Policy makers’ ideas:Worldview or window-dressing?

POLI 352A

Two views of ideas

• Ideas are the lenses through which policy makers see the world.

VS.

• Ideas are just window-dressing for the pursuit of raw interests.

Median

Exercise

• Pick some political actor or group who you think is motivated by an idea – not by pure self-interest

• How could we know this? – What kind of evidence would help indicate that this

idea is a lens, not window-dressing?

• Be ready to defend this view against objections from the rest of us

• Choose a spokesperson for group

Types of ideas…and what they tell policy makers

• Value commitments

• Policy tools

• Causal ideas

• Metaphors, analogies

• Concepts, definitions

• Paradigm or frame– Combines normative, causal, tool

What do ideas do?

• Simplify causal complexity

• Reduce uncertainty

• Narrow the menu of options

• Frame issues

• Define problems and goals

• Ideas as weapons, justifications

How to study ideas?Bleich’s strategies

To determine if frames shaped policy, look for:

• Internal coherence of ideas

• Stability over time

• Evidence of frames during policy-making episodes

• Consistency between policy choice and frame

How to study ideas?Bleich’s strategies

• Comparison

– Differing ideas across countries differing policies

– Similarly situated actors in different countries take differing views

• Rule out interests

Studying ideas:Hall’s strategy

– study change over time

Demonstrate:

• Prior stability of policy and ideas

• Ideational change follows real events– Esp. failure

– Big failure big change in ideas

• Flow of new information and arguments

Studying ideas:Hall’s strategy

– study change over time

• Changes in personnel – carriers of new ideas

• Policy change consistent with new ideas

Conclusion: Elusive ideas

• In a complex world, we don’t always know what policies are in our interests.

• Ideas provide a simplifying lens.

• But ideas are hard to study– Have to assemble clues– See Bleich and Hall for strategies

• The value of comparison– Comparing cross-nationally– Change over time