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Public Policy Summary (FSWSB-1051)
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Public Policy Making Samenvatting
Hoofdstuk 1 politics and policies in a changing world
Politics has always been an inseparable element in the history of mankind, in the way in which we
organize our lives. It refers to the way in which a community of people tries to deal with a number of
questions and challenges with which the community is wrestling.
Politics: “The way societies 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”
Given these challenges all kinds of values and interests have to be balanced against each other. This
balancing act requires a system that makes it possible to organize collective decision making. In many
cases this decision-making system deals with challenges that can be called “wicked problems” (also,
“intractable policy controversies”);
● There is no consensus among the involved parties as to what relevant causes and effects of the
societal problem are to be handled.
● They also dispute the relevance of the measures to be taken
● Moreover, there is no consensus about the values and norms that should be taken into
consideration in order to judge what measures are effective or appropriate. Ex: discussion about
the causes and effects of global warming.
In western societies this collective-decision making process is embedded in constitutional democracy.
This refers to specific institutions, rules, procedures and routines that have been developed to facilitate
the process of collective-decision making. Rights and obligations as well as tasks, competences and
responsibilities have been allocated among different actors; they have a legal basis. Collective decision-
making processes take place in a specific political culture which also influences the content and course
of this process. For instance, in the Netherlands this is rooted in a culture in which consensus,
compromise and collaboration is embraced. (Polder model).
Now that we have defined politics is it important to know that it is not the state that has the monopoly
on the allocation of these values. In general, a distinction is made between three allocation
arrangements; the state, the market and the community.
The state: coordination based on the legal authority that resides in the state
Market: the coordination is based on the price mechanism
Community (local): coordination that is necessary to beat a well is based on the trust that the members
of this community have in each other. There are several reasons given to opt for a specific way of
allocating values, thereby making use of a specific coordination mechanism.
- In economic literature allocation by making use of the state is legitimized by referring to the
inherent weaknesses of the market; a market is very good at satisfying individual needs, but fails
, when it has to satisfy collective needs and provide goods or services which are available for
everybody.
- Another reason for state intervention is market failure due to the misuse of power.
- External effects: could either help or harm the society
The choice for a specific institution to allocate values is not only an economic one but also ideological.
What is a policy?
Policies can be described as 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
Political decision-making is, on the one hand, focused on the formulation of policies which give direction
on how to achieve specific, but interrelated goals. On the other hand, political decision-making is also
focused on the selection of means and instruments, the formulation of specific measures and the
utilization of specific financial and other resources needed to achieve these goals.
In many cases we see that there is not only one single political actor within the government that has the
authority to make these decisions. Policies are a result of multiple decisions taken by a set of actors
rather than a sole actor. In some cases, politics actually sets off the goals, thereby having the deliberate
intention to influence specific societal challenges; “intended policy making”. In other cases, politics is
not in the lead.
,Governance
The ability to intervene is based on the problem solving capacity of government which depends on the
ability to mobilize and combine relevant resources to achieve political goals that are laid down in a
policy program. This problem solving capacity and the resources that are needed are dispersed among
many actors. In literature, this challenge is called the governance challenge.
It draws attention to the shift from state-centric “government” in which state actors have a central role
in societal steering, to more complex forms of “governance” which involves problem solving strategies
in multi-actor networks (including but not limited to government institutions) and in multiple ways
(including but not limited to policy). Key assumptions behind the governance concept:
- Government is not an entity but a conglomerate of actors
- Government is not the only actor which tries to influence societal problems
- Government interventions generate continuing interactions between all kinds of public, semi-
public and private actors within several societal domains and at different levels that try to
influence the shaping of policy processes.
, - The governance capacity of each actor refers to the problem solving capacity of each actor,
which depends on his ability to mobilize and combine relevant resources in a structured way to
achieve specific policy goals or to address specific societal challenges
In order to understand the variety of policy programs, the following types of public policies can be
distinguished (15-16):
Policy making in a changing world
The network society (Manuel Castells): tries to understand a number of fundamental changes in our
world that are rooted in a paradigm shift in the production technology of modern societies.
- Information technology as a revolutionary force
- Core of this revolution refers to the vital role that information and communication play in
modern society and the pervasiveness of the technologies that support the processing of
information processing and communication
- These technologies have penetrated in all domains of human activity; all our activities are
interwoven with these technologies. (no longer exogenous)
- Globalization, digitalization.
Five results of globalization specialization;
- We see that specialization had led to an increasing degree of interdependency which can be
understood in terms of a network
- This degree of specialization had become institutionalized, because we make use of highly
specialized organizations “organized complexity”
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