Unit 6 Review PowerPoint Public Policy. The Policymaking Process Every policy has a unique history, but each generally goes through five basic steps

Unit 6 Review PowerPoint

Public Policy

The Policymaking Process Every policy has a unique history, but each

generally goes through five basic steps.

1. Agenda Setting2. Policy Formulation3. Policy Adoption4. Policy Implementation5. Policy Evaluation

Public Policy

Setting the Agenda • “Agenda building may occur as the result of a crisis, a

technological change, a mass media campaign, as well as through the efforts of a strong political personality or lobby groups.”

• Most important decision affecting policy-making is deciding what belongs on the political agenda

1. Shared beliefs determine what is legitimate.2. Legitimacy affect by

a. Shared political values b. Weight of custom and tradition c. Impact of events (war, depressions) d. Changes in ways political elites think about

politics Public Policy

Making a Decision • Nature of issue

1. Affects politicking 2. Affects intensity of political conflict

• Costs and benefits of proposed policy a way to understand how issue affects political power – Cost: any burden, monetary or nonmonetary– Benefit: any satisfaction, monetary or nonmonetary

• Two aspects of costs and benefits important: – Perception affects politics – People consider whether it is legitimate for a group to

benefit

Public Policy

Politics a process of settling disputes about who benefits and who ought to benefit

Types of Policy Politics: Breakdown

Costs Benefits

Majoritarian Large group Large group

Interest Group Small Group Small group

Client Large group Small group

Entrepreneurial Small group Large group

Public Policy

The politics of deficit spending The general landscape – Deficit: government spending over and above the

amount taken in by taxes – National debt: combined amount of all deficits – Interest on the debt: typically the third highest

item in that national budget – Gross domestic product (GDP): proportion in

relation to debt about the same as 1964Strategy: get rid of the annual deficit to make progress

on the overall debt – By raising taxes (political liberals)– By cutting spending (political conservatives)

Economic Policy

The Politics of Taxing and Spending Inconsistency in what people want

out of majoritarian politics – No tax increases – No government deficit – Continued (or higher)

government spending Difficult to make meaningful tax cuts – Politicians get reelected by

spending money – Strategy: raise taxes on “other

people”

Economic Policy

Economic Theories & Political Needs 1. Monetarism – inflation occurs when there is

too much money chasing too few goods; advocates increase in money supply about equal to economic growth

2. Keynesianism – government should create right level of demand

3. Planning – free market too undependable to ensure economic efficiency; therefore government should control it

4. Supply-side tax cuts – need for less government interference and lower taxes

Economic Policy

Fiscal Policy Managing the economy by the use of tax

and spending laws. • Where the Money Comes From– Federal Income Taxes– Social Insurance Taxes– Borrowing–Other taxes

• Where the Money Goes– Entitlement programs– National defense – National debt

Economic Policy

Monetary PolicyManaging the economy by altering the

supply of money and interest rates

• Monetary policy is the government’s control of the money supply– Too much money in system leads

to inflation (devaluation of dollar)– Too little money in circulation

leads to deflation

Economic Policy

The Machinery of Economic Policy Making

Fragmented policymaking: not under president’s full control

3 people of special importance (The Troika):• Chairman of Council of Economic Advisers– Forecast trends, analyze issues, submit congressional

report• Director of Office of Management and Budget– Analyzes and estimates what departments will spend• Secretary of Treasury – Estimates US revenue from taxes– Usually closely tied to business/finance world

Economic Policy

The Machinery of Economic Policy Making

• The Fed (Federal Reserve Board)– 7 members, Pres appointed-Senate confirmed, 14yr

terms– Regulates the supply of money and interest rates

(=monetary policy)– Independent of Pres and Congress (though

sometimes questionable)

• Congress – Most important! Creates the nation’s tax and

spending laws (= fiscal policy)

Economic Policy

1. Who deserves to benefit?• Insistence that it be only those who cannot help

themselves• Slow, steady change in deserving/undeserving

line • Alterative view: fair share of national income;

government redistribute money • Preference to give services, not money, to help

deserving poor

Social Welfare in the United States

Social Policy

• Federal involvement “illegal” until 1930s • Experiments by state governments – Argues against federal involvement because state

already providing welfare – Lobbied for federal involvement to help states

3. Influence of federalism

Social Policy

Social Security Act of 1935• Great Depression of 1929: local relief

overwhelmed • Elections of 1932: Democrats & FDR

swept in– Legal and political roadblocks; was direct

welfare unconstitutional?

• Cabinet Committee’s two-part plan– “Insurance” for unemployed and elderly – “Assistance” for dependent children, blind, aged – Federally funded, state-administered program

under means test

Majoritarian welfare programs

Social Policy

Medicare Act of 1965• Medical benefits omitted in 1935:

controversial but done to ensure passage • Opponents:

• AMA • House Ways and Means Committee under Wilbur Mills

• 1964 elections: Democrats’ big majority altered Ways and Means

• Objections anticipated in plan • Application only to aged, not everybody • Only hospital, not doctors’, bills covered

• Broadened by Ways and Means to include Medicaid for poor; pay doctors’ bills for elderly

Majoritarian welfare programs

Social Policy

Social Security • Not enough people paying into Social Security • Three solutions:

1. Raise the retirement age to seventy, freeze the size of retirement benefits, raise Social Security taxes

2. Privatize Social Security 3. Combine first two methods and allow individual

investment in mutual funds

Reforming majoritarian welfare programs

Social Policy

Medicare • Problems: huge costs and inefficient • Possible solutions

1. Get rid of Medicare and have doctors and hospitals work for government

2. Elderly take Medicare money and buy health insurance

• Delaying the inevitable – Clinton and surplus, new benefits – Bush and attempts at new health care measures –

Medicare Modernization Act of 2003

Reforming majoritarian welfare programs

Social Policy

• Programs with widely distributed benefits & costs – Beneficiaries must believe they will come out ahead – Political elites must believe in legitimacy of program

• Social Security & Medicare looked like “free lunch”• Debate over legitimacy: Social Security (1935)– a. Constitution did not authorize federal welfare

(conservatives)– But benefits were not really a federal expenditure (liberals)

• Good politics unless cost to voters exceeds benefits

Pros and Cons: Majoritarian politics

Social Policy

• Programs pass if cost to public not perceived as great and client considered deserving

• Americans believe today that able-bodied people should work for welfare benefits

• Americans prefer service strategy to income strategy – Charles Murray: high welfare benefits made some

young people go on welfare rather than seek jobs – No direct evidence supports Murray

Pros and Cons: Client politics

Social Policy

• Scarcely noticed part of Social Security Act • Federal government permitted state to

– Define need – Set benefit levels – Administer program

• Federal government increased rules of operation • New programs (e.g., Food Stamps, Earned

Income Tax Credit, free school meals)

• Abolished and replaced by TANF.

Client welfare programs: AFDC(Aid to Families with Dependent Children)

Social Policy

Kinds of Foreign Policy• Majoritarian Politics- widespread benefits and

costs (Pres has most power, public opinion supports but doesn’t guide)– Ex. Wars, military alliances, nuclear test ban,

• Interest Group Politics-groups pitted against one another for benefits/costs (larger Congressional role)– Ex. Tariffs: Japan vs. the Steel industry

• Client Politics- benefits to identifiable group w/o costs to any distinct group (Congress is central)– Ex. Israel policy (may be changing!)

Foreign and Military Policy

Constitutional/Legal Context• Constitution creates “invitation to struggle”

between President and Congress– Pres Commander-in-Chief, Congress appropriates $– Pres appoints, Senate confirms– Pres negotiates treaties, Senate ratifies

Americans perceive President as being in charge, which history confirms


Checks on President’s Power• Political rather than constitutional• Congress controls the $$$• War Powers Act of 1973- restricts pres– If Pres commits troops he must report it to Congress

within 48 hours– Only 60 day commitment w/o declaring war– Previously, Congress could use legislative veto to

bring troops home Has had very little influence, politically impossible

(Congress will of course support successful military action)


Effects of War Powers Act

• Congress rarely invokes it– Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton all sent troops

w/o authorization

• Politically impossible– Congress wouldn’t challenge successful military

action (even Vietnam)

• Constitutionality is questionable (so they don’t push it)


Machinery of Foreign Policy

• Post-WWII major power status consequences:– President more involved in foreign affairs (top of

agenda)– More agencies shape foreign policy• Too many and too big to really be coordinated (Sec. of

State is only 1 person, agencies owe no loyalty to him)

• National Security Council created to coordinate


Backing the President • Public tends to support the president during crisis

(approval ratings go up!)• Support does not decrease with casualties– Body bag fallacy: soldiers come home in coffins– Support for escalation and victory

• Most wars do have public opposition– Highest among Democrats, African Americans, and

those with post-grad degrees*In sum: People are leery of wars until they start, then

they support them and want to win.Foreign and Military Policy

4 Worldviews

• Isolationism: opposes involvement in world affairs– Adopted after WWI after little accomplished– Ended with Pearl Harbor

• Containment: (anti-appeasement) US should resist the expansion of aggressive nations– Successful in that it didn’t harm US interests, proved

welcome to allies, prevented military conquest


4 Worldviews• Disengagement: (“Vietnam”) belief that US was

harmed by its war with Vietnam(defeat and political disaster) so it should avoid similar events

• Crisis interpreted 3 ways:1. Correct worldview, but failed to try hard enough2. Correct worldview but applied in the wrong place3. Worldview itself was wrong• Critics believed world view wrong (#3) and new one

should be based on isolationism


4 Worldviews

• Human Rights: we should try to improve the lives of people in other countries (Kosovo viewed as similar to Nazi genocide)– But what about Rwanda, China, USSR??

• New Question post 9/11: should the US “go it alone” or build a coalition?


The Defense Budget• Total Spending– Very low spending in peacetime until 1950– Driven up by Containment policy for USSR

• Changes in spending tend to reflect changes in public opinion

• Debate once USSR fell:– Liberals: cut defense, we aren’t world’s “police officer”– Conservatives: some cuts ok, but world is still

dangerous and we must be ready• Saddam Hussein soon proved them right• Involvement in war in Bosnia proved military had been cut

too much…Clinton increased spendingForeign and Military Policy

Structure of Defense Decision Making• National Security Act of 1947- created Dept of

Defense– Headed by Sec. of Defense (must be civilian)-

command authority over defense on behalf of pres– Sec. of Army, Air Force, Navy, (also civilians) • manage daily functions

– Joint Chiefs of Staff (military)• Branches of military kept separate- Why?– Fear if unified they would become too powerful– Desire of services to preserve autonomy– Inter-service rivalries intended by Congress to increase

info Foreign and Military Policy

Structure of Defense Decision Making• Joint Chiefs of Staff- committee of heads of 4 military

branches, chairman, vice chair, and military officers appointed by the pres./confirmed by Senate

• No command authority over troops• Key to national defense planning• Since 1986 reorganization, Chairman of JCS has been president’s

principal military advisor

• Chain of Command: Pres Sec. Defense various specified commands (these can go through JCS, but they have no command power)

• Civilians head the military to protect from concentration of power


Environmental PolicyWhy Controversial??

• Creates winners and losers– Interest groups or average citizens– Losers must pay the costs but receive no benefit

• Scientific uncertainty• Takes the form of entrepreneurial politics– Emotional appeals lead to distorted priorities

• Decisions affect federal and international relations– States can pass own laws– US rarely signs international environ. treaties

Environmental Policy

All four points of public policy found in Environmental Politics

• Entrepreneurial role is in most environmental issues. Problems can be portrayed in life threatening terms. Goals can be related to the “good life.” Costs can be minimized, deferred, or placed on a small group.

• Entrepreneurial hard to adopt! – (society benefits, small group pays!)

• However, examples of past policy link to all four areas.

Costs BenefitsMajoritarian Large group Large groupInterest Group Small Group Small groupClient Large group Small groupEntrepreneurial Small group Large group


Majoritarian PoliticsClean Air Act 1970- tough restrictions on pollutants

from automobiles• Started as entrepreneurial- public w/ media support

demanded changes• Small provision of law said states would have to

restrict use of cars if pollution problem persisted– Huge popular opposition, efforts failed (Congress and EPA

backed down)• Consumers, auto industry, unions objected• Loss of horsepower, competitiveness, jobs

• Clean Air Act revived in 1990 w/tougher restrictions, but a 20 year deadline

• Most current laws target particular industriesEnvironmental Policy

Environmental Uncertainties• What is the problem? –often hard to see– Support goes to most current/popular problem,

Congress and public, not the EPA, often decide• What goals do we want to achieve?– Must be realistic– Weigh costs and benefits

• How do we achieve the goals?– Command-and-control strategy: set rules, enforce

them in court– But often don’t know how to get the most

environmental gain for the least cost


Environmental Policy• Incentives replace command-and-control rules– Offsets: if you increase pollution in one way you must

decrease it in another– Bubble Standard: total amount of air pollution

allowed from a given factory. Company can decide how to meet it

– Pollution allowances (or banks): if company comes in under the standard they can bank the leftover

• Results– Less air pollution, probably less water pollution

(harder to judge)– Hazardous waste (Superfund sites) still a problem


Good to Know

• Understand the current implications of policy initiatives…especially social. (will they be successful, last, etc)

• Understand the how and why economic policy is shaped by the president, Congress and the Fed.

• Understand the four different policy types and examples of how each policy arena uses the four types. (ex: Clean Air Act = Majoritarian)

Documents

Unit 6 Review PowerPoint Public Policy. The Policymaking Process Every policy has a unique history, but each generally goes through five basic steps