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Public Policy and Governance (ppg) UvA lecture notes
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Lectures notes for public policy and governance.
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WHAT IS PUBLIC POLICY?THE PUBLIC ELEMENT
PUBLIC – something opposed to priv<ate. characteristics: it could be physical,
such as a square, park, public library; it can be a social category, like a collectivity
of citizens (BLM, suffragettes) or a public event, for instance a commemorating the
death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg; it can be a concern; it can be an opinion, collective
beliefs and discourses.
.. DEWEY ON PUBLICS
He wrote the book “The Public and Its Problems” where he defines the public as “all
those who are affected by the indirect consequences of transactions to such an
extent that it is deemed necessary to have those sequences systematically cared
for”. In this context, by transaction he means mutual and reciprocal influence of
individuals on each other.
Once you start doing that without the governments there
are going to be many problems you cannot deal without a
larger group of actors who tackles the problem, which
would be a public.
EXAMPLES OF PUBLICS: social movements, NGOs, citizens’ initiatives, democratic
governments, private companies that are part of the public (E.G.; fighting
cybercrime).
STONE
Public, according to stone is a community, whereas public concern is public
interests. In public, there is never going to be full agreement. Therefore, a polis is
very political: communities struggle over the public interest.
common problems
— Public and private interests are opposed to each other in polis – E.G; coal fire
power plant: they give power for private families while polluting the
environment: it’s a paradox. Another example could be a family creating
unsafe environment in the neighborhood.
COMMON PROBLEMS, then, happen when self-interest and public interest come
together. Most policy problems are commons problems due to broader effects then
intended.
DOES GOVERNMENT PRODUCE COMMONS PROBLEMS? OR IS IT ONLY BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND
PRIVATE SECTOR?
No. sometimes two public interests might collide, for example in Climate goals
agreed upon in the Paris agreement, which goes with public interest. So, the
government creates offshore wind park. There is however a side effect, it harms local
economy because it is built within a 12-mile zone, which also is in the public interest.
WHY IS DEALING WITH PUBLIC INTERESTS SO COMPLEX?
These commons problems are power struggles: an example is the government
closing coal fueled power plants or families deciding to move somewhere else.
understanding leavers of power is necessary –influence, cooperation, loyalty,
strategic control of information.
THE POLICY ELEMENT
Policy, polity, politics.
polity – context within which politics are made, by definition
‘institutional elements of political systems such as constitutions,
rule of law, electoral systems.
politics – ‘who gets what, when, why and how?’ It talks about
competition over resources (what?), competition over resources
(who?), at others expense (how?), nature of political power. it is
a broad definition, not only governments are deciding this: there
are many actors in society and a lot of what they do can be seen
as political.
,BIRKLAND on what public policy is
— It is oriented to a problem and includes all the decisions made on the public’s
behalf.
— It is also oriented to a goal or desired state
— It is what is made by governments.
— It can also be the implementation done by other public actors than
government
— what the government chooses to do or not to do
therefore, it is ‘a statement by the government – at whatever level of what it intends
to do about a public problem’.
K&T, on the other hand, see it as “a course of action or non-action taken by a
government or legislature with regard to a particular issue. However, the public
element is missing from this definition – still, the fact that public government or
legislature is involved in policymaking entails already the public element.
Whereas Birkland focuses on statements, K&T focus a bit more on actions.
COMBINED definitions: “a statement by the government, at whatever level, of what
it intends to do about a public problem and the courses of action it undertakes to
realize these intentions”.
Tradition on policy sciences: approaching policy processes as being rooted in
problems and solutions. It also requires also multi-disciplinary perspectives and
it is value oriented.
PUBLIC POLICY AS PROCESSES
K&T:“students of public policy are interested in the processes and decisions that
define the outputs of a political system”
policy variation and policy
change, therefore, are put forward.
RATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
How do policies get made?
1. State clear goals
2. Analyze al possible means of costs and benefits
3. Choose the most efficient alternative
4. Critique by Kingdon and Stone there is limited individual information
processing capacity as individuals; goals are often not clarified; policy making
is not a neatly ordered process in reality, there may be large political
disagreement, which is why it’s hard to s
INCREMENTAL PERSPECTIVE
CHARLES LINDBLOM – policy-makers have bounded rationality: when people create
policies, because they cannot process all the available information, they make small
adjustments to develop the policies if something is beyond rationality. It seems to
work for relatively simple existing policy problems, such as oil transport, traffic
regulations, waste management.
GARBAGE CAN PERSPECTIVE
Policy making is perceived as partial, fluid, chaotic, anarchic and incomplete.
Preferences are not held but revealed through action, they are not known
before being confronted with policies.
Actions reflect immediate responses instead of well-defined goals
Four streams: PROBLEMS (have problems and look for solutions); SOLUTIONS
(have solutions and look for problems); PARTICIPANTS (flow in and out, carry
pet problems or solutions; CHOICE OPPORTUNITIES (when it occurs, it is used
as dump for favorite problems or solutions).
INSTITUTIONS AND ACTORS
Closer look at the polity
what are institutions?
, — Organizational structures of political and government system; not of private or
public sectors. There are all kinds of organizational forms, such as electoral
systems, political parties, state bureaucracy, executive, legislature, judiciary,
police or military.
— 1980s/1990s, new institutions with focus on formal rules – what the
government is supposed to mean or do. Some examples are constitutions,
administrative law, rule of law, division of powers, budgetary procedures.
— Informal rules – what is expected from the citizens in a specific context.
Important actors…
THE EXECUTIVE
Sometimes also called the administration: it is the cabinet with prime minister,
several ministers, several secretaries. They are important because they have
POWERS TO PROPOSE POLICIES AND ALLOCATE PUBLIC SPENDING .
Lower tiers – state governors,
colleges of mayor’s and alderman.
THE LEGISLATURE
Elected politicians in parliament or in municipal council. Three important functions:
— Represent the electorate; control the executive by checking their powers;
propose legislation, rules and policy.
THE JUDICIARY
Various types of courts who perform two important tasks: review administrative
action based on lawsuits and act as constitutional court to check rules against the
constitution.
THE BUREAUCRACY
Ministries, municipalities, authorities (food safety), civil servants and those who
make and implement policies.
PUBLIC PRIVATE
ORGANIZATI ORGANIZATI
ONS ONS
Social Private interest
movements, or lobby
NGOs groups
constitutions: formal rules
K&T argue that they are the most essential institutions of any state. They
provide fundamental principles and rules of government. It also defines the
political system itself, for example what type of democracy a system agrees on.
they create separation of powers (trias politica) to avoid high
concentration of power. however, executive has taken over
legislation even though it should be the legislation’s role. The
judiciary might take a political role and politicians start to
interfere with court cases.
THE RULE OF LAW
It is the idea that the administration is always bound by law. It is a rather vague
statement, but it implies that IN ALL CASES that happens, therefore the system has to
be built on that:
It has to be based on the legality principle: there is the idea that competence
or jurisdiction of government must have a basis on legislation.
That is because without this legal basis, governments would not be able to make
and implement policy, and they could also become unpredictable.
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
impartiality principle: governments need to be impartial; politicians might
favor certain actors to pursue their goals over others.
the people have the right to be heard; parties with interest in decisions
have to be listened
whenever the government is deciding it always needs to give state reasons.
detournement de pouvoir: what the government can do is set out in rules,
therefore it can only use power for reasons conferred to them to avoid abuse.
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