Samenvatting Policy Analysis

Samenvatting – Policy Analysis
Part 1 – Methodology, Theory and Context in Public Policy Research
Session 1 – The development of public policy analysis and the policy sciences
College 1 > 12/02/24

Overview of introductory session
- Public policy and public policy analysis?
- Actors and types of policy analysts
o (HB CH1: pp.1-13 & 16-18; CH2: pp.20-23)
- Organisational issues
- Compulsory literature and further reading
- Overview of the syllabus / lectures
- Info about the exam and portfolio assignment
o Examen?  Concept illusteren a.d.h.v. real-life situaties

Public Policy
- Governments make Public policy  ≠ Politics; ≠ Polity
- Vragen m.b.t. het bestuderen van ‘Public policy’ > Vragen met een theoretische
achtergrond
o Why are certain decisions taken at certain times and not others?
o How do policy decisions add up into policy regimes or mixes? Are those
decisions in contrast incompatible or contradictory?
o Do decisions result in recognizable patterns, or can we merely discern
(quasi)random accumulations of multiple decisions in the past?
o What actors are involved in public policies, what do these policy actors do,
why and what difference do they make?
- Voorbeelden > Sectors worden gebruikt als een voorbeeld van toepassing vn
theorieën/concepten binnen dit vak
o (!) Elke sector in de samenleving is aangetast door public policies
 Overheden in veel landen handelen binnen verschillende policy areas
en ontwikkelen beleid
o Gezondheidsbeleid
 Vb. > COVID voorkomen
 Allerhande crises voorkomen
o Landbouwsubsidies
o Energie
o Onderwijs > Investeren in onderwijs: lonen van professors

Public policy analysis
‘Public analysis’ in real life can mean 2 things:

,1) Analysis of policy > Policy analysis as a term refers to the analysis of policies: viewing
policies
o Descriptive
o Theoretical
 = Theoretical study of public policies
 Looking at real life situations and we analyze it from a theoretical
point of view
o Policy sciences
2) Analysis for policy
o Applied practice of evaluation and analyzing policies to make better policies
 UK, VS
 = a profession within governments
 ‘In support of policy making’
o Prescriptive > Provide suggestions/advice on what to do for policy makers
o Policy analysis

- Public policy analysis as an academic discipline (Laswell) – What Public Policy as an
academic discipline should look like
o Public policy analysis is a relatively new discipline (1950-60)
 Fairly new academic and professional discipline in society
 After WOII > Governments decided to rebuilt society  Roles of
governments became more active extensive
 Due to their intensified role, academics paid more attention to
what they were doing
o Multidisciplinair
o Multi-method
o Problem-oriented
 Laswell > As an academic discipline policy analysis should be oriented
to making better policies
o Mapping of contexts, alternatives and effects

- Daniel Lerner & Harold Lasswell: The Policy Sciences (1951)
o = Founder of policy analysis/academic discipline
 Main character in analyzing governments as an academic discipline:
o Definitie > "Policy science” (beleidswetenschappen)  "De disciplines die zich
bezighouden met het verklaren vh proces vn beleidsvorming en -uitvoering,
en het opsporen vn gegevens en het geven vn interpretaties die relevant zijn
voor de beleidsproblemen vn een bepaalde periode"
o “Policy”? > Acties die overheden ondernemen
 Centraal begrip v/policy analysis
 Moeilijk te definiëren
 Beleid? > Belangrijkste keuzes aanduiden die in het georganiseerde of
privéleven worden gemaakt

, o Jaren 50 > Sterk geloof in overheden om de samenleving te vormen tot ‘beter’




Definitions of policy (3)
- Difficult to describe
- Thomas Dye – 1972
o Public policy is ‘anything a government chooses to do or not to do’
 Broad definition of public policy
 Public policies are also the things that governments do nót do
 Vb. Geen aandacht geven aan klimaatverandering: beslissing
niet op te treden in klimaatbeleid
 Negatieve beslissingen (beslissing niet te handelen) zijn ook
public policies
 ‘Chooses’ > Overheden moeten bewuste keuzes maken  Enkel
indien ze zich bewust zijn (en bewust kiezen iets te doen óf niet)
maken ze beleid omtrent iets
o Nadruk? > Centrale rol vd overheid in public policy making
 Overheid heeft autoriteit
 Vb. > Private bedrijven hebben geen legitimiteit om bindende keuzes te
maken
o Any option is equally achievable
- W. Jenkins – 1978
o “Overheidsbeleid als "een reeks onderling samenhangende beslissingen van
een politieke actor of groep actoren over de keuze van doelen en de middelen
om die doelen te bereiken binnen een bepaalde situatie waarin die
beslissingen in principe binnen de macht van die actoren zouden moeten
liggen om ze te bereiken".
 (!) Overheden zijn centrale agenten, maar erkent de diversiteit van
deze groep in/naast de overheid
 Houdt ook rekening met andere actoren in public policy makers
o Verschil (Dye)? > Meer complex + gedetailleerd
o Vergelijkbaar (Dye)
 Problem-oriented process
 Specifieker en explicieter in vergelijking met Dye
o (!) ‘Decisions should be within the power of those actors to achieve’
 Public policies made within a political context
 Policy makers can perceive something as not achievable (= forms of
constraints)
 Vb. > (!) Financial constraints > Limit the degree to which
options are achievable
 Dye > Any option is equally feasible
 Jenkins > More specific

,  Vb. > Normative constraints > In the way governments think
about solutions  Governments might consider something as
not achievable
 (!) Ideologies
o (!) Positivist  Postpositive
 Positivists > Try to approach reality as something that can be known
 Objective reality
 Post-positivists
 Importance of ideas, ideologies, narratives, arguments to try to
explain what has been going on
- James Anderson (1975)
o "Een doelgerichte gedragslijn die wordt gevolgd door een actor of een groep
actoren bij het aanpakken van een probleem of een kwestie die van belang is
voor de bevolking."
o Distinction > Problem <> matter of concern
o Distinction > Positivists <> Post-Positivists
 Positivist > Reality can be objectively observed or known
 Post-positivist > Things might not be seen as an objective problem, but
is perceived as a problem
- Vb. > Crime policies  Crime rates might not be that high to implement crime
policies, because the perception of crime might be high
o How a problem is defined/viewed and the narrative that is surrounding the
problem in policy making can be equally important as the objective reality of
the problem itself
o Post-positivists > The creation of narratives is the most important studying
public policies

Actors & Institutions
- Many/ diverse set of actors
- There is not ‘the’ government, but it’s a fragmented group of actors/institutions
- Policy actors (= ‘policy subsystem’)  Individuele en complexe actoren
o Organizations of the international system
o Organizations of society
o Organizations of the state