Samenvatting
Summary of literature K&T Beleid en Politiek
- Instelling
- Universiteit Utrecht (UU)
Summary of chapters 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11.
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Samenvatting K&T Beleid en PolitiekH1 Introduction
A great deal of information on politics is actually about who gets what, when & how. –
Laswell (1936).
Politics is the study of influence and the influential, how do politics determine public policy.
There are differences between countries that can only be explained by policy-making
processes. public policy can not be understood without reference to policy parliaments
and public administrations, which are affected by other public actors + private actors.
The study of public policy seeks to understand their production and effects.
Policy outputs and policy effects are the core topics of public policy, which focusses on two
fundamental issues; policy variation and policy change.
Policy variation: explanation of differences between public policies across sectors and
countries.
Policy change: explanation of stability and change.
What is a public policy?
In political science, we generally find that there are three major subject areas that cut across
the different subdisciplines; polity, politics and policy.
Polity: refers to the institutional structures characterizing a political system.
Politics: concentrates on political processes such as party cleavages and voting behavior in
legislative bodies.
Policy: puts the content of policies center stage, but focuses on the analysis of the outputs of
a political system (decisions/ measures/ course of action adopted by the government or the
legislative body.
Public policy can be defined as a course of action or non-action taken by a government or
legislature with regard to a particular issue.
Emphasizes on 2 constitutive elements:
1. actions of public actors (governments) although societal actors might to some extent
be involved or participate in public decision-making, which corresponds to the basic
idea of governance
2. specific issues, implying that the scope of activities is restricted to addressing a
certain aspect or problem (such as air pollution control)
Policy is used for activities of very different scope;
- Often used to cover a whole range of different measures in a certain sector. The term
grasps more than one legal act of political program.
Sector-specific measures
- A similar approach is used to describe public activities in policy subfields. In most
instances it is possible to classify the public activities in a field along certain
subthemes that cover functionally related measures.
Subfield-specific measures
, - Within policy subfields, distinctive policy issues or targets can be identified. Clean air
policy targets include different pollutants.
Specific issues in the subfields
- Refers to its connection with regulatory instruments (policy targets = what a legal act
regulates/ policy instruments = how those targets are regulated)
Regulatory instruments connected to the issues
Rationalist approach conceives of policy-making as a process of problem-solving. Rather than
seeking to explain the policy process, this approach prescribes an ideal conceptions of how
policy-making should be organized and evolve in order to achieve optimal solutions to the
underlying policy problems. normative perspective (how policies should evolve) instead
of a positive perspective (how policy can be explained).
Lasswell’s thinking how policy process should be; intelligence (collecting + processing
all relevant information), promotion (identification + support of selected
alternatives), prescription (imposition of a binding decision), invocation (policy
enforcement), termination (abrogation of policy) and appraisal (evaluation of policy
effects against the backdrop of initial objectives and intentions).
The theory of incrementalism explicitly rejected the idea of public policy being made on
the basis of a fully rational decision-making process (too ambitious).
The incrementalist approach regards to public policy as a political result of the interaction of
various actors possessing different types of information. These actors need to make
concessions, and therefore policy-makers primarily concentrate on aspects that are less
controversial and more technical. A process of partisan mutual adjustment can only lead to
one outcome; incremental policy change. This is a more realistic description of how policy-
makers arrive at their decisions. They act within the context of limited information/ cognitive
restriction and finite amount of time for policy making bounded rationality.
Decision-makers apply their rationality after having greatly simplified the choices available,
turning them into ‘statisficers’, who seek a satisfactory solution rather than the optimal one.
The garbage can model questions the less strict rationality assumptions and disconnects
problems, solutions and decision-makers from each other. Decisions do not follow an orderly
process from problem to solution but are the outcomes of several relatively independent
streams of events. Actors within an organization go through the ‘garbage’ first and look for a
suitable fix. Hence, solutions exist and develop independently of problems.
Stages of the Policy Process can be integrated into a process model: the policy cycle.
1 – problem definition and agenda-setting (identification of a social problem and its
placement on the governments agenda)
2 – policy formulation and adoption (various policy proposals are formulated, from which
one will be adopted by the decision makers)
3 – implementation (the adopted policy is enacted)
4 – evaluation /with the potential consequence of policy termination or reformulation
(impacts are evaluated)
interpreted as a sequential development, hence following closely the idea underlying the
rationalist approach.
,3 developments that have noticeably affected policy making;
1. Budgetary constraints that governments face and which affect state organization and
policy-making.
2. The ongoing process of economic globalization, which poses limits on what
governments can do in order to address policy problems.
3. Digitalization, the growing importance of the internet and social media for supplying
information on policy proposals and their effects.
H4 Theoretical approaches to Policy-Making
Policy making is a complex process; the same factors that stimulate policy don’t have to lead
to same outcomes. The key to explanatory success is simplification of various processes
accompanying the making of one particular policy requires leaving out anu distracting
details and focusing on essential features which is best attained by relying on theoretical
approaches.
1. Structure-based models:
Draw attention to the most basic socio-economic problems in societies which provide
decision makers with the incentive to create or modify public policy.
The cleavage approach
Certain enduring socio-economic problems exist in societies and affect policy choices by
means of creating lasting divisions between social groups which possess different
perceptions about these problems and the ways of solving them.
4 major social cleavages (Lipset & Rokkan) ;
Centre – periphery centralization of political power
State – church separation of secular and religious authority
Rural – urban traditional activities/ constraints in order to foster new ec.activities
Workers – employers state intervention, job security and social protection
2 modern cleavages (Caramani) ;
Materialists- post-materialists what priorities to new values / norms
Open – closed societies opening of markets
These cleavages emerged in the context of industrialization which created profound and
lasting socio-economic and cultural. Divisions amongst social groups.
This approach is important for understanding how party families have formed.
Varieties of Capitalism
VoC is closely connected with a subdiscipline of political science known as political economy,
which can be defined as a perspective that examines how economic processes influence
policy-making. LME; strong market forces dominate. CME; coordination mechanisms play a
major role between market participants. Offers a systemic view that emphasizes linkages
across all of the major institutions that define capitalist political economies and the policy
decisions they make.
, Key points:
- The cleavage approach focuses on basic lines of societal conflicts as the main
determinants of policy-making. Historical cleavages include conflicts between centre
and periphery, church and state, rural and urban areas and employers and workers.
- The two newer types of cleavages address the division between materialists and
post- materialists and supporters and opponents of an open society.
- VoC offers asystemic view that emphasizes linkages across all of the major
institutions that define capitalist political economies and the policy decisions they
make.
2. Institution-based models:
Theoretical approaches that explain how institutions matter for policy outputs.
Classic approach
Formal-legal approach, emphasized the role that governmental organizations play. Can be
characterized in two ways;
1 The basic independent variable is given by the legal rules and procedures in a political
system. The different functions of the state (policy making and how they are performed)
represent the dependent variable.
2 Legal rules are regarded as behavioral prescriptions.
Contends that the functioning of the state not only depends on economic and social
conditions, but also on the design and effectiveness of political institutions.
Policy styles flow from electoral systems and the distribution of power.
Two points of criticism; argued that classical institutionalism would not open the ‘black box’
between formal institutions and policy choices + political institutions in a country tend to be
stable even though public policy is constantly being modified.
New approach
- Sociological institutionalism
A very broad understanding of institutions, incorporating symbol systems, cognitive
scripts and moral templates that provide meaning to action. Distinctive
understanding of the relationship between institutions and individual action,
institutions influence behavior by providing the cognitive concepts and models that
are indispensable for action.
interactive relationship between institutions and individual action.
Action is tightly bound up with interpretation, which corresponds to the idea of social
constructivism. Institutionalists perceive actors as purposive, in accordance to the
‘logic of appropriateness’ which states that individuals make their choices according
to what they view as socially valuable.
argues that it is more culturally specific rather than a means to enhance efficiency
and effectiveness. Concept of legitimacy is crucial; which will lead to new institutions
to likely be patterned after existing institutional templates. This leads to institutional
isomorphism.
An organization will engage in institutional isomorphism in response to three types of
pressures; coercive, mimetic and normative.
Coercive: organizations adjust their structures and procedures to be in line with those
organizations on which they are dependent.
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