Samenvatting
Summary Politics and Policy Making
This is a summary of all required readings for the UU PPE course Politics and Policy Making. Here and there, the readings are supplemented with notes from seminars and lectures.
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Politics and Policy Making NotesWEEK 1 – Chapter 1
The study of policies focusses on:
- Policy outputs and effects
- Policy variation and change. How are the differences between policies across sectors and
countries explained and why is there little change in some policies, while others change all
the time.
- Do variations between countries become more or less pronounced over time?
There is a difference between the polity (institutional structures), politics (the political process) and
policy (outputs of a political system). Polity and politics play an important role in the creation of
policies. Policy theories link causes and effects and their solutions.
A public policy can be seen as a course of action (or non-action) taken by a government or legislature
with regard to a particular issue. This definition emphasizes the fact that
- Public policies are defined by actions of public actors (what is government?)
- Governmental actions resolve around specific issues, there is a restricted scope to the
actions of public actors.
- Does government action also mean what it says? (symbolic policies?)
- Inaction: which actors are preventing action from being taken?
- There can be no specification of how many actions need to be taken
- What about policy outcomes and unforeseeable consequences?
- Governmental activities in response to given problems <-> exerting power by one social
group over another (interests are protected/disadvantaged in the policy making process), in
the form of governments having higher regard for those with more political influence.
- Policy making can be influenced by different groups with political influence, but does not
need a specific problem to exist to be initiated.
- The problem solving and power perspectives seem to be compatible
Policies can differ in scope:
- Sectors (environmental policy)
- Policy subfields, (clean air policy, climate change policy etc.)
- Distinctive policy issues/targets. This specific law can address multiple targets (health,
environment etc)
- Regulatory instruments, how a policy is regulated
Substantive <-> Procedural
Central components that define a policy Specific phenomena characterizing policy-making
When analysing how public policies (should) evolve, there are three views
Rationalist (normative) Incrementalist (analytical) Garbage-can (explanatory)
Rational process design Muddling through Chance
Problem solving view (ideal), Non-rational process, realistic Decision making is not an
The policy process should be Policies are the result of orderly process, but an
based on a logical sequence of interaction between actors independent stream of events:
steps: intelligence, promotion, possessing different problems, solutions, choice
prescription, invocation, information (bound by time). opportunities and participants.
, termination and appraisal. Concessions, non-controversial First going through the
Optimal policy is chosen. topics are chosen. Mutual garbage -> solution, when
adjustment so little change. problems come up, applying it.
Comprehensive rationalism Bounded Rationality. First Solutions evolve and exist
simplifying options available, independently
Rationality is bounded satisfactory solution. But
revolutions do happen
Different stages in policy making are distinguished in the policy cycle
problem definition and agenda-setting -> policy formulation and adaptation -> implementation ->
evaluation.
In real life, the stages are not as clearly distinguishable and often overlap. The sequential model
thinks different policies and decisions affect each other. The stages are a heuristic tool that help
investigate the process of policy-making from different angles.
Chapter 2
Lowi: “policies determine politics”
Type of policies Definition Examples
Regulatory policies Policies specifying constraints Migration policy, consumer
for behaviour protection
Distributive policies Policies distributing new Farm subsidies, infrastructure,
resources schools
Redistributive policies Policies modifying the Welfare, progressive taxation
distribution of resources
Constituent policies Policies creating or modifying Changes in parliament
state institutions structure
Some groups are more controversial and likely to cause conflict than others. Redistribution policies
generally enhance cleavages. However, these different categories can be ambiguous, there are no
clear analytical distinctions. More than policies determine politics. Lowi lacks a moral category.
Wilson distinguishes on the basis of whether the related costs and benefits are either widely
distributed or narrowly concentrated.
Concentrated benefits Diffuse benefits
Concentrated costs Interest group politics (zero Entrepreneurial politics
sum game) (opposition from ig, (New, might first cause
clear winners -> conflict, opposition, then shift when
lobbying) benefits are felt)
Diffuse costs Clientelistic politics (specific Majoritarian politics (large
group benefits, ig involved) support, close to electorate)
The specificness regarding the characteristics of policy-making and the actors involved make Wilsons
typology favourable over Lowi. It is also more dynamic. However, it does not predict outcomes.
Policies can also be classified by the instruments and principles from the government.
Hood: NATO (nodality, authority, treasure, organisation)
Principle Nodality Authority Treasure Organisation
Basic resource Information Law Money Structures and
capacity
Governance logic Indirect Direct Indirect Provision of
stimulation of prescription of stimulation of public good or
, behavioural behavioural behavioural service by state
change through rules, direct or by change through or public
information, low delegating self- financial enterprise. Often
costs regulation. incentives rigid structure.
Typical Campaigns, Prohibition, Taxes, grants, Public
instruments suasion, research permits, standard user charges companies, but
also privatisation
and civic society.
Disadvantages Limited and Cheap, effective Easier regulated Public
uncertain effects, and goals that than authority, enterprises often
often combined cannot be met innovation, high inefficient,
otherwise, but acceptance, but political conflicts
high regulation affect public can affect supply,
costs, no budget, difficult buying support,
innovation, to calculate principal-agent
regulatory incentives, problems,
capture redundancy monopolies.
Schneider and Ingram:
- Authority tools involving statements that grant permission, prohibit or require action
- Incentive tools inducing compliance via negative or positive tangible payoffs
- Capacity tools involving information, training and resources to enable individuals and groups
- Symbolic or hortatory tools based on the assumption that people are motivated to take
actions on the basis of their beliefs and values
- Learning tools promoting the drawing of lessons from experience, when problems are not
well understood this might be used.
Policies can also be categorized by their dimensions:
- Policy outputs
o Direct results of the decision-making process, usually the adaptation of something.
Substantive policy outputs directly allocate (dis)advantages. Procedural policy
outputs define how something is going to be done or who is going to take action.
- Policy outcomes
o Related to policy implementation and evaluation, the way policies induce
behavioural change on the side of the targeted actors.
- Policy impacts
o The extent to which a policy decision and its subsequent implementation have
actually brought about the expected results (evaluation stage).
Halls typology distinguishes between three components of policy outputs:
- Policy paradigms (the overarching goal) (third order change)
- Policy instruments (the means used) (second order change)
- The precise setting or calibration of these instruments (first order change)
Can we observe typical instrument choices in individual countries and how are they affected by the
policy paradigm?
, Dahl and Lindblom argued that the capacity of modern societies to solve problems crucially depends
on the policy instruments chosen.
Schneider and Ingram believe the characteristics of the policy process and the extent to which a
political system is dominated by elites may have an impact on the policy instruments chosen.
Lascoumes and Le Gales argue that policy instruments are not purely technical, but that they tend to
produce original and sometimes unexpected effects.
Policy styles can be defined as the standard operating procedures of governments in the making and
implementing of public policies.
Battaglini and Giraud identify four components of implementation styles, including the scope and
style of state intervention, coordination and interaction modes of social actors, and the main traits of
the regional political culture. Vogel also thinks of policy styles as styles of regulation. Styles of
regulation concentrate on a specific policy type, while Knills administrative styles focus on traditional
behaviour patterns of a specific player in the political administrative system, namely the public
administration.
The central idea of policy styles: persistent political characteristics that predispose formulation and
implementation of public policies in certain distinct ways. Richardson defines two dimensions
determining national policy styles:
- A government’s approach to problem solving, ranging from anticipatory/active to reactive
- A government’s relationship to other actors in the policy-making and implementing process,
characterized by their inclination either to reach consensus with organised groups or to
impose decisions on them.
Van Waarden identifies different policy styles.
High formalization Low formalization
High participation Social corporatist or meso- Clientelism, liberal corporatism
corporatist policy patterns
Low participation Étatist policy style, state- Pluralist policy style
centred, top-down
implementation
Empirically, the evidence for radically different policy styles has been scarce. There is more of a
West-European policy style than a country-specific style. Our style is that of anticipatory problem
solving and consensus-oriented policy-making. Rather we can focus on sectoral policy styles, which
do differ (such as Lowi’s). Styles can also differ per stage of the policy-making cycle (Howlett).
Policy styles might reflect national or sectoral peculiarities.
Past policy developments can create path dependencies, as it will become more expensive to change
the status quo. Distinctive policy types are characterized by distinctive process patterns (Lowi).
Chapter 4
Now, theories on policy making will be discussed.
Structure-based models look at the most basic socioeconomic problems present in societies. Very
macro, fixed structures strongly influencing behaviour.
The socioeconomic school believes public policy is a response to social and economic developments
and problems that a society is confronted with (Durkheim, Marx, Wagner). The socioeconomic school
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