GV280
Politics in Action
Revision lecture
1
1. & 2. Definitions and models
2
Public policy – working definition
The exercise of power by parties, individuals
and groups, at the time when they are
collectively in control of the state, over matters
which are directly connected with the governing
of the state.
3
Democratic model of public policy
Party A policies
ELECTION
Party A Wins
Party A policy
=
public policy
Party B policies
PARTY POLICY
ELECTION
PUBLIC POLICY
4
Pluralist model of public policy
Think tanks
Interest groups
Pre-election
party policy
Post election
government policy
Public policy
Civil servants
Public opinion
Lobbyists
5
POSSIBLE ACTORS IN THE POLICY PROCESS
1. The electorate
2. Politicians
3. Unelected officials
4. Elites
5. Interest groups
6. Big corporations
7. Think tanks
6
Pluralism
& Rational choice
• Pluralist model: multiple actors are involved
in bargaining over and setting public policy
• Rational choice model: actors seek to
maximize the benefits they receive
• Not mutually exclusive
7
3. Essence of decision
8
Explaining policy making
In searching for an explanation, one typically puts himself in the place of
the nation, or national government, confronting a problem of foreign
affairs, and tries to figure out why he might have chosen the action in
question. … [We assume] government behaviour can be most
satisfactorily understood by analogy with the purposive acts of
individuals. In many cases this is a fruitful assumption. Treating national
governments as if they were centrally coordinated, purposive individuals
provides a useful shorthand for understanding problems of policy. But
this simplification – like all simplifications – obscures as well as reveals.
In particular, it obscures the persistently neglected fact of bureaucracy:
the ‘maker’ of government policy is not one calculating decisionmaker
but is rather a conglomerate of large organizations and political actors.
(Allison, p. 3)
9
Model 1: The Rational Actor
• Possible rational explanations for
Khrushchev’s actions
• i. Bargaining chip in negotiations over US
missiles
• ii. Diversion/trap
• iii. Defence of Cuba
• iv. Cold War Politics
• v. Missile power - a shortcut in the arms race
10
Model 2: Organizational Process
A government consists of a conglomerate of semi-feudal, loosely
allied organizations, each with a substantial life of its own. …
Governments perceive problems through organizational sensors.
Governments define alternatives and estimate consequences as
their component organizations process information; governments
act as these organizations enact routines. Governmental behaviour
can therefore be understood … less as deliberate choices and more
as outputs of large organizations functioning according to standard
patterns of behaviour. (Allison, p. 67)
11
Model 3: Bureaucratic Politics
1.THE CUBAN PROBLEM
2. THE STRATEGIC PROBLEM
3. THE BERLIN PROBLEM
4. THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM
12
4. The players: politicians, civil
servants and interest groups
13
Pluralist model of public policy
Think tanks
Interest groups
Pre-election
party policy
Post election
government policy
Public policy
Civil servants
Public opinion
Lobbyists
14
Pluralist model of public policy
Interest groups
Post election
government policy
Public policy
Civil servants
15
16
Traditional model of executive power
Prime minister (directs overall policy)
Cabinet (directs individual departmental policy)
Civil service (implements policy)
17
The Core Executive
(Taken from Peter Dorey, Policy Making in Britain, Figure 3.1, p. 50)
18
Interest groups and policy networks



Based on resource exchange
Dependencies between actors
Degree of dependence of each actor can
vary with circumstances
19
Policy communities & issue networks
D. Marsh and R A W Rhodes, ‘Policy networks in British
politics’, in Marsh and Rhodes (eds), Policy Networks in
British Government (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992
20
5. Policy and ideology
21
6. Policy and public opinion
22
Edmund Burke, Speech to the Electors
of Bristol
3 November 1774
“Your representative owes you, not
his industry only, but his judgement;
and he betrays, instead of serving
you, if he sacrifices it to your
opinion.”
23
Thermostatic model of opinion-policy relationship IV:
Government policy on issue X overlaid on public opinion at t1
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
24
Thermostatic model of opinion-policy relationship V:
Government policy on issue X overlaid on public opinion at t2
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
25
Thermostatic model of opinion-policy relationship VI:
Government policy on issue X overlaid on public opinion at t3
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
26
Thermostatic model of opinion-policy relationship VII:
Optimal government policy with normal distribution of public
opinion
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
27
Thermostatic model of opinion-policy relationship VIII:
Government policy on issue X overlaid on public opinion at t4
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
28
Thermostatic model of opinion-policy relationship IX:
Government policy realigned to reflect new distribution of public
opinion
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
29
7. The media and the agenda
30
John Kingdon,
Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies

PROBLEMS

POLICIES

POLITICS
31
Policy window
Example: 1945 implementation of the Welfare
State
PROBLEM: the poverty of the 30s depression
POLICY: Beveridge’s welfare state proposals
POLITICS: Labour’s landslide victory in the 1945
general election
32
8. Policy and finance
33
Treasury objectives


Provide funds for all government activities
Limit expenditure to acceptable limits





Maintain control over departmental budgets
Input into departments’ policy decisions
Keep expenditure within the bounds of the
possible
Avoid excessive taxation (but also maintain
necessary levels of taxation)
Maintain funding balance between departments
34
Departmental objectives



Fulfil service commitments
Achieve targets set by minister/cabinet/PM
Show it is vigorously pursuing policies



More spending = more effectiveness
Maintain (or increase) funding levels as far as
possible
Compete with other departments
35
Common interests

Maintain government’s reputation for
competence


Deliver effective services
Maintain government’s reputation for
financial responsibility


Keep costs within reasonable bounds
Keep taxes as low as possible
36
Causes of tension




Departments believe Treasury sees everything
in terms of money
Treasury believes departments don’t
understand financial constraints
Departments believe other departments are
over-funded
Overspending and underspending
37
9. Policy and ethics
38
John Stuart Mill’s harm principle
“The object of this essay is to assert one very simple principle, as
entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the
individual in the way of compulsion and control. … The principle
is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted,
individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action
of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose
for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of
a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to
others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient
warrant.”
- J. S. Mill, On Liberty and Other Essays ed. John Gray (Oxford:
OUP, 1991), pp. 13-14
39
40
10. The international dimension
41
11. Policy and party competition
42
Duverger’s law
The simple-majority single-ballot
system favours the two-party system
Maurice Duverger, Political Parties
(London: Methuen, 1954), p. 217
43
Left-right policy spectrum
LEFT
e.g.
Redistribution
State intervention
RIGHT
e.g.
Private property rights
Limited government
44
Normal distribution
of public policy preferences
LEFT
RIGHT
45
Position of the median voter
LEFT
median voter
RIGHT
46
Positions of main political parties
(notional)
Lab LibDem
LEFT
Con
median voter
RIGHT
47
Positions of main political parties
(1980s)
Lab
LEFT
LibDem
Con
median voter
RIGHT
48
Positions of main political parties
(1997-2000s)
LibDem Lab
LEFT
median voter
Con
RIGHT
49
Positions of main political parties
(now?)
Lab LibDem Con
LEFT
median voter
RIGHT
50
11. Inside the think tank
51
• Long history – Fabians blazed the trail
• ‘Traditional’ vs ‘advocacy’
• Fill gap left by ideology …
• … but were themselves influential in establishing
ideologies
• Helped Thatcherism to get established …
• … and helped create New Labour
• Evidence of direct impact on policy is thin …
• … but they often set the tone for party policy …
• … and ex-think tank personnel roam the corridors
of power
52
12 Westminster and Whitehall:
the legislature and the executive
53
• Executive – initiates legislation
• Legislature – scrutinizes legislation (and the actions of
ministers)
– Legislative debate
– Parliamentary questions
– Select Committees
• Civil service-ministerial relations: who is top?
– Haldane report (1918) established relationship of
interdependency and cooperation between civil servants
and ministers
– But this has eroded recently (more ideological/on message
ministers, more special advisers)
54
13. Implementing public policy
55
The policy process (I)
Agenda setting/
problem identification
Policy formulation/
approval (e.g.
legislation)
Implementation
56
The policy process (II)
Agenda setting/
problem identification
Policy formulation/
approval (e.g.
legislation)
Implementation
57