The Public Policy Process
WEEK 9: POLICY TYPES
Some reminders
 I will get your agenda memos back ASAP
 Then I will start reading rewrites
 Keep doing and sending rewrites!
 Visit me if you need to—don’t just wait for office
hours!
 The due dates on many assignments have changed;
the revised syllabus has been posted.
 Don’t forget to review the notes on the midterm
exam, posted on the course website.
What we’ve done so far
 Introduced the idea of the policy process
 Described the goals of public policy
 Outlined problems
 Learned about long-term and changeable features of
the policy environment
 Considered the roles of official and unofficial actors
 Discussed groups, power, and the agenda setting
process
What’s next:
 Today: Policy Types (more interesting than I
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thought!)
Next Week: Policy Tools
April 6: Policy Implementation, Failure, and
Learning
April 13: The Science of Public Policy
April 20: Class Cancelled
April 27: Review, Summary, Ideas about the Final
(Final will be posted before class)
What Is a “Policy”?
 Public policy: What the government, acting on our
behalf, chooses to do or not to do.
 A policy is a statement by government of what it
intends to do or not to do, such as a law, regulation,
ruling, decision, or order, or a combination of these.
What are some examples of these levels of policy?
 Constitutional
 Statutory
 Regulatory
 SOPs
 Street-level bureaucrats
 Subtle changes in cognition
Codifying and Publicizing Policies
Level of Policy
Where Codified
Visibility of Codification
Constitutional
In the federal or state
constitutions
Statutory
United States Code, Statutes at
Large, State
Regulatory
Federal Register, Code of Federal
Regulations
Formal record of standard
operating procedures
Patterned behavior by
“street level bureaucrats”
Operating Procedures Manuals
Highly visible at the federal level: the
Constitution has been edited very few
times. Some state constitutions are
more easily amended for minor
changes.
Highly visible through codification in
statute law, publication in Statutes at
Large.
Moderately visible through the Code of
Federal Regulations and the Federal
Register.
Low visibility because S.O.P.s are often
only internally published.
Low visibility because these are
behavioral changes with variations
among actors
Very low visibility. Not codified, and
changes in perceptions and emphases
may be subtle.
Subtle changes in
cognition, in emphasis on
problems, etc.
Not formally codified; evidence
of a “policy” may be found in
some agency records
Not formally codified. Often
revealed by the behavior of
street level bureaucrats
themselves.
Why does the level of policy matter?
 Visibility
 Respect
 Compliance
Policy Types
 A way of predicting policy outcomes
 How? By categorizing the “type” of policy
 Weak typology: substantive policy type
 Education
 Environment
 Health
A Good Policy Typology is
 Generalizable
 Mutually exclusive
 Collectively exhaustive
 Explanation and prediction:
 “Knowing what kind of policy we are dealing with would allow
the policy designer to predict the sorts of policy conflict that
would precede the policy’s enactment, and what sort of conflict
might arise after the policy is adopted and implemented.”
Theodore Lowi’s Classic Typology
 Lowi: Distributive, Regulatory, and Redistributive
Policy
 Ripley and Franklin:
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Protective Regulatory
Competitive Regulatory
What is distributive policy
 Policies with many beneficiaries
 Policies where those who pay are diffuse
 Logrolling
 Examples
 Farm subsidies
 Local infrastructure
 “Pork”
What are the problems of distributive policy?
 Clienteleism
 “Interest group liberalism”
 The failure to make tough decisions about what are
broader national needs.
Competitive regulatory
 “Limit the provision of goods and services to one or a
few designated deliverers, who are chosen from a
larger number of competing potential deliverers.”
 Conflict is limited, low key
 Examples:
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Allocation of radio and TV frequencies
Utility franchises
Regulation of doctors, lawyers, other professions
Protective regulatory
 Protect people from negative effects of business
 Not always opposed by business!
 But is still more contentious than competitive
regulatory
 Examples
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Environmental regulation
Health care reform!
Any safety regulation, like auto safety
Redistributive policies
 Taking from one group, and giving to another
 “Intended to manipulate the allocation of wealth, property,
personal or civil rights, or some other valued item among social
classes or racial groups.”
 Not just from the rich to the poor!
 Extremely contentious
 Winners and losers
 Zero sum games
 Some people treat values as limited resources. Examples?
Actors, Stability, and Visibility of Policy Types
Policy type
Primary actors
Distributive
Congressional
subcommittees and
committees; executive
bureaus; small interest
groups
Congressional
subcommittees and
committees; full House and
Senate; executive agencies;
trade associations
Subcommittees; executive
bureaus and commissions;
small interest groups
President and his
appointees; committees
and/or Congress; largest
interest groups (peak
associations);
“liberals/conservatives”
Protective regulatory
Competitive
regulatory
Redistributive
Relationship
among actors
Logrolling
(everyone gains)
Stability of
relationship
Stable
Visibility of decision
Bargaining;
compromise
Unstable
Moderate
Logrolling among
favored actors
Stable
Ideological and
class conflict
Stable
Very low; very little
full congressional
involvement
High
Low
Influence of Key Actors
Congress as
whole
Congressional Private sector
subcommittees
Distributive
President,
Bureaus
presidency, and
centralized
bureaucracy
Low
High
Low (supports
subcommittees)
High
Protective
Regulatory
Moderately
high
Moderate
Moderately high
Moderate
Competitive
regulatory
Low
Low
Moderate to
low
Redistributive
High
High
(Regulatory
agencies)
Low
High
Moderately low High (“peak
associations”
representing
clusters of
interest groups)
Policy Type
High
(subsidized
groups)
Moderately
high (regulated
interests)
High (regulated
interests)
Shortcomings of Lowi’s typology
 Categories are not mutually exclusive
 Assignment to categories is difficult
 Forcing into boxes
Simplification: Concentrated and Diffuse Costs
and Benefits
Benefits
Concentrated among very
Distributed among many people
few people
Interest group politics: conflict Entrepreneurial politics: groups
between groups that would
and their leaders seek to
Concentrated
benefit and those that would persuade policy makers to
among very
bear the costs. Treated as a
regulate in the public interest, in
few people
“zero-sum” game.
the face of opposition from the
groups that would bear the cost.
Costs
Clientele oriented politics:
Majoritarian politics: Relatively
close “clientele” relationships loose groups of people, or those
Distributed
between policy makers,
acting on their behalf, who seek
among many
regulators, and the regulated a substantive or symbolic
people
interest.
statement of policy. Often leads
to weak, ambiguous policies.
How does this relate to Lowi’s typology?
How is this different from Lowi’s typology?
 Focus is on costs and benefits only, not on the intent
of policy
 The two dimensions are continual, not dichotomous
What does this mean to you?
 How you frame a policy is really important.
 You can show that
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Everyone will benefit, but few will pay
Everyone will benefit, but everyone pays a lot
Those who pay deserve to pay
 If interest group liberalism is really true, what is your
goal as a group?
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Keep conflict quiet
Venue shopping
 You should choose what sort of broad policy tool you
would use to achieve your goals.
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Why: Avoid conflict. Conflict raises issues on agendas.
Other Policy Typologies
 Substantive and Procedural Policies
 Material and Symbolic Policies
 Public versus Private Goods
 Liberal and Conservative Policies
 Think about how people make arguments about
these policy types