Public Policy: The Basics

Mr. StromanAP Government

What is Public Policy?• The process by which government decides what our

greatest needs and problems are, and how to solve them• Main objectives:– Solving social problems (ex. poverty)– Countering threats (ex. terrorism, war)– Pursuing an objective (helping poor, sick, old, etc.)

• We will talk about three main types of public policy– Economic policy (taxing and spending)– Domestic policy (social programs like Social Security, Medicare)– Foreign and defense policy (foreign relations, protecting

America’s national security)

How is Policy Made?

• Whether or not a certain policy passes depends on the issue-attention cycle, as the public can become bored and lose interest

• Legislators will often use incrementalism, a slow and gradual approach, to make policy rather than a sudden and punctuated approach

Policymaking Steps

• Defining the role of government– Which politicians will want a more active government?

• Agenda setting– Identifying social and economic problems, redefining

them into political issues, and ranking them in order of importance

– For instance, poor people may place greater importance on welfare policy, while the rich may place more importance on tax cuts

– When a policy affects a lot of people, it will be ranked high and get politicians’ attention

Policymaking Steps

– Though, oftentimes, those with the most money have their concerns placed high on the agenda

– A momentous event (war, oil embargo, etc.) can also set the agenda

Policymaking Steps

• Policy formulation and adoption– Legislative process, executive orders, rules made by

regulatory agencies, Supreme Court precedent• Policy implementation– Puts policy into effect by enforcement through the

appropriate agency (timetables and rules)– Accounting for unintended consequences (ex. three-

strikes law)• Policy evaluation– Does a policy work? Have unintended consequences

caused problems? Provides feedback to policymakers

Obstacles to Policymaking• Government has many policymaking centers– Federalism/separation of powers

• Unfortunately, in their intention to prevent tyranny and corruption, the Framers created a system that causes policy fragmentation, in which many pieces of legislation deal with parts of policy problems but never deal with the entire problem– For instance, the War on Drugs has at least 75 Congressional

committees with some type of jurisdiction– This requires policy coordination. Interagency task forces

can iron out problems between competing agencies, and Congress can use its oversight powers to change jurisdictions