Administrative details

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Administrative details

• Syllabus http//www.uvm.edu/jfarley/pa306/pa306s
  yllabus.doc
• Please hand in all assignments electronically as
  e-mail attachments, RTF or MSWord documents

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What is Public Policy?

• Introduction to PA 306
• Josh Farley (with thanks to Chris Koliba)
• August 29, 2005

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What is policy?

• Todays newspaper
• Grad student parking memo
• Universal health care in Vermont (and elsewhere)

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Policy as a noun

• a definite course of action adopted for the sake
  of expediency, facility, etc.
• a course of action adopted and pursued by a
  government ruler, political party, etc.
• action or procedure conforming to or considered
  with reference to prudence or expediency.
• (Websters unabridged)
• A solution to a problem
• Policy is a rational attempt to attain
  objectives.

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Policy as a verbThe Policy Cycle/Process

• Identify objectives
• Identify alternative courses of action for
  achieving objectives
• Predict the possible consequences of each
  alternative
• Evaluate the possible consequences of each
  alternative
• Select the alternative that maximizes the
  attainment of objectives.

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What about PUBLIC policy?

• Is the graduate parking memo a matter of public
  policy?
• Why/why not?
• Is health care in Vermont a matter of public
  policy?
• Why/why not?

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So what makes a policy public?

• What is public?
• Does public policy always imply a role for
  government?

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Public -- Private

• Synonyms?
• What distinguishes Public from private
  interests?

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How does public policy relate to other
disciplines?

• Economics
• The allocation of scarce resources among
  alternative desirable ends
• Political science
• Sociology
• Hard sciences
• Ethics

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Legacy of the Enlightenment Philosophy

• The self comes of age
• Rational, self interested actors
• Dangers of factionalism Federalist Papers
• Acceptance of special interests
• Use of checks and balances to keep interests in
  check.

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What does it mean to be/act rational?

• Scientific
• Application of scientific methods to determine
  problems and derive solutions to those problems.
• Science, derived from the Latin word scientia,
  meaning having knowledge. Birkland (p.7)

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Rational policy cycle

• Identify objectives
• Identify alternative courses of action for
  achieving objectives
• Predict the possible consequences of each
  alternative
• Evaluate the possible consequences of each
  alternative
• Select the alternative that maximizes the
  attainment of objectives.

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Science as a social construct.

• Scientific paradigms
• Positivist
• Interpretivist
• Post normal
• Empirical vs. Normative Perspectives

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Scientific Method vs. Ideology

• Scientific Method
• Observe
• Form hypotheses
• Test hypotheses? discard if falsified
• Form theory
• Test theory? discard if falsified
• Ideology
• Refuse to test theories, or refuse to abandon
  them when experiments/new observations prove them
  wrong

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How ARE public decisions made?

• Lindbloms Incrementalism
• An attempt to implement one policy almost always
  brings new problems onto the agenda, meaning that
  the step called implementation and the step
  called agenda building collapse into each other
  One groups solution often is another groups
  problem From the seedbed of implementation,
  then, new policy problems grow and are plucked
  for the agenda in never-ending succession.
  Lindblom WoodhouseP.11
• Stones policy paradox

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Limits of rationality

• The capacity of the human mind for formulating
  and solving complex problems is very small
  compared with the size of the problem whose
  solutions is required for objectively rational
  behavior in the real worldor even for a
  reasonable approximation to such objective
  rationality. Simon, Models of Man (1957, p.198)

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How ARE private decisions made?

• Rational actor
• What is rational?
• Are people purely rational, or also emotional and
  spiritual?

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• Self interest
• Always wants more
• Purely competitive
• homogenous globules of desire
• Or are we cooperative, social animals, concerned
  about the future that differ across cultures?
• e.g. H. comunicus, concern for fairness and
  community preferences
• H. naturalis, concern for sustainability and
  whole system preferences
• Count off by 2s. All 2s leave room

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Group 1

• Serious flu will kill 600 people
• Choice A Conventional vaccine will save 200
  people
• Choice B Experimental vaccine has 1/3 chance of
  saving everyone, 2/3 chance of saving no one
• Mark your choice and leave room

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Group 2

• Serious flu will kill 600 people
• Choice A Conventional vaccine will result in
  death of 400 people
• Choice B Experimental vaccine has 1/3 chance of
  saving everyone, 2/3 chance of saving no one
• Mark your choice

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Checks Balances Clearly defined roles?

• Legislative branch creates policy
• Executive branch implements policy
• Judicial branch determines if policy is legal

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Politics-Administration Dichotomy

• Wilson, Goodnow
• Appleby, Waldo
• Scientific efficiencies vs. democratic
  effectiveness

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Politics A Necessary Evil?

• Politic
• 1.sagacious prudent.
• 2. Shrewd artful.
• 3. expedient judicious.
• (Websters unabridged dictionary)
• Derived from Greek politikos civic, equiv. to
  polit(es) citizen.

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Politics noun.

• 1. the science or art of political government.
• 2. the practice or profession of conducting
  political affairs.
• 3. political affairs.
• 4. political methods or maneuvers.
• 5. political principles or opinions.
• 6. use of intrigue or strategy in obtaining any
  position pf power or control, as in business,
  university, etc. (Websters Unabridged Dic.)

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• What does it mean to be political?
• Does the adage that everything is political
  hold up?
• Where might politics have come into play
• For the parking policy?
• For health care policy?

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The policy paradox

• Account for the possibilities of changing ones
  objectives
• Of pursuing contradictory objectives
  simultaneously
• Of winning by appearing to lose and turning lose
  into an appearance of victory
• Of attaining objectives by portraying oneself as
  having attained them.
• Stone P.9

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Actors matter

• Who were the actors in
• The parking policy
• Health care policy

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• Essentially, public policy is about
  decision-making and the process through which
  these decisions get made and evaluated.
• Politics makes the distinctions between actors
  blurry.

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Some Policy Actors

• Legislatures
• Interest groups/ Non-profit organizations
• Courts
• Consultants
• Elites
• Bureaucracies

• Policy Networks
• Think tanks
• Bureaucracies
• Public administrators
• Citizens
• Business
• Media

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• How people define their preferences depends to a
  large extent on how choices are presented to them
  and by whom. Stone P.10
• Politics involves seeking allies and organizing
  cooperation in order to compete with opponents.
  Stone P.24

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• The study of politics is the attempt to explain
  the various ways in which power is exercised in
  the everyday world and how that power is used to
  allocate resources and benefits to some people
  and groups, and costs and burdens to other people
  and groups.
• Birkland p. 5

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• Shared meanings motivate people to action and
  meld individual striving into collective action.
  Ideas are at the center of all political
  conflict. Policy making, in turn, is a constant
  struggle over the criteria for classification,
  the boundaries of categories, and the definition
  of ideals that guide the way people behave.
  Stone P.11

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A Democratic Imperative?

• What role should ordinary citizens play within
  public policy development and implementation?
• Weak versus strong democracy
• Can we have too much of a good thing?
• To enhance the role of reason and analysis in
  policy making, must a society surrender some
  aspects of democracy? Can a society enjoy both
  more reasoned and more democratic policy making?
  Lindblom and Woodhouse p.7

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How do we talk about politics?

• What are the views of those who you speak with
  about politics?
• A. Mostly those you agree with
• B. Mostly those you disagree with
• C. A balance of both agree and disagree
• with
• D. You dont talk to people about politics

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• With whom do you speak about politics with?
  (check all that apply)
• A. Family which ones
• B. Friends which ones
• C. Professional/work colleagues
• D. Strangers and acquaintances
• E. Fellow students and faculty

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• What can we do to ensure that we are able to talk
  about our political views and perspectives in
  this classroom?