Administrative details
 Syllabus:
http://www.uvm.edu/~jfarley/pa306/pa306
syllabus.doc
 Please hand in all assignments
electronically as e-mail attachments, RTF
or MSWord documents
“What is Public
Policy?”
Introduction to PA 306
Josh Farley (with thanks to Chris Koliba)
August 29, 2005
What is policy?
 Today’s
newspaper…
 Grad student parking
memo
 Universal health care
in Vermont (and
elsewhere)
Policy as a noun…
1. a definite course of action adopted for the sake of
expediency, facility, etc.
2. a course of action adopted and pursued by a
government ruler, political party, etc.
3. action or procedure conforming to or considered
with reference to prudence or expediency.
(Webster’s unabridged)

A solution to a problem…

Policy is a rational attempt to attain objectives.
Policy as a verb…
The Policy Cycle/Process
 Identify objectives
 Identify alternative courses of action for
achieving objectives
 Predict the possible consequences of each
alternative
 Evaluate the possible consequences of each
alternative
 Select the alternative that maximizes the
attainment of objectives.
What about PUBLIC
policy?
 Is the graduate parking memo a matter of
public policy?
Why/why not?
 Is health care in Vermont a matter of
public policy?
Why/why not?
So what makes a policy
“public?”
 What is public?
 Does public policy always imply a role for
government?
Public -- Private
 Synonyms?
 What distinguishes:
Public from private interests?
How does public policy
relate to other disciplines?
 Economics
 The allocation of scarce resources among
alternative desirable ends




Political science
Sociology
Hard sciences
Ethics
Legacy of the
Enlightenment Philosophy
 The “self” comes of age…
 Rational, self interested actors
 Dangers of factionalism… Federalist
Papers
 Acceptance of special interests
 Use of checks and balances to keep
interests in check.
What does it mean to
be/act rational?
Scientific:
 Application of scientific methods to
determine problems and derive solutions to
those problems.
 Science, derived from the Latin word
scientia, meaning “having knowledge.”
Birkland (p.7)
Rational policy cycle
 Identify objectives
 Identify alternative courses of action for
achieving objectives
 Predict the possible consequences of each
alternative
 Evaluate the possible consequences of each
alternative
 Select the alternative that maximizes the
attainment of objectives.
Science as a social
construct….
 Scientific paradigms
 Positivist
 Interpretivist
 Post normal
 Empirical vs. Normative Perspectives
Scientific Method vs.
Ideology
 Scientific Method





Observe
Form hypotheses
Test hypotheses discard if falsified
Form theory
Test theory discard if falsified
 Ideology
 Refuse to test theories, or refuse to abandon them
when experiments/new observations prove them
wrong
How ARE public decisions
made?
 Lindblom’s Incrementalism
“An attempt to implement one policy almost always
brings new problems onto the agenda, meaning
that the step called implementation and the step
called agenda building collapse into each other…
One group’s solution often is another group’s
problem… From the seedbed of implementation,
then, new policy problems grow and are plucked
for the agenda in never-ending succession.” Lindblom
& WoodhouseP.11
 Stone’s policy paradox
Limits of rationality…
 “The capacity of the human mind for
formulating and solving complex
problems is very small compared with
the size of the problem whose solutions
is required for objectively rational
behavior in the real world—or even for a
reasonable approximation to such
objective rationality.” Simon, Models of Man (1957,
p.198)
How ARE private
decisions made?
Rational actor
 What is rational?
 Are people purely
rational, or also
emotional and spiritual?
 Self interest
 Always wants more
 Purely competitive
 “homogenous globules of desire
Or are we cooperative, social animals,
concerned about the future that differ
across cultures?
 e.g. H. comunicus, concern for fairness and
community preferences
 H. naturalis, concern for sustainability and
whole system preferences
 Count off by 2s. All 2s leave room
Group 1
 Serious flu will kill 600 people
 Choice A: Conventional vaccine will save
200 people
 Choice B: Experimental vaccine has 1/3
chance of saving everyone, 2/3 chance of
saving no one
 Mark your choice and leave room
Group 2
 Serious flu will kill 600 people
 Choice A: Conventional vaccine will result in
death of 400 people
 Choice B: Experimental vaccine has 1/3
chance of saving everyone, 2/3 chance of
saving no one
 Mark your choice
Checks & Balances:
Clearly defined roles?
 Legislative branch: creates policy
 Executive branch: implements
policy
 Judicial branch: determines if
policy is legal
“Politics-Administration
Dichotomy”
 Wilson, Goodnow
 Appleby, Waldo
 Scientific efficiencies vs. democratic
effectiveness
Politics: A Necessary Evil?
 Politic:
1.sagacious; prudent.
2. Shrewd; artful.
3. expedient; judicious.
(Webster’s unabridged dictionary)
 Derived from Greek: politikos civic, equiv. to
polit(es) citizen.
Politics: noun.
1. the science or art of political government.
2. the practice or profession of conducting
political affairs.
3. political affairs.
4. political methods or maneuvers.
5. political principles or opinions.
6. use of intrigue or strategy in obtaining any
position pf power or control, as in business,
university, etc. (Webster’s Unabridged Dic.)
 What does it mean to be “political?”
 Does the adage that “everything is
political” hold up?
 Where might politics have come into
play:
 For the parking policy?
 For health care policy?
The policy paradox
 Account for the possibilities of changing one’s
objectives;
 Of pursuing contradictory objectives
simultaneously;
 Of winning by appearing to lose and turning
lose into an appearance of victory;
 Of attaining objectives by portraying oneself as
having attained them.
Stone P.9
Actors matter…
 Who were the “actors” in
 The parking policy
 Health care policy
 Essentially, public policy is about
decision-making and the process
through which these decisions get made
and evaluated.
 Politics makes the distinctions between
actors blurry.
Some Policy Actors…
 Legislatures
 Interest groups/
Non-profit
organizations
 Courts
 Consultants
 Elites
 Bureaucracies




Policy Networks
Think tanks
Bureaucracies
Public
administrators
 Citizens
 Business
 Media
 “How people define their preferences
depends to a large extent on how
choices are presented to them and by
whom.” Stone P.10
 “Politics involves seeking allies and
organizing cooperation in order to compete
with opponents.” Stone P.24
“The study of politics is the
attempt to explain the
various ways in which
power is exercised in the
everyday world and how
that power is used to
allocate resources and
benefits to some people
and groups, and costs and
burdens to other people
and groups.”
Birkland p. 5
“Shared meanings motivate people to action
and meld individual striving into collective
action. Ideas are at the center of all political
conflict. Policy making, in turn, is a constant
struggle over the criteria for classification, the
boundaries of categories, and the definition
of ideals that guide the way people behave.”
Stone P.11
A Democratic Imperative?
 What role should ordinary citizens play within
public policy development and implementation?
 Weak versus strong democracy
 Can we have too much of a good thing?
 “To enhance the role of reason and analysis in policy
making, must a society surrender some aspects of
democracy? Can a society enjoy both more reasoned
and more democratic policy making?” Lindblom and
Woodhouse p.7
How do we talk about
politics? …
 What are the views of those who you
speak with about politics?
A. Mostly those you agree with
B. Mostly those you disagree with
C. A balance of both agree and disagree
with
D. You don’t talk to people about politics
 With whom do you speak about politics
with? (check all that apply)
A. Family– which ones
B. Friends– which ones
C. Professional/work colleagues
D. Strangers and acquaintances
E. Fellow students and faculty
 What can we do to ensure that we are
able to talk about our political views and
perspectives in this classroom?