Theory of Public Policy

1
Theory of Public Policy

• Components of natural resource policy
• Politics
• Science
• Ethics
• Economics

2
Institutional Challenges

• Setting the policy agenda
• More problems demanding attention than there are
  money, people, knowledge, or political will to
  solve
• Determine priorities
• Proactive rather than reactive
• Historically addressed issues as they appeared
  not necessarily in priority ranking

3
Institutional Challenges

• Setting the policy agenda
• Patterns of agenda setting
• Government takes a passive role and reacts to
  private interests
• Government defines a process and encourage
  private interests to participate in setting
  priorities
• Government plays an active role in defining
  problems and setting goals

4
Institutional Challenges

• Maintaining Democratic Values
• Growth of technology causing gaps in society
• Growth in knowledge but limits to distribution
  only a small percentage of people understand the
  issues and therefore, set the agenda
• Policy out of hands of citizens rely on
  experts
• Use of fear to set policy

5
Institutional Challenges

• Using social resources efficiently
• Nothing is free
• Money spent on the environment/natural resources
  decreases money available for other uses
• Idea of Opportunity Costs evaluate the worth of
  one set of expenditures against others that are
  given up
• Cost-benefit accounting (Reagan/Bush policy)
• Know what we are getting in return for
  environmental investment
• Unfunded Federal mandates

6
Institutional Challenges

• Adapting Institutions
• Integrate environmental programs (air/water) and
  policy sectors (environment, energy, agriculture)
• Enhance capability to address international
  problems
• Relationships between public and private
  institutions

7
Institutional Challenges

• Measuring and Evaluating Progress
• Goals, objectives, measurable results
• Flow of information to set priorities, design
  strategies, and make policy choices
• Indicators to define acceptable measures of
  progress
• Lots in economic arena
• Need to achieve acceptance of measures
• Link measures to program performance and
  environmental results
• Cause and effect
• Difficult to do

8
Models of Public Policy

• Model a simplified description of reality that
  can help explain an object or phenomenon
• Institutional Model
• Describes and analyzes institutions, laws, and
  procedures
• Descriptive, historical
• Limited to the formal, legal influences on policy
  statutes, court cases, and administration
  organization or procedure
• Policy is a product of formal arrangements
• Doesnt account for informal relationships and
  patterns of behavior

9
Models of Public Policy

• Systems Model
• Early 1900s
• Analogy between biological and social phenomena
• Explains an organizations behavior by analyzing
  the inputs into its decision making, the products
  or outputs that emerge from it and the process
  that converts the former into the latter
• Monitor the environment and adapt to changes
• Dynamic, continual, ongoing
• Little emphasis on the internal process

10
Models of Public Policy

• Group-Process Model
• After WWII, dominated political science
• Unit of analysis is interest groups in society
• Policy is the outcome of competition for
  influence among them
• Relative power of interest groups determines the
  substance of policy and values that government
  promotes
• Assumes that policies that are most acceptable to
  organized and influential interest groups in
  society are the best policies overall for
  government institutions to adopt

11
Models of Public Policy

• Group-Process Model
• Trends toward agencies made up of people from the
  industries that they were established to regulate
• Product of political science
• Decision test if it is acceptable to affected
  groups
• Outside of formal governmental processes and
  depicts the interplay of interest groups
• Not helpful in exploring internal bureaucratic
  influences on decisions

12
Models of Public Policy

• Group-Process Model
• Doesnt address situations where policy was made
  without cost/benefit analyses
• Most environmental decisions do not appear to
  maximize net benefits

13
Models of Public Policy

• Net-Benefits Model
• Product of economics
• Decisions that offer the greatest net benefit or
  utility to society
• Rational process define policy options,
  quantify the likely effects of each, compare with
  set of objectives and select the one with best
  ratio of benefits to costs
• Reagan and Bush administrations advocated
  cost-benefit analysis as a basis for making
  environmental decisions still have to include
  today in policy documents

14
Reality?

• All 4 models have a place in understanding
  natural resource policy
• Dominance of models is dynamic, usually depending
  on the issue being considered
• Group-Process and Net-Benefits approach recently
  dominate
• None fully explain environmental policy
  development

15
Rational Decision Making

• Idea of Rationality a conscious decision to
  make the most of available resources to achieve
  whatever it is one sets out to accomplish
• Rational approach assumes a decision process in
  which goals are clear and agreed upon, policy
  options and criteria for evaluating them are
  defined, and information about the consequences
  of options is complete
• Decisions made in linear, sequential way by fully
  informed people

16
Rational Decision Making

• Make decisions that optimize their own as well as
  societys interests by deriving maximum benefits
  from whatever choices they make
• Unfortunately, rarely happens
• Goals are ambiguous or conflicting
• Human cognitive skills are limited
• Time and resources are in short supply
• Policy options are fluid or poorly defined
• Select first acceptable policy alternative

17
Policy Making

• Aspire to be more rational
• Garbage can, streams, and windows model
• Governmental bureaucracies are organized
  anarchies
• Participation in decision making is unpredictable
  and fluid
• Agencies are loose collections of ideas and
  proposals
• Information is applied at multiple points in the
  process of making decisions and interpreted in
  various ways

18
Garbage Can Model

• An organization is a collection of choices
  looking for problems, issues and feelings looking
  for decision situations in which they might be
  aired, solutions looking for issues to which they
  might be the answer, and decision makers looking
  for work
• Decisions made in 4 streams
• Problems
• Solutions
• Participants
• Choice opportunities
• Rarely connect, but when they do major policy
  decisions result

19
Apply to Policy Making

• Policy making occurs in 3 streams
• Problem process by which conditions or issues
  come to be defined as problems and thus as a
  focus of government
• Political events, trends, institutions, and
  interest groups determine which problems will
  receive attention on the governmental agenda
  bargaining and political maneuvering
• Policy shapes the decision agenda, list of
  policy alternatives considered for responding to
  problems persuasion and argument

20
Apply to Policy Making

• At some point, streams come together as policy
  entrepreneurs take advantage of windows of
  opportunity to change policy

21
Successful Environmental Policy

• Good politics
• Effective leadership
• Creative and adaptable agencies
• Concerned and involved citizens
• Good information
• Reasoned decision making

22
Successful Environmental Policy

• Incorporate incrementalism once policy is adapted
• Decisions in one year rely on those that were
  made in the past
• Options and criteria change as the available
  information changes
• Choices open up alternative solutions

23
Steps You Should Take To Create Natural Resource
Policy

• Continuously promote an issue
• Provide data/documentation to show that an issue
  should be a priority
• Detail potential solutions/actions as well as a
  preferred solution/action
• Assess risks and cost/benefits
• Watch for a window of opportunity to develop
  policy