Chapter Seventeen Policymaking. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 17-2 Public Policies and Purposes A public policy is a general

Chapter Seventeen

Policymaking

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 17-2

Public Policies and Purposes

• A public policy is a general plan of action adopted by government to solve a social problem, counter a threat, or pursue an objective.

• All public policies are the means by which government pursues certain goals within specific situations.


Public Policies and Purposes (Cont’d)

• People disagree about public policies because they disagree about one or more of the following elements: • The goals government should have• The means it should use to meet them• How the situation at hand should be

perceived


The Policymaking Process

• Difference in values causes people inside and outside of government to disagree on goals.

• Value conflict often places freedom versus order or freedom versus equality at odds.


Types of Policies

• Distributive policies, which allocate resources so that some segment of society can receive a service or benefit,

• Redistributional policies, which are explicitly designed to take resources from one sector of society and transfer them to another, and

• Regulation: rules which guide the operation of government programs and business markets.


The Policymaking Process (Cont’d)

• Achieving objectives in policy involves different approaches or tools.

• The basic public policy tools include: • Incentives, which suggest that people can be

induced to do certain things if the rewards become substantial enough

• Disincentives, which are policies that discourage particular behavior


Basic Public Policy Tools (Cont’d)

• Government offering a service or program, and the

• Establishment of rules.


The Policymaking Model

• Four stages1. Agenda setting:

• The stage during which problems get defined as political issues,

2. Policy formulation:• The stage in which formal policy proposals are

developed, often incrementally, and officials decide whether to adopt them as legislation, regulations by administrative agencies or court decisions,


The Policymaking Model (Cont’d)

3. Implementation:• The stage in which policies are put into effect.

4. Policy evaluation:• The stage that analyses the results of the policy.

• These stages, when combined, represent a circular process.


Figure 17.1: The Policymaking Process


Fragmentation and Coordination

• Multiple forces pull government in different directions and make problem solving less coherent than it would be ideally.

• Although some degree of fragmentation is inevitable in a decentralized, federal system of government, mechanisms of coordination can bring some coherence to policymaking.


Issue Networks

• The working relationships developed between many different parts of government and many different sets of participants counter the argument of a fragmented, pluralist system.


Issue Networks (Cont’d)

• Issue networks consist of groups of individuals from inside and outside the government who share knowledge and work together to develop policy in a specific area.

• Policymaking takes place not only within institutions but also among them. Entry into an issue network is facilitated by a mastery of the technical complexities of the policy area.


The Nonprofit Sector

• Nonprofit organizations are neither governmental organizations nor private sector organizations and do not distribute profits to any entity.

• Most nonprofits supported by a mix of public and private funds.

• Nonprofits have a role to play both in administering and developing policy.


Figure 17.3: America's Nonprofits

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Chapter Seventeen Policymaking. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 17-2 Public Policies and Purposes A public policy is a general