1. Public Policy Process and Public Administration
Concepts & Cases

2. Discussion topics: Defining public policy Public policy process
Public administration in the policy process

3. Public Policy: Definitions
Creation, by the government, of the rules, laws, goals, and standards that determine what government does or does not to create resources, benefits, costs, burdens

4. Cont’d
Public policy is the sum of government activities, whether pursued directly or through agents, as those activities have an influence on the lives of citizens

5. Attributes of Public Policy
The policy is made in the public’s name
Policy is generally made or initiated by government
Policy is interpreted and implemented by public and private actors
Policy is what the government intends to do
Policy is what the government chooses not to do

6. Public Interest Public policies are supposed to serve public interest
Public interest is difficult to define, its definition depends on who defines it
Conflict, over the definition of public interest, is unavoidable

7. Why to study public policy?
Public policies affect us, sometimes significantly. Citizens should be informed about how policies are made and implemented and why they are made/implemented the way they are
You may become an advocate for a policy one day, and you should learn the process so you can advocate your policy alternative more effectively

8. How do we study public policy?
Policy statements, including laws, administrative rules and regulations, court opinions
Policy outputs, or the actions taken in pursuance of policy decisions and statements
Policy outcomes, which focus on policy’s societal consequences

9. Players of Public Policy
Official and unofficial actors
Legislature, executive, courts, bureaucracy
Citizens, interest groups, research organizations, political parties, communications media, professional associations

10. The Three Phases of Public Policy Process:
Policy Formulation
Policy Implementation
Policy Evaluation

11. Policy Formulation:
Includes activities of agenda setting, issue definition, and legislation
Agenda is a collection of problems, understandings of causes, symbols, and other elements of public problems that come to the attention of members of the public and their government

12. Cont’d Every problem doesn’t enter our zone of attention. WHY?
Whom it affects and how much is important in placing a problem on the agenda
The role of indicators and focusing events

13. Policymaking in America
IRON TRIANGLES
Policies are made by interest groups, administrative agencies, and legislative committees
ISSUE NETWORKS & POLICY COMMUNITIES
Policies are made by those who are most interested, knowledgeable, and sentimentally attached to the issue (includes a large number of actors, e.g., legislators, press, bureaucrats)

14. Decision-making models
Rational-Comprehensive decision making
Incremental decision making

15. Rational-Comprehensive
Begins with goal identification
Continues with identification of values
Development of alternatives
Evaluation of each alternative in light of the values
Selecting the alternative that would best achieve the goal
Implementation, monitoring results, and revisions

16. Critique Goals are not clear There is too much conflict over goals
Requires unreasonable resources for decision making that are not available
Assumes that we can predict outcomes with accuracy, which is not possible
Assumes clear values

17. Incrementalism
The selection of goals and the analysis of means to attain them are not distinct
Decision maker considers only a number of alternatives for dealing with a problem, which will differ only incrementally
For each alternative, only a limited number of important consequences are evaluated

18. Critique
Incremental policy making is conservative, anti-innovative, and serves the status quo

19. Public administration in the policy process
The politics-administration dichotomy
Public administrators as neutral, efficient, and expert implementers of public policies
No or little involvement in policy making
Is that so?

20. Public administrators as policy makers
As experts, they influence policy making
They engage in policy analysis, draft legislation, do policy advocacy, community leadership
They have personal interests, political values, and ideologies that affect their policy preferences

21. Public administrators as policy implementers
They give specific content and meaning to policy in implementation
They clarify vague legislation, make choices about ambiguities, use a great deal of discretion
They prepare regulations and enforce the rules, they make policy when they implement it
Selective enforcement is unavoidable in the face of resource limitations

22. Public administrators as evaluators
They evaluate policy as they have easy access to enforcement data
They are close to the action and deal with the problems that the policy is intended to address, so their feedback and judgment on issues are important
Their evaluation might be biased, focusing on more output, rather than outcome