Chapter 1 - Public Policy Models
Public Policy - Answers - government decisions (including not deciding) on societal rules;
- when the gov't replaces individual choice with collective choice (when an individual choice can
harm someone else)
- the study of gov't activity, including laws, regulations, and funding priorities, and its influence
on society
- gov't action designed to address the demands of a set of citizens to resolve a social issue
The Study of PP/Why do we study PP? - Answers To satisfy three basic needs
- Our desire to ensure that gov't actions are accountable to the public
- Whether gov't expenditures are efficient, and
- That gov't is fair or equitable in its applications
Democracy - Answers - rule by the people or representatives elected in free and fair elections by
the people
Democratic Public Policy - Answers - gov't action that is responsive to majority preferences
- action(s) can be either processes or outcomes
Accountability - Answers - "the consent of the governed"
- making sure the people who implement policies are held responsible for the outcome
- making sure that policies reflect preferences and that there is transparency
Efficiency - Answers - whether the resources, time, and energy of a program are delivering the
greatest policy outcomes, for a given level of resources
Equity in policy delivery - Answers - a gov't should deliver the benefits of a policy evenly across
all communities
Science is a _______ - Answers method
Normative Statement - Answers - expresses a value judgment about whether something is
desirable
,- is subjective
- "should"
- not falsifiable
Empirical Statement - Answers - expresses a fact about the state of the world
- is objective
- "if, then" statements
- hypotheses; falsifiable
- some aren't true, but can be tested
Values
Types of Values - Answers - Individual Liberty
- Communitarianism
- Civic duty/patriotism
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Equity of Policy Delivery & Policy Outcomes
- Accountability
- Feasibility
Deontological Ethics - Answers - theories of action based on duty or moral obligation
- an action is judged by its intrinsic rightness and not by the extent to which it serves as an
instrumentality in furthering one's goals or aspirations
- judging if it's inherently the right or wrong thing to do/not do
- individual liberty, communitarianism, civic duty/patriotism
Teleological Ethics - Answers - an action is judged by the extent to which the action has
instrumental value in providing advancement toward a desirable end
- if an action is instrumental in yielding a desirable end, then generally the action itself is ethical
, - evaluation based upon what happens b/c of the policy
- consequentialism / instrumentalism
- effectiveness, efficiency, equity, accountability, feasibility
The Policymaking Process
7 Stages - Answers - Problem and Solution Identification
- Agenda Setting
- Policy Formulation
- Alternative Formulation
- Policy Selection and Adoption
- Policy Implementation
- Policy Evaluation
Problem/Solution Identification
Social problems identified by:
Choosing a solution to address the problem done by _________
Stakeholders - Answers - Policy image; problem framing
- Magnitude and importance
- Cause (Proximate or Ultimate)
- Policy Entrepreneurs: people who feel passionately about a problem and work constantly to
make new policy to do something about the problem, or at least put it on the public radar