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Public policy making first 6 lectures

Public Policy Making (6 ects) (Tilburg University)

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Public policy making samenvatting:

HC1)

Collective decision making (collective goods)

Pulbic authorities (public legitimacy and budgets)

Coordination mechanics in which all sorts of actors are

involved (public, private, NGO, civil society) [Governance]

 Public refers not to an exclusive category, but to a

particular sphere of action (public sphere, public
domain, public responsibility)

Policy and policymaking: policy

1) Producing action (or inaction)
2) Not expressed in a single decision
3) Could change over time
4) Important and is dependent of policy context

Two important topics:

Politics: is the way in which society deal with the balancing and allocation of values that is necessary to
deal with challenges that a society as a political community is confronted with.
Policy: is a more or less structured set of means and resources that are used to influence specific
societal developments and to solve problems in a desired or planned way (Dunn, 1991)
“Policies are grounded in politics”
What is politics about:
-Politics is struggle about norms
-Focus on the ‘normal’ way of doing
-Thus also defining what can be defined as ‘normal’
-Which can become the ‘norm’
-What is accepted as the norm van become policies, laws and legislation.

Agenda setting: The identification and selection of those problems, among many, that need to receive
the serious attention of public officials; considering that action is needed
Policy development: Development of a proposed course of action for dealing with a public problem;
considering what kind of alternative actions/options are possible; assessing possible effects of the
options
Policy decision making: Deciding politics on the possible courses of actions that are suitable by
accepting the most appropriate proposal so that it becomes pertinent
Policy implementation: Application of the policy by one or more government organizations, thereby
applying the measures and instruments that are set out in order to deal with the problem
Policy evaluation: To determine if the efforts that were made by the government in order to deal with
the problem were effective, and why and why not (did the policy work?)

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Types of public policies Logic Examples

Provisional policies Addition/production collective goods Military defense, infrastructure,
dikes, sewages
Regulatory policies Protection external effects Environment policy (water
hygiene)
Constitutional policies Correction/controlling merit goods Culture, education, alcohol, drugs
Redistributive policies Compensation Social security, income and tax
Stimulating policies Stimulation Incentives( information and
subsidies)
Preventing policies Protection from monopolies and cartels Tendering

This implies that you want to compensate for other’s preferences, create norms in order to let social
interaction evolve.

HC2)

Perspective: Way of seeing, an approach

Theory: A composition of ideas, rules or principles around a certain theme
with the goal to understand, describe or explain a certain issue
Model:’a simplifies representation of some aspects of the real word’ (Dey,
2010)

System model of Easton; Interaction between policy and political context

Pros: Cons:
1) Makes a long-term and complex process digestible -Stages not only forward but also backward
2) Offers structures for analysis -Stages are interconnected and can overlap
3) Prescriptive: control on legitimacy -Separation between policy preparation and
policy implementation is too sharp
-Extent of concreteness of a policy is not fixes
per stage
-Policy practice is often different

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Rational perspective:
Explanatory mechanism:
 Goal rationality, rational choice theory
Human behavior
 Homo economicus: human beings as rational actors (rational calculation of transactional costs)
 Bounded rationality (Simon, 1961)
Policy instruments
 Engineering perspective on objective toolbox
 Sticks , carrots and sermons
Policy evaluation
 Effectiveness (achievement of benefits)
 Efficiency ( costs and benefits)
 Output and outcomes
Role of knowledge
 Scientific knowledge, neutral information
Course of policy proves
 Linear and cyclical process
Role of politics
 Distinction between politics and administration

Assumptions
1) Policies start with politics and both domains are separate spheres
2) Linear process of realizing political goals
 Ideal for rational administration
 Processes instead of institutions or structures

Pros Cons
-Clear and crisp -Utopian
-Actors know what is expected -Suggests value-neutrality
-Systematic approach -Separation of goals, means, values etc.
-Unpractical

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Political perspective
Explanatory mechanism
 Struggle, conflicts of interests
Human behavior
 Self-interest, dependency
 Unequal distribution of scarce resources
 Power*
Policy instruments
 Strategic sources of power
Policy evaluation
 The actors’ interest
 Support and satisfaction by actors
Role of knowledge
 Recourses politics, knowledge is power
 Knowledge to legitimate claims
Course of policy process
 Non-linear and iterative
Role of politics
 Politics as inherent to policymaking
 No distinction between politics and
administration

Pros Cons
-Focus on power -Focus on ambiguity and complexity
-Focus on relational side of collective decision-making -Random, no solid categories for
analysis
-Focus on value-laden and non-neutral aspect of -Overestimates power
Decision-making

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HC 3) ! Going on a journey!

Institutions: are processes by which certain social relationships and actions come to be taken for
granted, that is they are conventions that take on a rule.

Institutional Perspective: institutional Theory

-Origin in sociology and institutional economy
-focus on stability and less on change
-Formal and informal aspects of ‘organized life’
-Values, routines, rules, procedures: social conventions
! INSTITUTIONS ARE NOT THE SAME AS ORGANISATIONS, BUT ALL ORGANISATIONS CONSIST OF
INSTITUTIONS, AND CAN BE AN EXPRESSION OF IT!

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Institutional Perspective
Explanatory mechanism
 Procedure, routines, conventions
 Path-dependency (lock-in situation)
Human behavior
 Institutional rules
 Values (structure and agency)
 Iron cage (example :Weber)
Policy instruments
 Usage of policy instruments is institutionally determined
 Process of institutional design
Knowledge and information
 Reproduction of knowledge
 Expertise and institutionalized knowledge
 Institutions as reservoirs of knowledge
Policy evaluation
 Logic of consequences (what is best) and logic appropriateness (what is appropriate)
Policy process
 Formal and informal rules guide the process
Role of politics
 Politics as institution

Pros Cons
-Incorporates structures and cultures to practices -Focus on stability instead of change: dynamics?
-Contains important explanatory value -intractability of institutions
-Focus on organizations and values -rigidness

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Cultural perspective on societal challenges

Policy problems= social and political constructions

Issues are getting defined as problems from the perspective of interests of related actors

Cultural Perspective
Explanatory mechanism
 Reality is socially constructed (by language, symbols, metaphors)
Perspective on human behavior
 Meaning making and sense making
Policy instruments
 Deliberative spaces
 Framing and reframing
Knowledge and information
 How information becomes knowledge (claim on reality)
Evaluation
 Quality of interactions and outcomes
Policy process
 (re)production of discourses (interpretations of social reality)
Politics
 Collective endeavor of sense making practices, persuasion and argumentation

Pros Cons
-Focusses on the relative autonomous -Intensive research methodology
character of policy practices -underestimates the influence of intuitional processes
-highlights how social and cognitive factors (agency over structures)
can influence the policy process
-incorporates how meaning-making and value
influences practices

HC5)

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Example Brexit:

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