samenvatting public policy

samenvatti
ng

public
policy

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,Hoofdstuk 1: Government and policy

1. What is public policy?
1.1. different definitions
- anything a government chooses to do or not to do
- decision made in public context
- a targeted action

1.2. examples
- primary school teacher feel abandoned, nothing is being done for their
safety (covid)  policy problem
- policy in our daily life: mobility & transport, education, health, housing,
sports, …

1.3. examenvragen
1) who makes policy?
Only the government makes police, not the experts. The government
didn’t want the responsibility so they ‘gave’ it to the experts. But only the
government makes the policy
2) when do we make public policy?
When we have a problem. They make it because they respond to a
certain problem in society. Sometimes they frame a certain problem. You
think there is no problem, but politicians will bring up a problem.
3) What is public policy?
It’s a targeted action ( it’s targeted to a specific problem), it always has
an objective (it always had a purpose to change the problem), is always in
response to a problem (bv. housing is too expensive) and is only made by
government.

1.4. types of public policy
1.4.1. source: lowi




- regulatory policies (regulerend): rules that are formed by the
government: f.e.: not drinking alcohol before the age of 16, are about
giving rules, obligations to an individual  primary rules  environmental
regulations
- distributive policies (verdelend): resources and benefits to specific
groups, individuals, or communities secondary rules  a subsidy


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, - redistributive policies (herverdelend) : “re”, changing the existing
income distribution (rich ppl are required to pay more taxes, the poor
have to pay less  primary rules  income tax, social security

- constituent policies (constituerend) : the dutch government: they
should have a trashhold on the dutch government (too many political
parties)  secondary rules  new government institutions




1.4.2. source: smith  onderscheidt regulerend, characteristics of ethical policy

- competitive policy: access to the provision of certain goods or services,
imposes conditions that the facilities must meet
*f.e. access to the telecom market
- protective policy: intended to protect citizens by establishing the
conditions under which private activities may be provided and non-
compliance with them are sanctioned
*f.e. safety standards for the food industry
- self-regulating policy: corresponds to protective policy, although the
initiative is taken by the providers themselves
f.e. self-regulation at the banks, if you are agriculture, you need to come
together and discuss the amount of pesticide

1.4.3. source: bekkers  voegt 3 nieuwe toe

- exploratory policy: indicating new schools of thought with the intention
of mobilizing parties to think along about the desired development and
the necessary changes
*f.e. the debate on climate change and sustainable energy
- facilitating policy: supporting certain desirable objectives without
imposing them coercively, directly
*subsidies for renewable energy
- stimulating policy: stimulating people or organisations to show a
certain desirable behaviour.
*f.e. tax incentives for electric vehicles, taxes for entrepreneurs in corona

1.5. why does government pursue policy?
1.5.1. problems?
- a problem can be defined as a gap between a desirable (wenselijke)
situation and perceived (waargenomen) condition – hoornbeek & peters
- not everyone sees the same problem/gap
 gap is not automatically the same size and urgence for everyone
- a battle between ideas, ideologies, … - bridgman & davis

1.5.2. lasswell & knoepfel et al

- what can we do best to address this problem? how can we do this? how
can we know exactly what we have done?
- public policy = bridge between the knowledge vs. the actual problems




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,1.5.3. easton
o systemmodel from the politics = input-output of the political
system
o questions and support from the environment are converted into
policy through politics
o 1. Demands: we want this
o 2. Support: who is going to support these demands
o 3. They go into the political system
o 4. They make certain decisions/priorities to solve
problems/demands
o 5. If the solution doesn’t work, we go back and try It again




<-> not always problems, also ambitions

f.e. ambition to land a man on the moon – america, nasa, kennedy
1.6. who is involved?

1) not typical the government – (dye said the government)
2) government organisations, politicians – andersson
3) politicians as elected decision-makers with formal authority,
participants and players – bridgman & davis
4) basic triangle of policy actors – how you deal with a certain policy
problem in perspective of the government
1. Political-administrative authorities: everyone involved in
developing a solution to a problem
 Intervention hypothesis: if we do this, the problem will be solved
2. Target groups:
 Causal hypothesis: what causes the problem and people suffering
from a certain problem
3. End beneficiaries experiencing negative effects of the
problem
Political definition of the problem to be solved: what is the
problem?




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, o what is a policy actor?: An individual, several individuals, a legal
entity or a group, who share the same ideas, about problems and
solutions. They must have a shared/common approach as to the
values/interests they represent and concrete shared aims. (religion
is not an actor, religion groups are)

Policy in practice:
o government actions towards social groups (asks behavioural
change among target groups)  not always can the target group
be explicitly defined
o hypotheses presuppose how the policy is going to work
o third parties may also be actively involved in policy
 conclusion:
o government as potential central actor, represent collective needs &
ambitions
o not in isolation, also non-profit sector, political parties, ppl in the
street,..




1.7. how does government policy take shape?
o developed by numerous actors
o through a discursive process (arguments) with varying resources,
institutional links and interests between actors making or
implementing a series of decisions




Term Explanation Example
Problem, you probably - buying a new laptop
have a few, so you have - Saving money
Agenda setting to prioritize them - going away from the
city
--> prioritize: going on a
holiday
You look at solutions to - Belgian coast?
Policy formulation your problems - camping?
- Spain or Malta?
Policy determination You pick an option that You’re going to Malta
has the most value, so
you have
to decide a solution.
Policy implementation You go and do your You go and have fun
solution with
your friends on holiday
Policy evaluation You look back at your You didn’t like the boat
decision/solution and trip, because it was a rip
you reflect/evaluate off
5

, your
decision.
Policy evolution You basically go back to step You liked going to Malta, but
1, you have new problems to
you didn’t like certain plans
solve to do it a little bit
different based on your you made there. So you go
evaluation. back to step 1 and do it a
little different next time.


1.7.1. a policy cycle approach (beleidscyclusbenadering)




1.8. policy goes in different steps, but does it work that way in practice 
different problems

1.8.1. critic
- too much overlap: f.e.: British Child Maintenancepolicy: started it for
more responsibility for the parents, combating child poverty
overshadowed that
- the requirement for real policy design: some policies are from really
little quality, are a cost for some individuals
- policy impact only visible in the long-term
- policymaking happens under influence from outside factors (an
urgent situation that suddenly happens)

1.8.2. reality, in practice
- complex subsystems – governance
- interaction from global to local level/layers (interaction between
government and semi-public + private actors with collective needs)
- multi-level governance (MLG)
- each level covers different sectors, domains, fields and topics
- who is in the government  different at different points in a time



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