KAY 386: PUBLIC POLICY
LECTURE 1
Readings: Parsons, pp. xv-xviii, 1-16;
Goldhamer, p. 7-27.
Agenda
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Topic: What is public policy?
Website:
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http://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~myildiz/
Goldhamer
Historical Background: WHY
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Good decision-making dominates material force
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Ruler as a lonely and isolated (wo)man
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“Information is power”
Providing political wisdom and moral instruction
The leaders’ dependance on advisors
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Especially when they are young & inexperienced
Historical Background: WHAT
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The Advisor
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Definition
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No well-established meaning
Not strictly defined by law or custom
Teaching kings what to do and what not to do
Great variety of roles
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Friend, educator, conscience, eyes & ears, executor...
Historical Background:WHO
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Man of religion as moral and political
advisors
Separation of the favorite & mistress from
the advisor
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Clashes between these groups
Today, the mass media become the critics
and admonishers of political leaders
Historical Background: HOW
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Tasks of the Advisor
1.
2.
3.
Advising on specific problems of public
policy
Educating the leader in a way to improve
his/her own judgement and knowledge
Criticizing the leader’s own ideas and
plans
Historical Background: HOW
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The word “wazir” derives from the words
“help”and “load” (Ibn Khaldun)
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Oral and/or Oral Advice
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Help carry the rulers’ burdens
Close personal relationship with the ruler
E.g. “Mirrors of Kings”: Books of Instruction
Need for governing information
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Advisors may filter and interpret information
reaching the political leader
Establishment of spy networks
Parsons
Public Policy Studies
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Interdisciplinary (multi-disciplinary)
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Integrates knowledge from different disciplines
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Multi-method
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Public adm., political science, sociology, psychology,
economics & management
Qualitative and quantitative
Problem-focused, action-oriented
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Analyzes public choices & decision-making
We expect governments to have policy
What is public policy?
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Focuses on the public & its problems
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What governments do, why they do it &
what difference it makes?
How issues & problems are defined &
constructed
How they are placed on the political &
policy agenda
PUBLIC POLICY FRAMEWORK
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What is a public?
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The idea of public policy presupposes that “ there is a sphere
or domain of life which are so designated as public, as
opposed to private”.
The public comprises that dimension of human activity which
is regarded as requiring governmental or social regulation or
intervention, or at least, common action.
People as a whole
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“Res publica” in Romans: the “public thing”: Buildings, property,
funds and other physical resources involved in the performance
of public office vs. “Res priva”
Public versus Private
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Different but related
Hannah Arendt’s Analysis of
the Dichotomy in Greeks
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Public
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Polis
Freedom
Male
Equality
Immortality
Open
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Private
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Household
Necessity
Female
Inequality
Mortality
Closed
PUBLIC
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Not only government units and officers
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Public purposes of non-governmental actors
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Elected, appointed and contracted
Hospitals and schools built by private persons and
firms (e.g. public-private partnerships)
Elements of civil society
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Member serving organizations: e.g. Political parties
Public serving organizations: TEMA
E.g. Reports of associations
PUBLIC POLICY FRAMEWORK
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What distinguishes public problems?
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Actors:
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Scale/ Bigness: Problems confronting whole
populations
Complexity: Many different views and preferences
Public, Private and Civil Society Sectors; and
multiple combinations
Question: How much government is required?
ACTORS OF PUBLIC POLICY
Public Sector
Use of various
combinations
Private Sector
Civil Society
The Third Sector
• Three sectors compete & cooperate for doing public work
•How much government is required? At which level?
Kaynak: B. Ayman Güler, http://politics.ankara.edu.tr/~bguler/kytk-semasi.pdf, (26.02.2007)
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POLICY PROCESS
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What is it?
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A cyclical problem-solving activity
Analytical, legislative, budgetary and administrative
steps
Why is it complicated?
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Diverse population, many stakeholders
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Special-interest groups;
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Frame the issues differently
Different priorities, gridlock
How to discover the collective will in diversity?
POLICY CYCLE
In the real world, there are no defined or distinct phases.
Different Approaches to
Government Involvement
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Thomas Hobbes 17th C.
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Adam Smith, 18th C.
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`Leviathan`
`The Wealth of Nations`
Invisible hand
Alexis De Tocqueville, 19th C.
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`Democracy in America`
Power of associations
Degree of Government
Involvement in Economy
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Limited Involvement
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Adam Smith, Wealth of
Nations
Invisible hand
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Larger Involvement
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(clear distinction & welldefined boundary)
Hobbes
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Government is best when
it does the least
The aggregate of people’s
self interests make up of
the public interest
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Reasons
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Public order
Externalities
Monopolies
Imperfect Information
Some Actions
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Break up monopolies
Historical Development
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Woodrow Wilson (1880s)
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Weber (Early 1900s)
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Bureaucratic rationality
Simon & Lindblom
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Distinction between politics & administration
Bureaucracy as a defender of public interest
Irrationality & bounded-rationality
Public choice/ New Right literature
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Bureaucrats have distinct goals of their own
The relationship between public & private is best defined by the
market & freedom of choice
Harm, Utility & Market Failure Criteria
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The private is that sphere which did no harm
to others (J. S. Mill)
The greatest happiness to the greatest
number (Mill & Bentham)
The role of the state is to manage the public
and its problems so as to deal with those
aspects of social & economic life which
markets are not capable of solving (Keynes,
Roosevelt-New Deal)- 1950s to 1970s
New Right
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After the “stagflation” of the 1970s,
beginning from the 1980s: New Right
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The attempt to use public policy to
promote the public interest was wrong
(Hayek & Friedman)
New Right’s recipe is to expand the use of
the market mechanism
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New Public Management”
Some reasons of why we need
government intervention
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Externalities
Public Goods
Monopolies
Imperfect Information
PUBLIC GOODS
RIVALRY
NON-RIVALRY
(If one person
consumes it, the
amount available
remains the same )
EXCLUDABLE
PRIVATE GOOD
( A car)
NONCOMMON POOL
EXCLUDABLE
GOODS
(Non-payers cannot (Trees in a forest)
be excluded from
the benefits )
TOLL GOODS
(Cable TV)
PUBLIC GOODS
(National Security
Clean air)
How to “sell” policy to the public?
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Policy involves creating a plausible story
which secures the purposes of the
policy maker.
In liberal democratic systems, political
elites have to give rational reasons for
what they propose or what they have
done.
Claim of legitimacy