Chapter
Seventeen
{
The Policy-Making Process
Setting the Agenda
The political agenda: deciding
what to make policy about.
 The current political agenda
includes taxes, energy, welfare, and
civil rights
 Shared beliefs determine what is
legitimate for the government to do

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Scope of Government Action
Government always gets larger
 People generally believe that
government should continue to do
what it is doing now
 Changes in attitudes and events
tend to increase government
activities
 Government growth cannot be
attributed to one political party

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Growth in government
spending by administrations
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The Influence of Institutions
The courts make decisions that force action by
other branches: e.g. school desegregation,
abortion, gay marriage
 The bureaucracy is a source of innovation and
forms alliances with senators and staff
 The Senate is a source of presidential candidates
with new ideas

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Other Influences
Groups may react to a sense of
relative deprivation
 The media helps place issues on the
political agenda
 The national government may later
adopt ideas pioneered by the states

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Costs, Benefits, and Policy
Cost: any burden, monetary or
non-monetary, that some people
must, or expect, to bear from the
policy
 Benefit: any satisfaction, monetary
or non-monetary, that some people
must, or expect, to receive from the
policy
 Politics is a process of settling
disputes over who benefits/pays
and who ought to benefit/pay

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Classifying and Explaining the Politics of
Different Policy Issues
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Kinds of Politics
Majoritarian politics: distributed
benefits, distributed costs
 Interest group politics:
concentrated benefits, concentrated
costs
 Client politics: concentrated
benefits, distributed costs
 Entrepreneurial politics:
distributed benefits, concentrated
costs

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.
costs and benefits
widely distributed
 frequently decided by
majority opinion


examples
social security
 national defense

MAJORITARIAN
POLITICS
Majoritarian Politics
Example: Antitrust legislation in
1890s was vague with no specific
enforcement agency
 During the reform era, politicians
and business leaders committed to
a strong antitrust policy
 Enforcement was determined
primarily by the ideology and
personal convictions of the current
presidential administration

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
costs and benefits
narrowly concentrated

highly organized
groups lead the way

causes conflict; winner
v. loser

examples
INTEREST GROUP
POLITICS
labor relations boards
 Nazi rallies in Jewish
neighborhood
 FCC regulations

Interest Group Politics
Organized interest groups are
powerful when regulatory policies
confer benefits on one organized
group and costs on another equally
organized group
 Example: In 1935 labor unions
sought government protection for
their rights; business firms were in
opposition

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costs widely
distributed; benefits
are concentrated
 those getting benefits
are well organized
 those with cost often
unaware


examples
farm subsidies
 pork barrel projects
 favorable government
regulations for an
industry(milk, airline)

CLIENT POLITICS
Client Politics
“Agency capture” is likely when
benefits are focused and costs are
dispersed—an agency is created to
serve a group’s needs
 Example: National regulation of
milk industry, sugar production,
merchant shipping
 The struggle to sustain benefits
depends on insider politics

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benefits widely
distributed
 costs are concentrated
 frequently led by an
activist; group anger
over group benefit can
also lead to this

ENTREPRENEURIAL
POLITICS

examples

safety for automobiles


ralph nader
 who pays
antipollution
requirements

who pays?
Entrepreneurial Politics
Relies on entrepreneurs to
galvanize public opinion and
mobilize congressional support
 Example: In the 1960s and 1970s a
large number of consumer and
environmental protection statutes
passed (e.g., Clean Air Act, Toxic
Substance Control Act)

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
LGBT lobbyists convince a city
council to pass an ordinance
outlawing discrimination against
them in jobs and housing

CLIENT POLITICS- benefits
concentrated; costs distributed
WHICH POLICY?

A presidential candidate promises
to cut the size and power of the
federal bureaucracy

ENTREPRENEURIAL POLITICSdistributed benefits; costs
concentrated
WHICH POLICY?

Congress considers the military
situation in Europe and decides to
appropriate (spend) money to
increase troop strength.

MAJORITARIAN POLITICS- costs
and benefits distributed
WHICH POLICY?

The Massachusetts congressional
delegation seeks to have the F-18
fighter plane built because its jet
engines are produced in that state

CLIENT POLITICS- benefits
concentrated; costs distributed
WHICH POLICY?

a civil rights group sues for a
citywide desegregation program
involving busing.

CLIENT POLITICS- benefits
concentrated; costs distributed
WHICH POLICY?

a governor creates a commission on
the status of women and appoints
several members of the feminist
movement to it

INTEREST GROUP POLITICScosts and benefits are concentrated?
WHICH POLICY?

A campaign is mounted to have a
nuclear weapons freeze.

ENTREPRENEURIAL POLITICSdistributed benefits; costs
concentrated
WHICH POLICY?
Deregulation
Example: airline fares, long
distance telephoning, trucking
 Deregulation is a challenge to iron
triangles and client politics
 It is based on the idea that
governmental regulation was bad
in industries that could be
competitive

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