The Policy-Making Process
The Policymaking Process
Every policy has a unique history, but each generally goes through
five basic steps.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Agenda Setting
Policy Formulation
Policy Adoption
Policy Implementation
Policy Evaluation
Setting the Agenda
“Agenda building may occur as the result of a crisis, a
technological change, a mass media campaign, as well as through
the efforts of a strong political personality or lobby groups.”
Most important decision affecting policy-making is deciding what
belongs on the political agenda
1. Shared beliefs determine what is legitimate.
2. Legitimacy affect by
a. Shared political values
b. Weight of custom and tradition
c. Impact of events (war, depressions)
d. Changes in ways political elites think about politics
The Legitimate Scope of
Government Action
Always gets larger
May be enlarged without public demand even when
conditions improving
Groups: a motivating force in adding new issues
May be organized (corporations) or disorganized (urban
minorities)
May react to sense of relative deprivation – people’s feeling that
they are worse off than they expected to be (example – riots of
the 1960s)
May produce and expansion of government agenda (example –
new commissions and laws)
May change the values and beliefs of others (example – white
response to urban riots)
The Legitimate Scope of
Government Action
Institutions: a second force adding new issues
Courts
Make decisions that force action by other branches: school
desegregation, abortion, Change the political agenda
Bureaucracy
Source of political innovation: size and expertise, Thinks up
problems to solve, Forms alliances with senators and their staffs
Senate
Contrary to the intent of the Framers – a major source of change
Media
Help place issues on political agenda, Publicize those issues raised
by others, such as safety standards proposed by Senate
The Legitimate Scope of
Government Action
Action by the states
Sometimes laws are pioneered in states
Evolution of political agenda
Changes in popular attitudes that result in gradual revision of
the agenda
Making a Decision
Nature of issue
1. Affects politicking
2. Affects intensity of political conflict
Costs and benefits of proposed policy a way to understand
how issue affects political power
Cost: any burden, monetary or nonmonetary
Benefit: any satisfaction, monetary or nonmonetary
Two aspects of costs and benefits important:
Perception affects politics
People consider whether it is legitimate for a group to benefit
Making a Decision
Politics a process of settling disputes about who benefits and
who ought to benefit
People prefer programs that provide benefits at low cost
Perceived distribution of costs and benefits shapes the kinds
of political coalitions that form but not who wins
Making a Decision
Each decision has costs and benefits
Widely Distributed: Spread over many/most citizens
Cost example: Income Taxes
Benefit Example: Retirement Benefits
Narrowly Concentrated: Limited to a relatively small
group
Cost Example: Expenditures by a factory that reduces
pollution
Benefit Example: Subsidies to farmers
Four Points of Public Policy
Majoritarian Politics: a policy in which almost
everybody benefits and almost everybody pays.
Distributed Benefits, Distributed Costs
Gives benefits to large numbers
Distributes costs to large numbers
Initial debate in ideological or costs terms (for example,
military budget)
Four Points of Public Policy
Interest Group Politics: A policy in which one small
group benefits and another small group pays
Concentrated Benefits, Concentrated Costs
Gives benefits to relatively small group
Costs imposed n another small group
Debate carried on by interest groups (labor unions versus
businesses)
Four Points of Public Policy
Client Politics: a policy in which one small group
benefits and almost everybody pays.
Concentrated Benefits, Distributed Costs
Relatively small group benefits; group has incentive to organize
Costs distributed widely
Most people unaware of costs, sometimes in form of pork barrel
projects
o Pork-barrel legislation = legislation that gives tangible benefits to
constituents in several districts or states in the hope of winning
votes in return.
o Logrolling = a legislator supports a proposal favored by another
in return for support of his or hers.
Four Points of Public Policy
Entrepreneurial Politics: a policy in which almost
everybody benefits and a small group pays the cost.
Distributed Benefits, Concentrated Costs
Gives benefits to large numbers
Costs imposed on small group
Success may depend on people who work on behalf of
unorganized majorities
Legitimacy of client claims is
important, for example,
the Superfund
Types of Policy Politics: Breakdown
Costs
Benefits
Majoritarian
Large group
Large group
Interest Group
Small Group
Small group
Client
Large group
Small group
Entrepreneurial
Small group
Large group
The Case of Business Regulation
The question of wealth and power
One view: economic power dominated political power
Another view: political power a threat to a market
economy
All four types of politics have had a unique history leading to
policies impacting various groups of people.
=
Meat Inspection
Act of 1906
Perceptions, Beliefs, Interests, & Values
Problem of definition
Costs and benefits not completely defined in money terms
Cost or benefit a matter of perception
Political conflict largely a struggle to make one set of beliefs
about costs and benefits prevail over another
Types of arguments
“Here-and-now” argument
Cost argument
Perceptions, Beliefs, Interests, & Values
The role of values
Values: our conceptions of what is good for our community or
our country
Emphasis on self-interest
Ideas as decisive forces
Deregulation
Example: airline fares, long-distance telephone rates, trucking
A challenge to “iron triangles” and client politics
Explanation: the power of ideas
Presidents since Ford have sought to review government
regulation
Many groups oppose deregulation
Perceptions, Beliefs, Interests, & Values
Limits
Some clients are just too powerful, for example, dairy farmers,
agricultural supports
But trend is toward weaker client politics
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