Knill, C. and Tosun, J. (2020) Public policy: A new introduction
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Lasswell (1936): public policies, or politics, are all about who gets what, when, and how.
Policy variation: refers to the explanation of differences between public policies across
sectors and countries.
Policy change: tries to explain the stability and change of policies.
What is a public policy?
Polity: institutional structures characterising a political system.
Politics: political processes (e.g., party political cleavages, voting behaviour), patterns of the
policy-making process involving various types of actors and their interactions.
Policy: focuses on the content of policies, the outputs of a political system (i.e., the decisions,
measures, programmes, strategies, and courses of action adopted by the government).
Elements of a public policy:
- Actions of public actors (usually governments)
- Governmental actions focusing on specific issues, which implies that the scope of
activities is restricted to addressing a certain aspects or problem
Examples of (sub)policies:
- Environmental
- Social
- Economic
- Fiscal
Within policies, there are subpolicies and within those subpolicies, there are distinctive issues
or targets. To achieve those issues or targets, instruments are used.
Analytical perspectives on the policy-making process
There are different ways for public policies to develop:
- Rationalist approach: a process of problem-solving which shows the ideal manner of
developing policies. It entails a normative perspective on policy-making: how should
policies evolve? The rationalist approach is built upon a logical (an ideal) sequence:
o Intelligence: collecting relevant information
o Promotion: identifying and supporting selected alternatives
o Prescription: imposing a binding decision
o Invocation: enforcing the policy
o Termination: abolishing the policy
o Appraisal: evaluating the policy
- Incrementalistic approach: a more realistic description of how policy-makers arrive at
their decisions (namely: policy-makers act within the context of limited information –
bounded rationality – which leads to them focusing on solutions that satisfy current
, problems). The process can still be rational, but there is no fixed way to get to the end
goal and no logical sequence like with the rationalist approach.
The policy process generally consists of the following phases:
1. Problem definition, agenda-setting
2. Policy formulation and adoption
3. Implementation
4. Evaluation (with the potential consequence of policy termination or reformulation)
Opportunities and challenges for policy-making
Three developments that have noticeably affected policy-making:
- Budgetary constraints
- Ongoing process of economic globalisation
- Digitalisation
Another development which affects policy-making is the rise of populist parties (such as the
PVV).
,Chapter 2 – The nature of public policies
Political science is mainly concerned with 3 major analytical dimensions (as seen before):
- Polities
- Politics
- Policies
Typologies of public policies
A typology allows for grouping entities by similarity.
Classification by implications for politics:
- Lowi’s policy typology: ‘policies determine politics’. Shows that there are long-
recognised differences amongst public policies and their making. Consists of:
o Distributive policies: measures which affect the distribution of resources from
the government to particular recipients
o Redistributive policies: measures which transfer resources from one societal
group to another
o Regulatory policies: measures which specify conditions and constraints for
individual or collective behaviour
o Constituent policies: measures which create or modify the state’s institutions
o
- Wilson’ policy typology is concerned with questioning who benefits from policies and
who has to carry the costs (widely distributed or narrowly concentrated):
o Majoritarian politics: policy-makers closely follow the preferences of the
electorate when making decisions; costs and benefits are widely distributed
o Interest group politics: policy decisions will be strongly affected by the
positions and resources of relevant interest associations; costs and benefits
are concentrated
o Entrepreneurial politics: policy changes require the presence of ‘political
entrepreneurs’ who are willing to develop and put through political proposals
despite strong societal resistance; costs are concentrated and benefits are
diffused
o Clientelistic politics: governments are likely to be confronted with a relevant
interest group that is favourable to their reform endeavours; costs are diffused
and benefits are concentrated
, o
Classification by governance principles and instruments:
- Nodality: refers to the central role governments enjoy with regard to the use and
distribution of information within political systems. Governments are large
organisations and usually have more expertise and information than other societal
actors
- Authority: defined as the use of the law as the central resource for governmental
intervention. Implies the legitimacy of legal or official power and gives the
government the ability to force societal actors to follow legal rules. Example is the
command-and-control regulation, in which the government prescribes what to do and
if not done (correctly), the government can punish the subordinates
- Treasure: based on money/financial tools of the governments
- Organisation: refers to the reliance on formal organisational structures in order to
achieve policy objectives
-
Policy dimensions
There are 3 dimensions of policies:
- Policy outputs
o Policy paradigms: overarching goal guiding a policy in a particular field
o Policy instruments: means used to achieve these goals
o Precise setting or calibration of these instruments
- Policy outcomes
- Policy impacts
Policy styles
Policy styles refer to the standard operating procedures of governments in the making and
implementing of public policies. Richardson et al. (1982): there are two dimensions
determining national policy styles:
- Government’s approach to problem-solving, ranging from anticipatory/active to
reactive
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Lasswell (1936): public policies, or politics, are all about who gets what, when, and how.
Policy variation: refers to the explanation of differences between public policies across
sectors and countries.
Policy change: tries to explain the stability and change of policies.
What is a public policy?
Polity: institutional structures characterising a political system.
Politics: political processes (e.g., party political cleavages, voting behaviour), patterns of the
policy-making process involving various types of actors and their interactions.
Policy: focuses on the content of policies, the outputs of a political system (i.e., the decisions,
measures, programmes, strategies, and courses of action adopted by the government).
Elements of a public policy:
- Actions of public actors (usually governments)
- Governmental actions focusing on specific issues, which implies that the scope of
activities is restricted to addressing a certain aspects or problem
Examples of (sub)policies:
- Environmental
- Social
- Economic
- Fiscal
Within policies, there are subpolicies and within those subpolicies, there are distinctive issues
or targets. To achieve those issues or targets, instruments are used.
Analytical perspectives on the policy-making process
There are different ways for public policies to develop:
- Rationalist approach: a process of problem-solving which shows the ideal manner of
developing policies. It entails a normative perspective on policy-making: how should
policies evolve? The rationalist approach is built upon a logical (an ideal) sequence:
o Intelligence: collecting relevant information
o Promotion: identifying and supporting selected alternatives
o Prescription: imposing a binding decision
o Invocation: enforcing the policy
o Termination: abolishing the policy
o Appraisal: evaluating the policy
- Incrementalistic approach: a more realistic description of how policy-makers arrive at
their decisions (namely: policy-makers act within the context of limited information –
bounded rationality – which leads to them focusing on solutions that satisfy current
, problems). The process can still be rational, but there is no fixed way to get to the end
goal and no logical sequence like with the rationalist approach.
The policy process generally consists of the following phases:
1. Problem definition, agenda-setting
2. Policy formulation and adoption
3. Implementation
4. Evaluation (with the potential consequence of policy termination or reformulation)
Opportunities and challenges for policy-making
Three developments that have noticeably affected policy-making:
- Budgetary constraints
- Ongoing process of economic globalisation
- Digitalisation
Another development which affects policy-making is the rise of populist parties (such as the
PVV).
,Chapter 2 – The nature of public policies
Political science is mainly concerned with 3 major analytical dimensions (as seen before):
- Polities
- Politics
- Policies
Typologies of public policies
A typology allows for grouping entities by similarity.
Classification by implications for politics:
- Lowi’s policy typology: ‘policies determine politics’. Shows that there are long-
recognised differences amongst public policies and their making. Consists of:
o Distributive policies: measures which affect the distribution of resources from
the government to particular recipients
o Redistributive policies: measures which transfer resources from one societal
group to another
o Regulatory policies: measures which specify conditions and constraints for
individual or collective behaviour
o Constituent policies: measures which create or modify the state’s institutions
o
- Wilson’ policy typology is concerned with questioning who benefits from policies and
who has to carry the costs (widely distributed or narrowly concentrated):
o Majoritarian politics: policy-makers closely follow the preferences of the
electorate when making decisions; costs and benefits are widely distributed
o Interest group politics: policy decisions will be strongly affected by the
positions and resources of relevant interest associations; costs and benefits
are concentrated
o Entrepreneurial politics: policy changes require the presence of ‘political
entrepreneurs’ who are willing to develop and put through political proposals
despite strong societal resistance; costs are concentrated and benefits are
diffused
o Clientelistic politics: governments are likely to be confronted with a relevant
interest group that is favourable to their reform endeavours; costs are diffused
and benefits are concentrated
, o
Classification by governance principles and instruments:
- Nodality: refers to the central role governments enjoy with regard to the use and
distribution of information within political systems. Governments are large
organisations and usually have more expertise and information than other societal
actors
- Authority: defined as the use of the law as the central resource for governmental
intervention. Implies the legitimacy of legal or official power and gives the
government the ability to force societal actors to follow legal rules. Example is the
command-and-control regulation, in which the government prescribes what to do and
if not done (correctly), the government can punish the subordinates
- Treasure: based on money/financial tools of the governments
- Organisation: refers to the reliance on formal organisational structures in order to
achieve policy objectives
-
Policy dimensions
There are 3 dimensions of policies:
- Policy outputs
o Policy paradigms: overarching goal guiding a policy in a particular field
o Policy instruments: means used to achieve these goals
o Precise setting or calibration of these instruments
- Policy outcomes
- Policy impacts
Policy styles
Policy styles refer to the standard operating procedures of governments in the making and
implementing of public policies. Richardson et al. (1982): there are two dimensions
determining national policy styles:
- Government’s approach to problem-solving, ranging from anticipatory/active to
reactive
