MPA Fall 2006
Foundations of PA
Joan Bantz
“Public Policy and Decisions Making”
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Policy is an Imprecise Concept:
Course of Action (MacRae)1
Hypothesis (Thompson) 2
Whatever Governments Do (Dye)3
Social Regulatory Policy (Tatalovich and Daynes)4
Guiding Principles behind Laws, Regulations, Programs (Palumbo)5
The Sum of Government Activities, whether acting directly or through
Agents, as it has an influence on the lives of Citizens (Peters)6
Typology: Regulatory; Distributive; Redistributive (Lowi)7
1. Distributive: Granting benefits to some portion of the population, paying out of
general tax revenues rather than user fees, and
2. Redistributive: Government taxes one group to people to provide benefits to
another group (Meir)8
3. Regulatory: Restricts Behavior of Individuals and Groups (Anderson)9
Political Economy
“Policy is What Happens” (Dick Thompson)
Network Theory (Chisholm10, Knoke 11, O’Toole 12, et. la.)
Morality Policies: Legitimacy of Values (Mooney)13
Process of Persuasion (Stone)
Discursive Politics and Deliberative Practices (Fischer)
Who Makes Policy?
(Competing Models)
Bureaucratic Processes
Rational Actor
Political Bargaining
Other Models:
Interest Group Pluralism (Lowi)
Power Elite (Mills)14
Policy Sciences Model
MacRae, Duncan and James Widle. Policy Analysis for Public Decision. N. Sciate, MA: Duxbury Press, 1979.
Thompson, Frank R. Health Policy and the Bureaucracy. Cambridge, MIT Press, 1981.
3
Dye, Thomas R. Understanding Public Policy. Englewood Cliffs; Prentice-Hall. 1981.
4
Tatalovich, R., and B.W. Daynes. Social Regulatory Policy: Moral Controversies in American Politics. Boulder:
Westview Press, 1988.
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Palumbo, Dennis J. Public Policymaking in America. San Diego: Harcourt Brace. 1988.
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Peters, B. Guy. American Public Policy: Promises and Performance. Chatham; Chatham House, 1993.
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Lowi, Theodore. The End of Liberalism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.
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Meir, K.J., Politics and Bureaucracy, Policymaking in the Fourth Branch of Government. 2d ed.
Monterey:Brooks/Hale. 1987.
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Anderson, J., Public Policymaking. 3d ed., Boston:Houghton Mifflin. 1987.
10
Chisholm, Rupert F. 1998. Developing Network Organizations. Reading. MA: Addison-Wesley.
11
Knoke, Davis, and James Kuklinski: 1982. Network Analysis. Newberry Park, CA: Sage Publications.
12
O’Toole, Lawrence J. Jr. 1997. Treating Networks Seriously: Practical and Research-Based Agenda in Public
Administration. Public Administration Review 57(1): 45-52
13
Mooney, Christopher Z., The Public Clash of Private Values: The Politics of Morality Policy. New York:Chatham
House. 2001
14
Domhoff, G. William and Hoyt B. Ballard. C. Wright Mills and the Power Elite. Boston:Beacon Press, 1970.
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MPA Fall 2006
Foundations of PA
Joan Bantz
Traditional Paradigms: Tensions between 1) Rational models vs Bounded Rationality or Nonrational 2) Wholistic vs. Incremental 3) Political vs Technical15
2. Social Construction: Paradox 16 Discursive17
III. Policy Sciences vs Public Administration
Policy analysis (a priori), implementation and evaluation
A. Roots.
1. Operations Research WWII
2. Systems Analysis
3. Modern Policy Institutes
4. Hich/McKean18
B. Policy Science Vs Public Administration
1. Strategic Planning
2. Performance Management
IV. Critiques of Policy Analysis
Definition: The use of reason and evidence to choose the best policy alternative (MacRae)
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B.
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F.
G.
V.
Doesn’t ask the right questions
Lack of common sense (Senge)19
Reductionist Thinking; Exclusionary; Limited
Time Frame
Speaking Truth to Power (Wildavsky)20
Abstract Goals/Values or “motherhood issues
Rational Process? Production Model, Causal
1. Can politics be divorced from knowledge? Is there a value free science of knowing?
2. Objectivists (scientists) versus relativists: Social Constructionists/Post
modernists/Postempiricists
3. Research Methods: Set of assumptions, ideologies and data selection
Importance of Public Policy Analysis/Policy Framing
A. Political Strategy
B. Facilitate Real World Decision Processes
C. Other reasons????
15
Henry, N. (2004). Public Administration & Public Affairs. 9th edition. Prentice Hall.
Stone, Deborah. Policy Paradox; The Art of Political Decision Making. New York: W.W. Norton Company, 2002.
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Fischer, Frank. Reframing Public Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
18
Hitch, Charles J and Roland McKean. The Economics of Defense in the Nuclear Age. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press. 1960.
19
Senge, Peter. The Fifth Discipline. New York:Doubleday. 1990
20
Wildavsky, Aaron. Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis. Boston:Little, Brown, 1979.
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