Allocation and Management of Public Resources (BC2060)
Class notes
Lecture notes AMPR - allocation and management of public resources
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Course
Allocation and Management of Public Resources (BC2060)
Institution
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR)
Notes from all lectures in the course 'allocation and management of public resources (AMPR) '. These notes helped me get a good grade for the exam (9.0).
Notes of all the lectures of the course 'allocation and management of public resources (AMPR) '. These notes helped me to get a good grade for t...
- By the impossibility of doing otherwise, administrators are often reduced to
deciding policy without clarifying objectives first
Why?
--> no method to rank conflicting interests and determine optimal trade-offs
Wildavsky – Budget = a representation in monetary terms of government activity
,Lindblom: how governments tackle complex problems
Root method; how it should be done in theory.
--> This is the rational-comprehpuensive theory.
- Linking means and ends, objectives as comprehensive as possible
- Simplification is accidental, unsystematic and not defensible
- Values clarified in advance
- Requires a detailed understanding of societal values, extensive calculations
and a thorough examination of all alternatives
Downsides:
- Not suitable for complex problems
- Limitations in intellectual capacity, information availability and dynamic
nature of social values
Branch method; how its done in reality (science of muddling through).
--> Successive limited comparison.
- Only including alternatives with incremental or marginal differences
- Choosing incremental alternatives and comparing them
- Based on empirical evidence rather than theory
- Simplification is deliberate, systematic and defensible
Why this method?
- Suitable for complex policy issues
- Allows for changes based on feedback and new information
- Compatible with the incremental nature of policy changes in democratic
societies
He argues that the branch method is superior to a futile attempt at superhuman
comprehensiveness.
Conlan / Posner / Beam pathways framework
2 dimensions:
- Scale of political mobilization
--> narrow & specialized audience vs mass audience
- Method of political mobilization
--> ideational vs organizational
1. Expert pathway - Ideational / specialized
,The route for incremental and non-incremental changes. Fortified by the complexity
of budget decisions and the need for credible analysis.
- Legitimacy and credibility (CBO)
- Dominated by experts, professionals in the bureaucracy, academia and
washington think tanks --> persuasive power, power of ideas
Characteristics:
- Degree of consensus = high
- Public salience = highly variable
- Partisanship = low
- Enactment time = around 20 months
Critical comment:
Expert based reforms are vital for legitimizing budgetary decisions and ensuring
they influence economic and policy decisions as intended. However, it can lose
traction when not in line with politics.
2. Symbolic pathway - Ideational / mass
Also built around the power of ideas. It is about simple, value-laden ideas and
valence issues whose power lies in their appeal to common sense notions of right
and wrong.
- Relies on policy entrepreneurs and communication through the mass media
to bridge the gap between policy makers and the general public
- Promotion of budget reforms as part of policy platforms by ideological think
tanks and interest groups
- Rapid change in response to economic trends BUT a risk of unstable budget
arrangements because of it
Budgetary perennials = proposals that keep resurfacing despite past failures
Characteristics:
- Degree of consensus = high
- Public salience = relatively high
- Partisanship = low
- Enactment time = 100 days
Critical comment:
It is often associated with the use of budget gimmicks and dramatic proposals that
are not deemed sustainable.
, Constructed by mutual adjustment among contending organized interests, through
bargaining, compromise and vote trading. Federal budgeting was dominated by this
pathway, where decisions were incremental and influenced by organised interests
and appropriations committees.
- Modest and incremental (small change) policies
- Interest groups and specialized actors
- Agencies exerting control over budgetary areas
Characteristics:
- Degree of consensus = high
- Public salience = relatively low
- Partisanship = low
- Enactment time = 115 months
Critical comment:
Criticized for potentially excessive influence over spending priorities focusing on
minor decisions benefitting particular constituencies.
4. Partisan pathway = Organisations (interests) / mass
Traditional route for large-scale, non-incremental policy changes. Often has a strong
party leader. There are short periods of unity due to electoral losses (new round
every four years). Linking budget decisions with broader constituencies and values
represented by national elected officials.
- Degree of consensus = low
- Public salience = high
- Partisanship = high
- Enactment time = 5 months
In traditional politics the organisational method is preferred over the ideational one.
- Party leaders use the budget process to frame issues and establish voting
records useful for electoral strategies.
- Responsible for major deficit reductions and fiscal policies, often leading to
the construction of new budget control frameworks.
Critical comment:
Tensions can arise as party leaders impose macroeconomic constraints on micro
budgetary decisions.
Laffer curve – right wing
Political argument to lower taxes
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