Complete summary of the lectures and course material. The book used for this course was 'Public Policy in Action by Bekkers, Fengen & Scholten. The summary contains info on what public policy issues are, the policy cycle, the rational, political, cultural and institutional perspectives on policy an...
What is public policy?
Public policy involves the efforts to achieve public goals by specific means. Policies aim to solve
public goals such as health and security through intentional collective action by, with or
without the government. Public policy can be perceived as an institution in the sociological
sense: constraining as well as enabling social behavior.
Types of policies:
1. Regulatory policies
Policies that define government control/rules in specific areas. Societal changes limit
regulatory policies: risk, network society and hollow state.
2. Constitutional policies
Policies to establish new institutional or organizational operations. Also shift from
government to governance constitution from government networks is more likely than
new government bodies.
3. Distributive policies
Distributing/allocating new resources amongst actors
4. Redistributive policies
Distributing/allocating existing resources amongst actors
5. Provisional policies
Policies aimed at creating specific facilities/provisions
What drives public policy?
There are two perspectives that drive public policy. The inside-out perspective focuses on
path-dependency of establishes policies where policies are driven by internal dynamics within
the ‘policy cycle’. The outside-in perspective situates policies in societal context. Societal
transformations put new demands on policy, failure to adapt to these demands leas to policy
fiasco’s. There are four key societal transformations.
1. The risk society
This societal transformation refers to post-industrialization and reflexivisation, knowledge
and information being the most important power tools. Where old risks used to consist of
mostly natural risks, new risks are created by society and difficult to manage. For example,
the Dutch government extracting gas in Groningen causing earth quakes. The evolution of
‘world risk society’ refers to one risk being a risk for the entire world because of the
interconnectedness between countries world wide. The financial crisis is one of those risks
that affected the entire world. Nobody knows how to solve these and we have created
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, something we can’t control. The complexity of modern society leads to uncertainty and
demands reflexivity since the new risks are more powerful than the old risks (nuclear
power).
2. The hollow state
The state is losing power, the belief that the state is steering society is diminishing (rational
societal steering). Government is transforming into governance and policies are shifting
‘upwards, outwards and downwards’ away from the state (more local). We believe that a
welfare state can solve all societal problems while this not the reality anymore. Increasing
individualization and freedom cause the power of state to decrease. New forms of policy
processes like interactive governance, coproduction, policy innovation are becoming more
and more important
3. The liquid society
The liquid society refers to individualization, de-institutionalization and freedom versus
uncertainty. This transformation consists of paradox where individualization is happening
against the rise of mass society with cultural hypes. Is it possible for an individual to make
a decision without being influenced by others. In public policy the drifting voter is a bigger
problem. Where people used to vote for one or two parties their whole life, they are now
voting on a lot of different parties. Constructing the question if a liquid society leads to a
‘drama-democracy’ since we are individuals but were constantly being influenced by the
media.
4. The network society
Society is more and more transforming into a network because of the role of technology.
We are living in an era of globalization of economic, social and cultural life. This increasing
connectedness between countries leads to growing interdependencies and complexity,
creating a division of winners and losers and new risks. Can policies respond to the
network society? Different groups of people with different cultures are living in one
country. The network society consists of people, things, innovations and
interconnectedness (cloud). The biking transport system in Paris is an example of a
network society.
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,Problem 1
Learning goals:
- What are the steps of the public policy cycle?
Policy
A structured set of means and resources that are used to influence specific societal
developments and sole problems in a desired or planned way.
Policy cycle
1. Agenda setting
Identification and selection of problems that need to receive attention of public officials
bc a large part of the public considers it as a problem à problem gets on the political
agenda. E.g. region is confronted with flooding of rivers
2. Policy formulation
Development of the action that needs to be taken to deal with the problem: considering
the alternatives; assessing possible effects. In this stage of the cycle are lobbyist and
politician discussing the action that needs to be taken. E.g. what was the
damage/quality/change of future flooding. What are the costs involved?
3. Policy decision making
Creating a policy by accepting the most appropriate proposal out of the offered solutions.
Politics decides the course of action but other actors have can influence this as well. E.g.
several options may be put forward, but what is the best option?
4. Policy implementation
Implementing the policy by applying the measures and instruments that are set out in
order to deal with the problem. E.g. dikes will be enlarges/water channels will be
broadened and deepened.
5. Policy evaluation
Determine if the implementation has been effective. E.g. what is the quality of the dikes
after several years.
6. Learning and change
Cycle starts over, policy makers learn from the outcomes and the policy could be changed.
Policy program
A specific and structured way used by the government to intervene in society to steer societal
problems. The government tries to solve these problems with their experience and
knowledge, authority and responsibility.
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, Week 2
Lecture 2
Agenda setting is about deciding which problems receive attention or remain ignored.
Types of agenda:
- Public agenda: broadest type, any type of topic the public find worthy of discussing
can get on this agenda
- Political agenda: topics from the public agenda can get on this agenda
- Decision-making agenda: issues that are fully developed when you have alternatives
Multiple stream approach
How problems influence policy, agenda setting is seen as the creation or utilization of
‘windows of opportunity’.
Kingdon differentiates three kinds of streams:
Problem stream – where actual things happen
Ø Problem indicators
- Politics of statistics: we all believe in concrete numbers
- Macro-sociological and economic development
Ø Incidents
- Focus events: dramatic evens
- Incidents are framed by political entrepreneurs
- Media framing
Political stream – everything politics
Ø Political character
- Opinion polls
- Public support
Ø Interest groups
- NGO’s, unions
- Growing influence of lobbyists
Ø Balancing of power
- Change in political power and executing power
Policy stream – anything happening in the existing policy system
Ø Policy primeval soup: pool of solutions and political ideas for problems
Ø Feedback
- From evaluations
- From other political fields à spill overs
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