The Policy-Making Process Chapter 15 in your Textbook

Group Work: Types of Policy-Making Working with your group, read the information in your textbook regarding your assigned type of policy-making. Take note of the following: Definition Examples What (if any) controversy surrounds this type of policy making How has this been used in the case study of business regulation Create a 2-3 minute LESSON to TEACH your information (this should go beyond merely presenting). What creative way can you help your peers remember the information? Any activity or simulation that will help the information stick?

The Most Important Decision… …that affects policy-making Deciding what to make policy about OR “what belongs on the political agenda” Ex: taxes, energy, welfare, civil rights, etc.

What is Legitimate for the Gov’t to do? Shared political values (if people believe that poverty is the result of individual failure, then no gov’t program to combat poverty is needed) Weight of custom and tradition (has the gov’t always done it?) Impact of events (wars, depressions) Changes in the way political elites think and talk about politics

Big Gov’t…Good or Bad? President Eisenhower (R): sent federal troops to Little Rock to enforce a school-desegregation order President Nixon (R): imposed peacetime wage and price controls; proposed a guaranteed annual income for every family President Ford (R): “a gov’t big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have” President Reagan (R): federal payments to farmers grew to be 6x larger than they had been in the 1970s

How do Issues get on the Agenda? During wartime, depression, or other event Organized groups supporting or opposing issues (corporations, unions, minorities) Institutional influences (courts, bureaucracy, Congress) Media

Making a Decision Cost/Benefit: the cost to bear the policy v. the benefit gained from it It is the perception of costs and benefits that affects politics Is it legitimate for a group to benefit?

Distributed Costs Concentrated Costs Distributed Benefits Majoritarian Politics Entrepreneurial Politics Concentrated Benefits Client Politics Interest Group Politics

Perceptions, Beliefs, Interests, & Values What constitutes a cost or benefit is a matter of opinion (and opinions change) What benefits you may conflict with my interests

For Nonpartisan Reviews of Public Policy Issues www.publicagenda.org