PPA 503 – The Public
Policy-Making Process
Lecture 1 – The Study and
Practice of Public Policy
Introduction
• The study of public policy is firmly grounded in the study
of politics, which is as ancient as human civilization
itself.
• Most of the ancient philosophers looked at politics in
general, theoretical ways.
• Plato’s Republic – The search for justice. One of Plato’s
objectives in the Republic was to show that justice is
worthwhile—that just action is a good in itself, and that one
ought to engage in just activity even when it doesn’t seem to
confer immediate advantage.
• Aristotle’s Politics - Since we see that every city-state is a
sort of community and that every community is established
for the sake of some good (for everyone does everything for
the sake of what they believe to be good), it is clear that
every community aims at some good, and the community
which has the most authority of all and includes all the
others aims highest, that is, at the good with the most
authority. This is what is called the city-state or political
community. [I.1.1252a1-7]
Introduction
• Modern political theory.
• Niccolo Machiavelli.
• If we understand and plan the political
actions we take in pursuit of our goals, we
are better prepared to seize the political
opportunities that arise in the normal course
of political life.
• Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, Marx,
Weber, Durkheim.
• Focused on the exercise of power between
individuals, families, groups, communities,
and the various levels of government.
Introduction
• The systematic study of public
policy is a 20th century phenomenon.
• Dates to 1922, when political scientist
Charles Merriam sought to connect the
theory and practice of politics to
understanding the actual activities of
government, that is, public policy.
• Nevertheless, most of the literature on
public policy dates back only about 50
years.
Introduction
• 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.
Introduction
• The study of public policy is the
examination of the creation, by the
government, of the rules, laws, goals, and
standards that determine what
government does or does not do to create
resources, benefits, costs, and burdens.
• In studying public policy, we focus on
those decisions made (or implicitly
accepted) by government and
nongovernmental actors to address a
problem that a significant number of
people and groups consider to be
important and in need of a solution.
Introduction
• A major element of studying and
teaching public policy is the
reliance of policy studies on a
broad range of the social
sciences.
Introduction
Table 1.1. Selected Disciplines That Study Public Policy
Discipline
Description
Relationship to
Public Policy
Some important
journals
Political Science
The study of political
relationships; that is, the
study of the processes by
which societies seek to
allocate political power and
the benefits of such power,
The political process is the
process through which
policies are made and
enforced.
American Political Science
Review, American Journal
of Political Science, Journal
of Politics, Policy, Political
Research Quarterly, Public
Opinion Quarterly
Sociology
Sociology is the study of
social life, social change,
and the social causes and
consequences of human
behavior. Sociologists
investigate the structure of
groups, organizations, and
societies, and how people
interact within these
contexts.
Community and group
activities are an important
part of policy making,
because groups of people
often form to make
demands.
American Sociological
Review, Contemporary
Sociology, Journal of
Sociology
Economics
The study of the allocation
of resources in a
community, however
defined. Economists study
markets and exchanges.
Welfare economists seek to
understand the extent to
which an overall
community’s welfare can be
maximized.
There are many economic
factors that influence
public policy, such as
economic growth,
productivity, employment,
and the like. The tools of
economics are often used
to promote policies or to
explain why policies
succeed or fail.
American Economic
Review, Econometrica,
Journal of Applied
Economics, Journal of
Political Economy.
Introduction
Table 1.1. Selected Disciplines That Study Public Policy
Discipline
Description
Relationship to
Public Policy
Some important
journals
Public
Administration
The study of the
management of government
and nonprofit organizations,
including the management
of information, money, and
personnel to achieve goals
developed through the
democratic process.
The management of public
programs is an integral part
of the policy process. PA
scholars study the
motivation of program
implementers and targets
and help research
innovations to improve
service delivery.
Public Administration
Review, Journal of Public
Administration Research
and Theory
Public Policy
The study of what
governments choose to do
or not to do, including
studies of the policy
process, policy
implementation and impact,
and evaluation.
We give this label to the
highly interdisciplinary
study of the public policy
process. Policy scholars
develop theories about how
the policy process works
and develop tools and
methods to analyze how
policy is made and
implemented.
Journal of Policy Analysis
and Management, Journal
of Public Policy, Policy
Studies Review, Policy
Studies Journal, Journal of
Policy History
Introduction
• Because the field of public policy
studies is so new, it has yet to
coalesce around a shared set of
principles, theories, and priorities
(paradigm).
• For public policy to be useful, we
must bridge the gap between what
academics know and how
practitioners and citizens use what
we know to make better policy (or
better policy arguments).
Policy Science as
Applied Science
• You may question whether
policy is “science”, but science
is defined as the state of
knowing: knowledge rather than
ignorance or misunderstanding.
• The values of empirical science:
the number of teeth for men and
women.
Policy Science as
Applied Science
• Anecdotal evidence versus scientific
evidence: The case of food stamps
(discuss).
• The problem with anecdotes is that they
are little tidbits of information that are
unsystematically gathered and that
reflect the biases of the person relating
the story.
• Question: Is the food stamp program
a failure?
Policy Science as
Applied Science
• Scientific evidence (evaluation).
• Compared to nonrecipients,
• Participants spend a larger portion of their total expenditures on
all food items.
• Foods used at home by recipients have a greater monetary value
per person and more nutrients per dollar.
• Recipients are more likely to shop for food on a monthly basis,
resulting in better planning and lower transportation costs.
• The availability of twelve essential nutrients in the diet is higher
for recipients.
• One dollar increase in food stamp benefits increases food
expenditures between 17 and 47 cents, whereas a dollar
increase in income only increases food expenditures 5 to 10
cents.
• Information is:
• Peer-reviewed
• Aggregate information rather than disconnected cases.
• Runs counter to common wisdom.
Policy Science as
Applied Science
• Do food stamps “work”? Not
necessarily.
• Difference between policy
description and policy
advocacy.
Policy Studies as a
Science
• We can say that the careful
study of public policy is
“scientific” because it
contributes to knowledge by
relying on methodological rigor.
• Policy analysts share a
commitment to methodology, but
not to any one particular method.
Policy Studies as a
Science
• Harold Lasswell argued that
quantitative analysis and the
scientific method were
important elements of any
policy science.
• But, Lasswell recognized that
you must combine quantitative
and qualitative information.
Policy Studies as a
Science
• Lasswell’s recommendations for an
empirically driven, methodologically
rigorous, yet flexible style of policy
research has served as the basis for
policy studies in late 20th century.
• But it is also driven by the desire to
solve problems.
• No common paradigm. Dye lists
eight theoretical traditions.
• Most of these theories need testing.
Policy Studies as a
Science
• Theorizing is important,
because they make sense of
ambiguous evidence, and they
develop concepts that apply to
more than one case.
Science, Rationality, and
the Policy Process
• Policy analysis is an important
component of policy sciences.
• But researchers should keep rational
analysis in context: within the
interplay of evidence, value and
belief systems of the participants,
the structure of the process, and the
distribution of power.
• Most policy analysis is not value
neutral. Problem identification is
rarely neutral, for example.
What Is Public Policy?
• Attributes common to various
definitions of public policy.
• The policy is made in the “public’s”
name.
• Policy is generally made or initiated by
government.
• Policy is interpreted and implemented by
public and private actors.
• Policy is what the government intends to
do.
• Policy is what the government chooses
not to do.
What Is Public Policy?
Table 1.2. Defining Public Policy
Definition
Author
The term public policy always refers to the
actions of government and the intentions
that determine those actions.
Clarke E. Cochran, et al.
Public policy is the outcome of the struggle
in government over who gets what.
Clarke E. Cochran, et al.
Whatever governments choose to do or not
to do.
Thomas Dye
Public policy consists of political decisions
for implementing programs to achieve
societal goals.
Charles L. Cochran and Eloise F. Malone.
Stated most simply, public policy is the sum
of government activities, whether acting
directly or through agents, as it has an
influence on the life of citizens.
B. Guy Peters.
What Makes Public
Policy Public?
• The dominant ideological foundation
of our constitutional system is
classical liberalism.
• John Locke.
• Power derives from the consent of the
governed.
• Thus, government actions must be in the
“public interest”.
• But people differ dramatically in what is
the public interest.
• Commercial interests versus
environmentalists.
What Makes Public
Policy Public?
• Not even the most intense policy
advocates are interested in every
issue.
• We delegate the power to make
policies in our names to elected
officials. However, we retain our
interest in the outcome and our right
to promote particular policies at any
time.
Why Do We Study Public
Policy?
• To know more about the
process for its own sake.
• To know more about the
process to inform practitioners.
• To learn how to promote
preferred policy options.