1. 1 Lecture 8: Comparative Public Policy SOSC 152

2. 2 Key Topics 1.What is Public Policy? 2.Agenda Setting and Non-Decisions 3.Understanding the Decision Making Process 4.Policy Types and the Policy Process 5.Implementation

3. 3 1. What is Public Policy? The way government institutions make decisions in response to public demands and the governments own interests, And the way in which the government provides goods and services to the population. "Power" as the ability to get someone to do something, make governments make policy or ability of government to make decisions and have them implemented.

4. 4 2. Agenda Setting and Non-Decisions A. Agenda Setting, Or How Issues Get on the Agenda? For societal demands or issues to become public policy, they must be discussed by political leaders. How do issues get onto the public and political agenda? here the role of media, protests, public participation B. "Second Face of Power" or How Issues are Kept Off the Agenda one can study how important issues DO NOT get onto the political agenda look for big problems that do not get discussed and assume that someone is stopping it from being discussed. invisible power, not to make things happen but to stop things from happening

5. 5 3. Understanding the Decision Making Process Who controls how decisions are made? Politicians, bureaucracies, public opinion? A. Rational Model of Decision Making: does policy follows this procedure?: 1.determine the issue (Agenda Setting) 2.what are the core values related to the issue? What is the long-term goal (equality, growth, higher moral values for society, etc.) 3.Assess all possible options, will they help attain long term goals? 4.decision 5.Implementation 6.Evaluation and adjustment

6. 6 what gets on the agenda is often result of politics and power long term goals get lost as people fight over what policy can attain the goals important limits of information and time decisions may be affected by personalities of participants "incrementalism"--best predictor of tomorrow is today B. Bureaucratic Politics policy decisions as outcome of bureaucratic conflict or debates among leaders outcome often result of negotiation and compromise, not best strategy for attaining long term goal. implementation result of "standard operating procedures“ C.Locus of Decision Making: outcome affected by where decision is made, who is invited to the meeting, who is kept out

7. 7 4. Policy Types and the Policy Process The types of policies, the extent to which they transfer resources and how they do it, can affect the way in which the decision process occurs. it determines who gets involved, how strongly they care or will fight about the issue, where it is decided, the amount of time available to make the decision, whether the public can get involved a. Distributive policy: roads, everybody benefits, public goods

8. 8 b. Regulatory or Deregulatory Policy: airline industry controls the actions of some members of society, setting prices, access to market, rules of behaviour China's Open Policy as form of "deregulation" of links to outside world. c. Extractive Policy: Taxes, Military Service must extract goods and services from society d. Redistributive Policy transfers goods from one group or social class to another

9. 9 e. Ideological or Moral Policies human rights, school morality, abortion, f. Foreign Policy and National Security may suddenly come onto the agenda often a crisis decision time for decision short, limited information

10. 10 5. Implementation A.In developing and socialist states, population influences public policy only by adjusting the outcome through the implementation process. weapons of the weak, undermine implementation based on local interests, not state interests. pressures on local politicians to consider local interests

11. 11 B. State Strength and Implementation states often weak, not strong, because they can't get policies implemented problems of policy compliance problems of getting good information about degree of compliance C. different types of policies face different problems: ideological: easy to have false compliance public goods confront "free rider problem" redistributive policies lead to major conflicts