Impacts of new policy agendas on Australian institutions

1
Impacts of new policy agendas on Australian
institutions

• Phases of Policy Making post 1983
• Hollowing out of the policy making system
• Incentives for distorting formation of public
  opinion
• Infrastructure for strategic policy development

2
I. The micro-reform phase

• The micro-reform phase of policy change is coming
  to an end
• Important regulatory issues remain
• But most of the Deakinite frameworks have been
  removed/reconstructed since 1983
• Bipartisanship provided political base for policy
  change
• Will bipartisanship be available in the future?

3
A New Phase?

• Regulatory changes
• Energy
• infrastructure
• State based utilities
• Competition Policy Review
• Water
• The environment
• Health
• Education
• Aged care
• Social security
• Lifelong learning and education generally
• Intergenerational Equity

4
What is distinctive about the new agendas?

• Often involve federal-state jurisdictions
• Numerous, well organised and influential
  stakeholder constituencies
• Much scope for human interest stories
• Strong professional bodies and unions
• High incentives for difficult politics
• Reinforced by likely preferred remedies
  regulated competition and cost containment/reducti
  on

5
Three propositions about policy making context

• The policy making system has hollowed out,
  particularly at the strategic end of the issue
  cycle
• Current political incentive structure promotes
  opportunism, wedge tactics, populism.
• Encourages major party leaders to distort
  formation of public opinion.
• No routine infrastructure to handle complex
  stakeholder mobilisation at constituency level.

6
II. The hollowing out of the policy system

• Key mobilising and educating role of mass
  parties.
• Dominant pattern of identities socio-economic
  class
• Mobilised by mass parties
• Memberships, branch structures etc.
• Loyalties were visceral ties were affective
• Party brands cued public opinion (party id)

7
Party organisations and policy making

• Party organisation mediated important stages of
  agenda entry phase of the issue cycle
• Organisations mobilised activists, interest
  groups conferences etc. covered strategic
  phase of the issue cycle
• Promoted contact between activists and interest
  group leaders and party elites
• Facilitated debate between these elites about
  emerging issues
• Built social learning reciprocal understanding
  of attitudes, imperatives and resonant language

8
More differentiated society progressively
undermined major party roles

• Pattern of citizen identities fundamentally
  changed post 60s
• Post materialism and individualisation
• Identities other than social class advanced
  gender, sexual orientation, nature, animals,
  ethnic and indigenous ids.
• Represented by social movements a nineteenth
  century invention
• Expressive attachments eroded cognitive turn
  amongst citizens (Pharr et al Dalton and
  Wattenberg Norris)

9
Changing scholarly assessment of political parties

• Mass (1945 to 1965)
• Catch-all (1970-1983)
• Cartel (1983 on)
• Electorate like a kaleidoscope complex
  stakeholder networks

10
III. Cartel Party System encourages leaders to
distort formation of public opinion

• Ideological convergence on key issues but
  adversarial framework invented for a wholly
  different kind of politics remains
• drives search for other bases for political
  contest
• Opportunism, wedge tactics, populism
• Abetted by media whose role has expanded
  sensationalism, provocation
• Distorts even corrupts social learning about
  major policy imperaitves

11
IV. Infrastructure for policy making

• How does system handle complex and politicised
  issues
• McLure on social security
• Hogan and now Carlton on nursing homes
• Last years election campaign and
  intergenerational equity?
• Water 1992 to 2004
• Problems of under-employment post 45s and pre
  Year 12 school leavers
• Plus all the new matters in the Productivity
  Commission report

12
Examples of policy making approaches at agenda
entry/strategic end of the cycle

• Innovation Summit
• Higher education information disseminating and
  consultation processes
• Drug Summit
• Parliamentary enquiries e.g. Pathways to
  Technological Innovation
• Productivity Commission
• But expert enquiries add little to politics of
  issue resolution

13
System lacks routine policy making infrastructure

• No infrastructure for exposing strategic phase of
  issue cycle
• No infrastructure for routinely engaging interest
  groups in this phase winners as well as losers.
• No infrastructure for seeding coalition building
• Becomes an immediate problem if political
  incentives undermine bipartisahip
• Emerging agenda political incentives likely to
  undermine prudent policy making

14
Remedy involves institutional innovations

• Systemic agenda setting, interest aggregating and
  opinion framing capacities eroded
• No renewal of parties no encompassing ideologies
• Remedy involves transparent, strategic phase in
  the issue cycle.