Act

III. CLIENT POLITICS: Concentrated benefits, distributed costs A. Relatively small group benefits B. Costs distributed widely C. Most people unaware of costs EXAMPLES: Licensing of attorneys, physicians, etc; Civil Rights Commission, Creation of Department of Education

IV. ENTREPRENEURIAL POLITICS: distributed benefits, concentrated costs A. Gives benefits to large number B. Cost imposed on small group C. Success depends on people who work for unorganized majorities ‑ Ralph Nader EXAMPLE: Pure Food and Drug Act

THEME B - Costs, Benefits, and Policy A benefit is any satisfaction, monetary or nonmonetary, that people believe they will enjoy. If is people's perceptions of costs and benefits that matter, people who bear hidden costs will not mobilize against a policy.

THEME C The Case of Business Regulation Efforts by government to regulate business illustrate the four kinds of policy making as well as the wealth-power relationship.

The question of wealth and power One view: economic power dominates political power Another view: political power a threat to a market economy

THEME D The Policy Entrepreneurship of Ralph Nader - best demonstrates entrepreneurial politics.

THEME E - Perceptions, Beliefs, Interests, and Values People generally discount the future, so present costs and benefits are particularly important in political struggles. Citizens react more to what they feel they will lose than to what they will gain from a proposed policy.

Self Test

For more information about this topic, link to the Metropolitan Community College Political Science Web Site main.htm If you use the American Government Text, Political Source Netsocsci.mccneb.edu/pos/polsc main.htm User Name : government Password: rules