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Samenvatting public policy met notities
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Public PolicyLes 1 – 27/09
What is public policy?
'A public policy is a targeted action by an actor or a group of actors in tackling a problem or a concern of the
population. Such a public policy is developed by numerous government organizations and politicians.' – Anderson
(1984).
'Public policy is how politicians make a difference. Politicians are the elected decision-makers with formal authority
for complex subsystems of participants and players. Policy is the instrument of governance, the decisions that steer
public funds in one direction but not in the other. It is the outcome of a battle between ideas, interests and
ideologies that drives our political system.’ - Bridgman & Davis (2004)
"A public policy is a series of consciously aligned decisions or activities taken or carried out by various public – and
sometimes private – actors whose resources, institutional links and interests vary with a view to solving a problem
that is politically defined as collective in nature.
This set of decisions and activities leads to formalized actions of a more or less restrictive nature that are often
aimed at changing the behavior of social groups that are supposed to be at the basis, or capable of solving, of the
collective problem to be tackled (= target group) in the interest of the social groups that experience the negative
impact of that problem (= final beneficiaries).’
Policymaking
Object of Policymaking
Choosing what to do or not do Dye (1972).
Targeted action Anderson (1984).
Decisions that direct public funds in one direction, but not in the other (Bridgman & Davis, 2004).
A series of consciously coordinated decisions or activities... which leads to formalized actions of a more or less
restrictive nature Knoepfel et al. (2011).
Policy in your daily life
Where do you see policy in your daily life? We interact with public policy and policymaking in our daily lives. You can
see that almost everywhere.
,Example: More specific policies
Norway wants to protect young people from unrealistic bodies
(DS 09/07/2021)
The Norwegian parliament has passed a law requiring influencers to provide all sponsored photos and videos in
which the "body shape, size or skin has been altered by retouching or other manipulation" with a standardized label
that shows that "the person's appearance has changed". According to the Norwegian government, this is necessary
because "the image on social media deviates from reality". This would lead to what they call in Norway body
pressure (kroppspress): pressure that especially young people would feel to change their appearance. ..
Types of policy
Primary rule policies: they want to make you do something. They affect your behaviour as a person. They make the
environment ready if anything happens.
o Regulatory policies : prohibiting you about doing something you call legal.
o Redistributive policies : Facilities or privileges
Secondary rules policies: about giving you authority or taking it away from you.
o Distributive policies : we give you a permission to do something.
o Constituent policies : ex.: we allow you to hire more people,…
More on policy types
Examples of policy types. Regulatory policy (Smith, 2005):
Competitive policy: restricts access to the provision of certain goods or services. Imposes conditions that the
facilities must meet.
Protective policy: is intended to protect citizens by establishing the conditions under which private activities
may be provided and non-compliance with them sanctioned.
Self-regulating policy: corresponds to protective policy, although the initiative is taken by the providers
themselves
Approaches to policy
Provided that coercion is abandoned (Bekkers et al., 2017):
Exploratory policy: indicating new schools of thought with the intention of mobilizing parties to think along
about the desired development and the necessary changes ex. I have a small little city outside the big city
– experiment of opening the shops there until 7pm, trying a 3-day weekend and working 4 days a week,… =
to get people to think differently about things.
Facilitating policy: supporting certain objectives deemed desirable without imposing them in a binding
manner. To make it easier to do something.
2
, Stimulating policy: stimulating people or organizations to show a certain desirable behavior encourage
you in an indirect way to do it. ex. encourage a company to have their people to do more sports by a tax. –
trying to make it easier to do it and to compensate.
Why does government pursue policy?
Public Administration research we want to understand the realities of government, policy, strategy and
governance.
Understanding why the government wants something !
Public policy: why?
To address a problem or a concern of the population (Anderson, 1984).
To make a difference in the struggle between ideas, interests and ideologies that drive our political system
(Bridgman & Davis, 2004).
Often aimed at changing the behavior of the target group in the interest of the end beneficiaries... as a solution to a
problem politically defined as collective in nature (Knoepfel et al. 2011).
Problems? A problem that needs to be solved. What would be a youth problem? For example: climate change, the
housing market, shortage of resources, affordable mental health solutions,…
= a gap between what I want and what I have right now. Do we all have the same problems? NO. We as a
government have limited amount of resources.
Problems?
A problem can be defined as a gap between desirable situation and perceived condition (Hoornbeek & Peters, 2017).
Does everyone see the same problems/gaps?
There are always battles between problems and solutions If so, how does that gap look like?
Rule = we only do something if there is a problem.
Example
Collective needs
What can we do best to address this problem?
How can we do this?
How can we know exactly what we have done?
3
, Knowledge for public policy: context
= Eastern policy model
The main idea = that things do not happen in a linear way. Context is important and problems and decisions change.
Who is involved?
The government (Dye, 1972) as (potential) central actor in public policy Authority to represent collective
needs/ambitions.
Certainly not in isolation, many others involved Men/women in the street, private companies, nonprofit
sector, academia, political parties.
Who is the government? Minister, parliamentarians, public administration entities, networks and
institutions.
Government organizations, politicians (Andersson, 1984)
Politicians as elected decision-makers with formal authority, participants and players (Bridgman & Davis, 2004).
Various public and sometimes private actors, social groups that are supposed to be at the root, or capable of
solving, the problem to be tackled (target group); social groups that experience the negative impact of that problem
or end-beneficiaries (Knoepfel et al., 2011)
Actors
An ‘actor’ can be taken to designate either an individual (a minister, member of parliament, a specialist journalist
etc.), several individuals (e.g., an office or a section of an administration), a legal entity (e.g., a private company,
association, trade union) or a social group (e.g., farmers, drug users, the homeless etc.).
Actors = They are an individual or a group of people (=> they have a shared approach as to the values they
represent). Without a common point of interest, there is no group.
A single “actor” (or an actor group) must have a shared/common approach as to the values/interests they represent,
and concrete shared aims.
Why? Because we focus on “the simplest unit that retains the significance” or “unit act” (Parsons, 1951).
“Without a common point of interest, there is no group” (Olson, 1965).
Basic triangle of policy actors
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