Summary public policy, a new introduction (2nd
edition)
christoph knill & jale tosun
Beleid en Politiek
Universiteit Utrecht
2024
,1. introduction
what is a public policy?
- who gets what, when, how
- policy variation -> the explanation of differences between policies across sectors and
countries
- policy change -> the explanation of stability and change
- polity -> the institutional structures characterizing a political system
- politics -> the patterns of the policy-making processes, such as party political
cleavages and voting behaviour in legislative bodies, the decision-making processes
- policy -> the content of policies centre stage rather than focusing on institutions or
processes, the research interest is on the analysis of the outputs of a political system;
the decisions, measures, programmes, strategies and courses of action adopted by the
government or the legislative body, the output of a political system as it is realized in
practice, including the laws, regulations, decisions, plans, programmes and strategies
that follow a particular purpose: they are designed to achieve defined goals and
present solutions to societal problems
- elements of public policy -> a course of action or non-action taken by a government
or legislature with regard to a particular issue
- actions of public actors (governments) -> responses to given societal or
political problems -> public policy is therefore a problem-solving activity
- actions of societal actors
- policy-making can be regarded as a means of exerting power by one social
group over another -> protect the interests of certain groups, while
disadvantaging others
- the problem-solving and power perspectives on public policy-making seem in
practice to be compatible with each other
- differences in scope
- sector-specific -> to cover a whole range of different measures in a certain
sector, such as environmental policy, social policy, economic policy or fiscal
policy
- subfield-specific -> to describe public activities in policy subfields
- issued-specific -> distinctive policy issues or targets can be identified
- regulatory instruments connected to issues
,analytical perspectives on the policy-making process
- the rationalist approach -> policy-making as a process of problem-solving
- an ideal conception of how policy-making should be organized and evolve in
order to achieve optimal solutions to the underlying policy problems
- intelligence -> collection and processing of all relevant knowledge and
information
- promotion -> identification and support of selected alternatives
- prescription -> imposition of a binding decision
- invocation -> policy enforcement
- termination -> abrogation of policy
- appraisal -> evaluation of policy effects against the backdrop of
- initial objectives and intentions
- incrementalism -> Public policy is regarded as the political result of the interaction of
various actors possessing different types of information, these actors need to make
concessions, and therefore policy-makers primarily concentrate on aspects that are
less controversial and more technical
- a realistic description of how policy-makers arrive at their decisions -> this
implies that policy-makers act within the context of limited information, the
cognitive restrictions of their minds and the finite amount of time available for
policy-making
- a satisfactory solution rather than the optimal one
- the garbage can model -> decisions do not follow an orderly process from problem to
solution, but are the outcomes of several relatively independent streams of events,
namely problems, solutions, choice opportunities and participants
- solutions exist and develop independently of problems
- stages of the policy process (the policy cycle)
(1) problem definition and agenda-setting
(2) policy formulation and adoption
(3) implementation
(4) evaluation (termination or reformulation)
opportunities and challenges for policy-making
- the budgetary constraints that governments face and which affect state organization
and policy-making
, - the ongoing process of economic globalization, which poses limits on what
governments can do in order to address policy problems
- digitalization, -> the growing importance of the internet and social media for
supplying information on policy proposals and their effects
2. the nature of public policies
typologies of public policies
- classification by implications for politics
- analytical shortcuts for the underlying decision-making process
- lowi’s policy typology
(1) distributive policies -> measures which affect the distribution of resources
from the government to particular recipients
(2) redistributive policies -> measures which transfer resources from one
societal group to another
(3) regulatory policies -> measures which specify conditions and constraints
for individual or collective behaviour
(4) constituent policies -> measures which create or modify the state’s
institutions
- problems concerning the distinction between redistributive and distributive policies
(1) it is hardly possible ex ante to define a policy as distributive or
redistributive
(2) governments might try to influence the perception by societal actors of the
costs and benefits by strategically labelling a policy as distributive
notwithstanding its redistributive effects
(3) the perception of a policy as distributive or redistributive might vary over
time
(4) the effects of a policy are not the only factor influencing policy-making
patterns. In addition to the policy type, many other variables such as
institutional arrangements, the party system or general relationships between
state and society might have an impact on policy-making. In light of these
reflections, we must conclude that it is not just policies determining politics
- wilson’s policy typology
edition)
christoph knill & jale tosun
Beleid en Politiek
Universiteit Utrecht
2024
,1. introduction
what is a public policy?
- who gets what, when, how
- policy variation -> the explanation of differences between policies across sectors and
countries
- policy change -> the explanation of stability and change
- polity -> the institutional structures characterizing a political system
- politics -> the patterns of the policy-making processes, such as party political
cleavages and voting behaviour in legislative bodies, the decision-making processes
- policy -> the content of policies centre stage rather than focusing on institutions or
processes, the research interest is on the analysis of the outputs of a political system;
the decisions, measures, programmes, strategies and courses of action adopted by the
government or the legislative body, the output of a political system as it is realized in
practice, including the laws, regulations, decisions, plans, programmes and strategies
that follow a particular purpose: they are designed to achieve defined goals and
present solutions to societal problems
- elements of public policy -> a course of action or non-action taken by a government
or legislature with regard to a particular issue
- actions of public actors (governments) -> responses to given societal or
political problems -> public policy is therefore a problem-solving activity
- actions of societal actors
- policy-making can be regarded as a means of exerting power by one social
group over another -> protect the interests of certain groups, while
disadvantaging others
- the problem-solving and power perspectives on public policy-making seem in
practice to be compatible with each other
- differences in scope
- sector-specific -> to cover a whole range of different measures in a certain
sector, such as environmental policy, social policy, economic policy or fiscal
policy
- subfield-specific -> to describe public activities in policy subfields
- issued-specific -> distinctive policy issues or targets can be identified
- regulatory instruments connected to issues
,analytical perspectives on the policy-making process
- the rationalist approach -> policy-making as a process of problem-solving
- an ideal conception of how policy-making should be organized and evolve in
order to achieve optimal solutions to the underlying policy problems
- intelligence -> collection and processing of all relevant knowledge and
information
- promotion -> identification and support of selected alternatives
- prescription -> imposition of a binding decision
- invocation -> policy enforcement
- termination -> abrogation of policy
- appraisal -> evaluation of policy effects against the backdrop of
- initial objectives and intentions
- incrementalism -> Public policy is regarded as the political result of the interaction of
various actors possessing different types of information, these actors need to make
concessions, and therefore policy-makers primarily concentrate on aspects that are
less controversial and more technical
- a realistic description of how policy-makers arrive at their decisions -> this
implies that policy-makers act within the context of limited information, the
cognitive restrictions of their minds and the finite amount of time available for
policy-making
- a satisfactory solution rather than the optimal one
- the garbage can model -> decisions do not follow an orderly process from problem to
solution, but are the outcomes of several relatively independent streams of events,
namely problems, solutions, choice opportunities and participants
- solutions exist and develop independently of problems
- stages of the policy process (the policy cycle)
(1) problem definition and agenda-setting
(2) policy formulation and adoption
(3) implementation
(4) evaluation (termination or reformulation)
opportunities and challenges for policy-making
- the budgetary constraints that governments face and which affect state organization
and policy-making
, - the ongoing process of economic globalization, which poses limits on what
governments can do in order to address policy problems
- digitalization, -> the growing importance of the internet and social media for
supplying information on policy proposals and their effects
2. the nature of public policies
typologies of public policies
- classification by implications for politics
- analytical shortcuts for the underlying decision-making process
- lowi’s policy typology
(1) distributive policies -> measures which affect the distribution of resources
from the government to particular recipients
(2) redistributive policies -> measures which transfer resources from one
societal group to another
(3) regulatory policies -> measures which specify conditions and constraints
for individual or collective behaviour
(4) constituent policies -> measures which create or modify the state’s
institutions
- problems concerning the distinction between redistributive and distributive policies
(1) it is hardly possible ex ante to define a policy as distributive or
redistributive
(2) governments might try to influence the perception by societal actors of the
costs and benefits by strategically labelling a policy as distributive
notwithstanding its redistributive effects
(3) the perception of a policy as distributive or redistributive might vary over
time
(4) the effects of a policy are not the only factor influencing policy-making
patterns. In addition to the policy type, many other variables such as
institutional arrangements, the party system or general relationships between
state and society might have an impact on policy-making. In light of these
reflections, we must conclude that it is not just policies determining politics
- wilson’s policy typology
